S3 E2: “There’s No Prize for the Harder Horse” An OTTB Buyer Reality Check | OTTB on Tap Unscripted Vol. 1.

OOT Unscripted vol 1
[00:00:00] Okay. Oh, so much better. Okay. Sorry about that. I usually do that as I'm logging in. So I got some feedback from somebody recently and they were, they said, oh, your podcast is so good because you don't have a lot of words in there. And what, and I was like a little secret.
The application that I use can actually identify all of those and delete them for you. Last time I edited the Patreon episode, it was two parts. I did it two half and I must have done it and not done it for the second half, and then it wouldn't recognize the filler words. Boy, do I say like a lot I.
It's embarrassing the stutter's gone. But couldn't you do command F to find? Yeah, but then it would also get rid of ones that need to be there. Oh. So how does it know? I just identifies filler words. So if you say the same word twice in a row or you say, too many times in a paragraph or or I know, but what [00:01:00] about and it'll do the same thing, is a real word.
No, I know. But somehow it, so if I say I like apples, it's gonna just say I apples. No, it won't do it for that. I don't know how it, I don't know how AI works. Emily, Emily,
why are you starting off with hard questions? Hi everybody. This is OTTB, ontap, unscripted and outta control. Just kidding. It's just unscripted. Literally unscripted. We were bored because it's day two of being trapped in our homes due to snow. And ne was like, I'm going stir crazy.
And I'm shoveling my walkway so you can come over and help. But she didn't. So we decided what the hell we're going to record an episode from a new series that we just decided to do. Yeah. Called OTTB, ONTAP Unscripted. And so the plan is for this to go onto our Patreon both of our Patreon paid feeds, but [00:02:00] since this is the very first one, we're going to also release it onto our public feed.
Yeah. So if you haven't joined us on Patreon yet, you can join as a free member and just stay up to date with everything that we're doing. And it's patreon.com/o TTP on tap not slash guys slash. And I don't even have a backsplash. Okay. That's the funny part. Yeah, so it's the Patreon's really fun.
We have some, formulaic stuff that we do on there, but you do get a lot more of the bloopers and off the cuff stuff that I tend to edit out of more our interviews and things like that. So it's more of Emily and I being a little bit more raw, keep it, keeping it real. Keeping when keeping it real goes wrong.
Yeah. Yeah. But also I should say that I think that our last latest two. Episodes on [00:03:00] insiders are some of our best. Yeah. It's a two hour interview of the two of us talking that we split into two episodes. And see now I'm using the ums and the ands. And get it together.
Just do pepper them. I'm gonna make a lot smart editing for you. So we did not script today's episode. Not that we always, we don't script word for word what we're going to say, but we usually have, in the beginning of the podcast it was, quite, we needed to have down on paper what we were going to say because we didn't know how we were gonna fill an hour.
I would panic and we'd be like, oh my God. So this, that gradually, gradually shifted to us just being able to have bullet points. And now we're gonna try just, freeform. Yeah. So we do have a to, we do have a couple topics that we wanna talk about that I think will be of interest to our listeners.
And we're just gonna go for it. Yeah. After the last episodes that we recorded for Patreon, [00:04:00] which was a deep reflection on my entire journey with my RRP horse and the culmination of that, which was the retired race horse project, it got Emily and I both thinking about self-reflection and what that means as a rider.
And yeah, that kind of brings us to first topic of the day. Yeah. We wanna help buyers or o owners of OTBs. Something that comes up a lot is, how do I select. The right horse for me. And this could go for any horse, right? But we are going to look at it through the lens of an OTTB, and that really starts, or it should start with the buyer being you taking a really honest, hard look at yourself and what you actually need versus what you think you need.
And I feel like you personally have been doing this a lot lately in terms of, you would [00:05:00] say a lot like this is a horse that Emily, this many years ago would've loved. Or this is a horse. Like sometimes I'll send you a link to a horse and you're like, yeah, that would've been great for me 25 years ago.
It's, really hard to go from being a professional rider. At two different points in my life. One up being very high level of eventing. And then the second time I was a professional was buying retraining and reselling off track thoroughbreds, and then giving all that up for the corporate lifestyle, which has a lot of perks in terms of longevity, stability, finances, all that great stuff.
But you lose your,
how to say it, you lose that, you're getting on multiple, very green horses every single day. Yeah. And it's a skill. It's truly a skill and it's something that, [00:06:00] it's not that it disappears, but also as you get older, I think your comfort level for doing. Crazy stuff sometimes diminishes. So yes, when you see that 17 hand freshly gelded, really fancy off track thoroughbred doing, its first like trot around the arena and you're like, oh, I need that horse now I've got this like little it's an angel or a devil on my shoulder being like, you don't need that horse.
I was watching an episode of Say Yes to the Dress. It's one of my guilty pleasures that I will watch when it's on tv. I don't know why. I think it's 'cause I like how the drama with the families and everything, but there was this lady on there and she was so funny and she had two voices in her shoulder and I forget the main one, but the one on the, like the kind of devilish one's name was hot lava.
And hot lava doesn't have a budget. And it just got me, it reflects wow on this as well because it's oh no, like the little [00:07:00] angel over here is you're still just learning how to feel for your leads. And then the other one's but it's got four white socks. Fun fact about me when I was a child, I told my mom that bad Emily made me do it. And really I was envisioning, I had a I think I saw a cartoon with the angel and the devil on your shoulders. And so I was like envisioning that for real. But there was some concern. Let's talk more about this, but bad, Emily, you're in therapy all of a sudden.
Yeah. That may have happened. And a priest comes over. There's an exorcism. My God explains a lot. Yeah. But we think that this is a very important, especially, I mean I think it applies to riders of all ages, but particularly riders that have gone through major life changes such as, I don't know, you stopped riding for 10 years to have kids and raise a [00:08:00] family.
And now you wanna get back into it. Yeah. You have an injury. You have an injury. Sure. And that can impact you in so many other ways, mentally and physically. Maybe you went away to college and you took four years off and now you're coming back, you're still in your early twenties, but things are different.
Yeah. You also just got a full-time job and a dog and a house and you're getting married next year. And like there can be so many reasons why the horse that was once. Good for you. And that still looks so, so attractive. Yeah. Is maybe not the right one. And for our audience, raise your hand if you grew up not getting to ride as much as you wanted to and because of finances or your family circumstances and you would ride literally anything that was thrown your way.
Yeah. I think most of our listeners would say, I was that kid and I did a lot of probably dangerous things in the past. 'cause I was just so desperate to ride. You become the one that gets on the thing that just [00:09:00] came in from the auction. You know who Yeah. The auction. Let's see if it's pro, they wrote it through the auction, so it's fine.
Okay. Okay. No. How about not anyway, looking at this through the lens of an OTTB, I think it's really important if we start with asking ourselves some questions. So the first question should be, what are my current riding goals? What do you actually want to do on your day to day and over the next year or two years?
Do you have seven days a week to be at the barn lunging and then riding and then maybe riding again. And then for that super athletic firecracker that can jump the moon? Or do you really realistically think three or four days, or maybe one or two days is more your speed of where you're action gonna be able to get out to the barn [00:10:00] and be present with your horse.
Any thoughts there? Neve? Yeah, I think, like I think about. How I, sometimes I look back on the time when I was living in the city working full time and had a horse and made it work. But I was lucky in, in the sense that I had a horse that really didn't need to be in that much of a program despite him being really green.
And now I'm really fortunate 'cause my schedule's really flexible which was great with a horse like Oscar that really needed to do something most days. But realistically that's not really what I want for myself. It's a luxury to be able to say, oh, I could go to the barn any day I like and go ride my horse.
Yeah. But most of us don't live in that world. And I think for a lot of people when they get a new horse, a lesson a week probably should be thrown in there or maybe more, or maybe, training for the horse and things like that. So putting all of that down on paper, maybe even, and thinking about what is like.
Your pipe dream for [00:11:00] how that's gonna look, and then what's really realistic? What's, how many days a week are you gonna wanna have dinner at home and be a normal human being and have that balance. Yeah. And not just go to the barn out of obligation and then rush your way through it. Yeah. Hello.
Guilty as charged. And you, that, starts to create resentment of this thing that you've always wanted. Yeah. Yeah. And for someone like me who went through ama, like I did not have a full-time corporate job until after I turned 40. That's so wild. So like to think about that, that I worked just many different jobs and pieced everything together for most of my life.
And trading that in. For the corporate world was very hard. Yeah, I remember specifically that first like year for you of you were almost grieving. I was like the loss [00:12:00] of that freedom. A hundred percent. Yeah. I was totally grieving that and now I'm in a much better place. I work for, not necessarily better company, but I work for a company that offers me a good amount of flexibility in my schedule.
I work remotely. But I still need to be available from eight to five. So it's it's definitely a balance. Yeah. So something to really evaluate, about those goals and how much time you can really realistically spend on a day to day, week to week basis with your horse. Another thing I just wanted to add here is we're focusing on this as an assessment of who the person is as a rider, but this is something that sellers really want you to be able to do.
Truly, we think this is important for you to be able to recognize this for when you go horse shopping, but this is a conversation that ultimately you're gonna wanna highlight all of the pluses and minuses that come with this self-assessment to the person that you meet. 'cause they don't know anything about you.
A lot of sellers now are [00:13:00] asking for riding videos or background information, or even reference references. I think being able to speak about your yourself in an honest and open way is pretty important. Yes. Not aspirational. Yes, but real. Yes. Another thing to evaluate, and this makes me chuckle because back when we were selling horses, we would have top professionals come out and get on after like you or I had just walked chalk, canner the thing around and.
And I say thing lovingly, by the way, I don't mean that derogatory, the lovely off track thoroughbred. And then the pro would get on and be like, what? How do how do I steer? How do I get trot? Like literally this would happen fairly with fair amount of frequency. So when's the last time you rode a truly green horse?
Yeah, we speak a lot [00:14:00] about how off the track thoroughbreds know a lot, but they don't know a lot as riding horses for the most part. There's exceptions of course, but you get ones that feel like they were born on the bit and know a lot more. But I would say I spent. The first six months of riding Oscar with basically no steering and not really sure if the brakes were installed.
And it's really challenging because if you ride green horses all the time, you have this built in toolkit that just allows you to go I tried it that way and that didn't quite work. And you can speed through your little tools like a ratchet set in a way that if you only ride horses that are trained, you don't, that's not pre-installed.
You don't have that. Yeah. You know that you don't have that ratchet set and you're like how do I fix, how do I figure out how to, to do that? So Yeah. And it can be unnerving. Yeah. And especially on a horse that's trained when you pull back to go faster. [00:15:00] Yes. I had a couple of those also.
Also as we found out the hard way, y it's can be unnerving and a little bit scary if that's not what you're used to. Even if that horse is not trying to do anything wrong. He's doing what he knows and what he was trained to do. Yeah, absolutely. So how prepared are you to deal with that?
Yeah, and I think a lot of that is coming in and leaving your ego at the gate before you step your foot into the stirrup. And sometimes just looking down at the person selling the horse or the horse that you're trying and saying, I'm sorry, I think I'm not communicating properly or what I'm doing doesn't seem to be the way that they're used to.
Could you walk me through it, having that reality check and lack of ego will really set you up for success as a buyer. Yes, absolutely. Another question that kind of goes hand in hand, there's two questions you can ask yourself, but I'm thinking of is where am I gonna keep this horse?
Are they equipped to [00:16:00] deal with off track thoroughbreds, especially ones that are directly off the track, if that's what I'm looking for. Because that's also another skillset. It's another thing that you have to think about is transitioning them from the track where they're in a very structured, very scheduled environment to a boarding barn, which may have structure, but they're probably not eating, they're probably eating three hours later than they eat for their entire life.
And it's just not, doesn't have that same flow and expectation that the horse has grown to know. Yeah. Plus, transitioning it to turnout, transitioning it to different hay and feed and all of that can really, it can go great or it can be very stressful. So are you set up to deal with that?
Yeah. And certainly that can really impact how the horse. And the horse's behavior changes. I know you hear occasionally of sellers that have gotten horses back that went into a certain [00:17:00] situation and the horse just didn't like the environment. It wasn't in the right scenario for that particular type of horse.
And that could be really challenging as well. You want everybody interacting with your horse on a professional level to have a baseline skillset. Yeah. And yeah. And they can be, they need whoever's handling the horse, especially when it comes off the track, they need to be comfortable with that.
Yeah. Because they can be very full of themselves. Yeah. Very spirited, very high. And usually it only takes days or a couple weeks for them to really relax and get with the program, but sometimes not. Yeah. Sometimes they're always that way, so Yeah. You really don't know. I remember, I think it was.
An episode that we did with Alyssa Pitt and she talked about how they need an endorphin hit every day, and that if they don't have an outlet for that endorphin hit, it comes out in all of these other ways. Sometimes in vices, sometimes in naughty, or what we [00:18:00] classify as naughty behavior, sometimes just in extra energy.
And I think figuring out ways to manage that is very important as well. And are you comfortable being that person that helps install that for them, or would you like some, a horse that has already had a little bit of time and a little bit of retraining? I know we get into that later. And lastly do you have a trainer or professional help that is actually experienced and likes?
Likes, thoroughbreds likes underlined. Yes. So not only have they trained them, but they enjoy training them. I think that's one of the most important pieces because there's a lot of trainers out there. They're like, oh yeah, sure, I've retrained a thoroughbred. But let's be honest, they would rather be on anything else.
Yeah. So I think in particular, thoroughbreds are a breed that they know if you like them or not, or you really have to buy into what they are. Yeah. And that will [00:19:00] really help set you up, up for success. And I know, we've talked about this before. We're very fortunate in this part of the country.
We're in Pennsylvania, we have tons of trainers available. There's a lot of tracks, there's a lot of people that work with thoroughbreds, but there's a lot of areas of the country where that is not the case. Yeah. So empathy there for those that, that don't have that resource. But it is something that if you are inexperienced is.
Very important I think. Yeah. Yeah. The last thing you want to hear is, oh yeah, like I've trained a couple of off the track thoroughbreds, but whatever's gonna come after that. Yeah. So in the vein of all of this, I've been trying to come up with some sort of visual or re some sort of representation of a scale where you can rate yourself on this, what we might call green horse readiness scale.
And it's still a little bit of work in progress, but I'll try to get some sort [00:20:00] of like graphic or something put together that we can go with this episode. So if you are truly out there searching for a new horse, you can rate yourself on this scale.
I'm just laying there. Be dead air. Just so I know. Idea, just to bother neef. No, I love this idea. And I, I think these types of metrics and infographic scales and barometers are becoming more common throughout the equine industry. I think if you think of EQU ratings, I don't know if you've, if you're familiar with that, but it's part of the eventing readiness scale that they keep track of horses' records in the USEA.
Yeah. And when you go on the horse's profile, there's a chart that will tell you whether the horse is confident in the level that it's going, if it's ready for the next level, and which levels it's [00:21:00] definitely not ready for based on the ratings. And results of that horse. And I think that's pretty, pretty interesting stuff, but I don't think we do it enough for people.
Yeah, for sure. I think if we try to think of this in three different levels of a rider there, and look, sometimes an off track thoroughbred is not the answer for a particular rider and that's okay. Yeah. Maybe it's just not a fit for you. And I think that's another, a whole nother topic who should not be riding in OTTB,
but if you are what we're, we would call the first level of a developing rider that is a rider that is probably best matched with either a very straightforward OTTB or one that's already been well started. Yeah. So if you did not, if [00:22:00] you said, oh gosh, it's been so long since I've ridden a green horse, or I'm not really comfortable riding a green horse right now.
You don't like it if the horse says something unpredictable. Or that might rattle your confidence. And also if you don't have that consistent professional support, then you would probably be in this kind of developing rider level, and that's totally okay, but you would probably want to not look for something that's straight off the track.
Yep. You would probably want something that has either gone out and I and probably needs more than a few rides on it too. Yeah. This horse should probably have gone out, at least been to some shows, been taught good ground manners, has a really nice temperament, but it also might not be the fanciest.
Biggest moving flashiest horse, it's a dependable sort and maybe it's a little bit older. Maybe it needs a little bit of maintenance. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Sounds great. Maybe it needs French shoes. I think you're [00:23:00] actually talking about something interesting here too. Going back to the short term and long-term goals for who you are as a rider. There are people that wanna go to the barn and they wanna ride in the ring, and that's the only thing they wanna do. And they wanna take their lesson and, maybe ride on their own a couple days a week.
And then there's people that wanna go to show, like, all of those things factor in because when we're talking about getting a green horse and Emily saying, finding something that's gone to a couple of shows, all of those firsts and all of those new environments can. Do a lot to help the horse's confidence, but they can be very detrimental to you as a rider if you're not comfortable with those firsts.
Not to say that the horse might be too much, but it might just not be exactly the way that it was at home. And so having somebody that can tell you yeah, we took it to a couple of shows and he was nervous the first time, but by the time we got to the third show, he understood like he ties to the trailer and we go about our business [00:24:00] and he is all, and he is serious, about doing his job and yeah.
That's a, that to me there's a big jump between those horses. Yes. Yeah. I think that these horses will, some of them might cost more money, but I think it's money better spent, even if you have to save up a little bit longer than getting the wrong horse, that's too green for you. That then you're going to have to try to resell or stick with and have a terrible time or just have it in training all the time.
And then you're spending the money anyway. Yeah. Why? Why not start off with something that's more appropriate for your level, and then maybe after a couple of years with this horse, you can progress to a more green horse. Yeah. A little more experience under your belt. I think too, there's probably an intermediate step of rider called the intermediate Amateur.
[00:25:00] So this is somebody that still needs some support from their trainer, but they're comfortable. They're comfortable. If that horse is gonna spook or do a little crow hop or jig on its way back to the barn, or you get on it and it doesn't stand perfectly still at the mountain block, but you know him well enough to know he is not gonna take off on you.
And you have that ability to think through the issue that the horse is presenting you with and then regroup a little bit and get things get things back on track. But you'd probably still have a trainer. You're going to lean on them a bit, they might need to take over. And I think that level of rider should.
Is probably capable of getting one of those lightly restarted or recently let down off track thoroughbreds. As long as, through the person that's restarted it, that hey, it's got a good brain. He's not trying to do anything naughty, he doesn't have any big management issues et cetera, et cetera.
And then you also get more history that way. If you buy from someone [00:26:00] that resells off the track, you know a little bit more about them than if you just went to the backside and picked something up. Yeah, absolutely. I think of even small things. For instance, you've got sellers that don't do a lot to prep their horses for sale.
They just kinda, it's winter, like nobody wants to be bathing and clipping horses. At the same token, when you see a horse that's been. Clipped and had its main pulled and been all gussied up for sale, that horse can tolerate getting a bath in the winter. It can tolerate being clipped in the winter.
It can tolerate not having some hair on in the winter. Just a lot. It like, there's a lot of fact finding that you can do just from simple things like that. You, or it gives you the opportunity to ask the seller, Hey, how was he to clip? You're just getting a little bit more information every time someone's already done something with the horse.
How was he the first time he got hot shoes put on? Yeah, that can be a big one. Yeah, that, I don't know that we've [00:27:00] really necessarily talked about that very much, but thoroughbred's on the track are generally shot in aluminum racing plates that do not need to be hot fit. And then suddenly you. Take 'em off the track and let's burn some steel shoes on your feet.
And then they're like, what? And then the smoke blows back into the horse's face and he is like, Hey guys, the place is burning down. And now it's, I'm burning down too. So guess what? Spoilers that could be exciting, right? Spoilers. I think it's incredible that a horse will stand still. With that kind of smoke blowing in its face, knowing that from a primal level, they understand fire and smoke equals death.
Yeah. You know what I mean? And I need to get outta here. Yeah. The fact that we're like, you're okay, and they're like, ah, am I, meanwhile, I, meanwhile I can't even clip my dog's nails. Yeah. That's a whole other situation.
And then we have our third level, which would be a confident amateur. So this is [00:28:00] someone that really likes developing young horses. They're able to problem solve, they have experience riding a lot of multiple types of green horses. Because let me tell you, when you pick one up off the track, you do not know what you're going to get.
We can do our best guess with our, confirmation, our pedigree analysis, our race record analysis. But so often they change so, so much when they get off the track and they might look like they're built for one thing and guess what? They're actually really good at something else. Yep. So as a reseller, it's fun 'cause it's like Christmas.
Every time you get one, you're like, Ooh, what's this one gonna be good at? But if you're an amateur that has the budget for one horse, to board and train and that's gonna be your horse for the foreseeable future that can be a challenge. What if it's a hot horse and you like a push ride?
What if it's a push ride and you like a hot horse, yeah. So this ride, I think, they have a lot of off track thoroughbred [00:29:00] experience or maybe they were a pro at one point or they're just a really dedicated ami. And so this is the type of rider that could look for something straight off the track with no retraining.
Yeah. And I think in one of our very early episodes, we talked a lot about the risk factor of getting something. With no information, even after having that very real conversation with yourself about who you are and what you wanna do with your horse is how things can change, how the environment, the horse is in can change the way that they behave.
They can, they get new muscles, they, their new and improved personality comes out. There's just so many factors. Yeah. And thinking back to the boarding barn situation, I know several off track thoroughbreds that. Will crib in one barn environment. And not another. Or they'll stall walk or weave in one barn environment or not.
Another things like the stall we walls going all the way to the top that [00:30:00] some barns have and some barn don't. That can really trigger some of them to start pacing and walking in their stall. Yeah. And you might call the drainer up and be like, you didn't tell me this horse crib. Maybe it's in crib there, but maybe it cribs here and it's just a weird thing.
But I've personally seen it happen on multiple occasions. So that has to be something that you're willing to kinda work through or just work around maybe. Yeah. And make sure that, think through what if this horse is not exactly as described? Yeah. What happens then? Something that I was thinking through too, and it's something that I need to remember.
There is no prize for choosing a harder horse story of my life. I will always choose the harder horse.
It's my be like my mantra. Take the easy way out. Just the path of less resistance. Not least resistance. No. But I, [00:31:00] yeah, I don't know. I don't get it. One of these days. I'll learn. Anyway, hopefully that helps some of you to really think through what level you are at and where you're coming from and what you actually need and should be shopping for.
Yeah, and it's such a personal thing. I think I. I love working with green horses, but I think having a horse that is also very trained is such a nice balance because I can still work on myself as a rider and also just refill my confidence bank if it feels like it's getting a little depleted.
But I'm also, that's a good way to put it. Yeah. I'm also, right now, I'm happy to take a small break from riding green horses again. And, luckily for me, I'm in a barn where I, there's gonna be opportunities for me to sit on green things if I want to, and anytime basically. So once that itch comes around again, I've got some [00:32:00] horses ready to yeah.
But yeah, I don't know, I don't know where I'm going with this. Getting twitchy, typical typical O'Connell behavior. Yes. Switching major gears here. Because this is unscripted. Yeah. You had a kind of cool experience lately. Yeah. I actually think this does tie in a way. Okay. Because, okay, so just to back up really quickly, I went to a place to take a lesson on a mechanical horse.
This particular horse is really cool. It's actually trained to do all of the Grand Prix dressage movements and Oh wow. Also jump a meter 20. Oh wow. It can be ridden English or Western And what do you mean it's trained? I'm so confused. So there are different models. I think there's 30 of these particular, they're owned by a company called Race Wood, I believe.
Okay. And it's a UK based company and they make different models of them. Blue [00:33:00] as her name is a mayor. She's meant to represent. Roughly a 16 three crossbred of some sort, so some kind of warm blood. Okay. Which I actually asked the instructor, whose name is Kendra Clark. She's an unbelievable instructor who specializes in biomechanics and centered riding philosophies.
She's like part amazing riding instructor, part physical trainer. Or physical therapy, physical therapist. And combines all of that together with her lessons on blue. But a big part of going to take these lessons is that you're getting to ride a horse that is perfectly straight.
Perfectly balanced. We'll never trip. We'll, never Buck, we'll, never spook. Can you train it to Buck and Spook? I don't think so, but I'm like, there's really, there really should be like a, somehow a crossover between the people that make these and land safe. Yeah. I was just thinking that they could somehow, [00:34:00] but it's really cool.
Okay, so you, oh, anyways, what I was saying about this horse having all of those different modules, so she's, I think the only one in the US that has all of that education. Maybe, I think there's like jumping specific ones. There's dressage specific ones and she's an eventing model. Okay. And this was my first lesson, so it was more of, oh, like getting to know you stage with the instructor.
And to get a baseline metric for myself. So it has sensors all over it. It has rain sensors, it has back sensors, leg sensors, and then like your center of gravity sensors. Okay. So that's really cool and they're incredibly sensitive. Wait, what did it say about your right hand and arm? Knee? I actually did not have the rain sensor on.
But so getting back to the self-assessment thing, Kendra asked us to explain our writing [00:35:00] background a little bit and then what we felt like were maybe some asymmetries or weaknesses in our bodies. Had we had any previous concussions, any previous injuries, any parts of our body that we've been trying to protect for certain reasons and things like that.
And. And that's tough to do right on the spot, before you've done anything. And so I told her, I have this crookedness in my hips. I've always struggled to release my hip flexors that I quote unquote have a quiet seat as in I don't light horses up. And then I talked about my right sided weakness, which has improved Yeah.
Quite dramatically. Like for example, I used to always ride with one stir shorter than the other. My right stir shorter than the other. I now ride completely even. Oh, you do? Yes. So that's a big improvement. Yeah. And that, because of the right side weakness, I would like everything else on my right side would suffer because of it.
So my ribcage would collapse [00:36:00] and everything would crumple. So I was really curious specifically to see just how asymmetrical I was. And so she first had us do, so this particular lesson was, I just stuck to this one interval training. And the interval training was, I think it was 120 seconds at a time.
And it was 30 seconds in each gate. So it was like 30 seconds walk, 30 seconds sitting, trot, and then 30 seconds left. Lead canner flying change, right? Lead, canner, and then walk. Okay. And there are all these little graphs that have almost like seismic movements on them that will show are you leaning into your right?
Stir more is your right. Seat bone digging in more and how your body reacts when she tells you to make an adjustment. If she says you're getting a little off to the right, what do you do? How much of that is that changing the [00:37:00] horses? Balance and things like that. And you couldn't believe like how subtle these things could be when you see it on this little graph.
So you're riding along and it's just like this line and then you can see it shifting one way or the other. And the idea was to see if you could get it as centered as possible. Yeah. She would. It's like a wee balance board with skiing or, I dunno if you ever played any of those skiing, but no.
But yeah very similar. And then she would have you additionally do the whole exercise with your eyes closed to see how, oh wow. Your brain handles balance and centeredness. Without the visual aspect. And that's, I think it can be very tricky, especially if you've had multiple concussions and things like that.
But I think also an awareness of what our body does without that input. Yeah. I don't think I've ever tried to ride with my eyes closed. Come to think of it. That never occurred to me. Nobody's ever blindfolded me while riding. And it was sounds terrifying. I found the whole thing just so interesting.
So it was me and [00:38:00] two of my friends and our results were completely different. Our individual issues and hangups were different. What she did with us was completely unique. Yeah. And I was shockingly so incredibly balanced. I couldn't believe it. Yeah, I would deviate occasionally to the right, but I could literally think, touch my left ball of my foot.
I could think just app apply little pressure with the ball of my left foot and recenter my entire seat. Oh wow. Just really cool. Was, so obviously I wasn't here 'cause I have all these questions like, is the horse moving in the way that like, you can bend it and go around turns?
No. And that sort of thing. Okay. So the horse is only going in a straight line? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So from that perspective, like I think that would be an in an interesting thing. And it's possible that like you can make it do more stuff in terms of bend and everything. And it's interesting 'cause I didn't, I [00:39:00] really wanted to make sure I was holding the reins.
Not 'cause I thought I was gonna fall off, but because I really wanted to work on my posture in the saddle. She actually had me do this thing to release my hip flexors where she took these balls and she, they were the size of a tennis ball, but they were like a squishy fabric, I'm sorry, material.
And she put them in between my knees and I was in a dressage saddle and I felt like they were gonna fall out, but they weren't. This somehow miraculously allowed my hips to move in a way that they have never ever moved in my entire life. And so she was actually having me think about stretching from my right foot all the way up through my IT band across and down into wait, what's your it band?
The it band. It like runs up along the back of your butt basically. And so the thing that we often feel tight and need to do stretches for. Yeah. Yeah. But then, and then she'd have me stretch, like visually think about stretching, then down into like my left upper [00:40:00] thigh to rebalance my seat.
And I think, 'cause I'm such a visual learner, it was like magic. I couldn't believe it, yeah. And the next day to feel the parts of my body that were sore from underutilized mechanics was very cool as well. I was able to engage like the proper part of my core below my belly button and use that to stabilize the rest of my position in a way that I don't think I've ever really been able to do because I wasn't micromanaging the horse, turns out I'm the problem. Aren't we all? Yeah. But it was really interesting stuff and I actually have a bunch of video from it that I will post. On Patreon so you guys can see some of the lesson and see this some of the stuff that I was working on and see Blue. And I have so many questions.
So how long was your lesson? It was an hour. Like each. So you each did an hour? Oh, [00:41:00] wow. And then like how much, so you said you did 30 seconds at each gate and then you would walk? So you just keep doing that. Then recalibrate and then, so she would like make these like little, truly what felt like micro adjustments to, she'd like with, our friend Katie, she had these little kind of squishy things that she would put under her seat bones to help Katie's back and posture.
With our other friend, she actually took pieces of cardboard and wedged it in the stirrup because she was having so many issues with her feet. Like primarily like her back was making one of her one was making her lose, one of her stirs over and over again. And it's, and she really went into great detail about how all of these little things are interconnected, right?
If you're losing your left stirrup, it could be because you have an issue with like your right lower back. Like something like that, and understanding the mechanics of your body and knowing which pieces can impact other pieces. And [00:42:00] this. Way of breaking it down. Riding this horse was pretty, pretty cool.
She also does lessons with the bands, those equip bands. Yeah, that's what I was thinking about how we did that lesson with with Molly. Yeah, I was talking to her about that. Yeah. But it was, I was like that lesson too, where I, she said just like a couple things and I was like, what? This is magical.
I wonder how that will translate to riding a real horse. Yeah. I, what she wanted me to do specifically, she gave, first of all, she gave me all of these notes, all of these different exercises specific to my lesson okay. Notes that she wrote down later and things for me to look up. And then at the end of my lesson, she had me riding with my eyes closed for a couple of intervals because she wanted me to create a visual that I could run through my head for when I was riding my own horse.
So she's she was like, explain to me. How [00:43:00] you understand what we just accomplished. And the way that I explained it was that the way to open my hip flexors was to create an anchor to the ball of my foot and my seat bones, and let everything else be loose and in like hinge. So it was this idea that like the seat bones and my, the balls on my feet where they anchor, and then if I could just visualize that, it would allow the rest of my seat to just follow and flow.
And so that's like something that I have to try to like now do again.
Yeah. It's really interesting. So are you supposed to follow up with a new another lesson? Oh, I wanna if I could go back every week I would, it's a little bit expensive, but honestly, if you think about it being. A lesson where you know you're not gonna get hurt and two you or you're also doing physical therapy like she has, it's just this magical [00:44:00] room with all of these tools and she has you do stuff on and off of the horse and yeah, my mind was blown.
She also does you can go up and do a bootcamp with her. You can bring a whole barn full of people. She'll do schedule a whole day for a barn full of people to come 'cause blue and you have to go to her. She doesn't travel. Yes. Blue does not travel. However, I'm not supposed Sure if I'm supposed to say this or not.
Probably shouldn't. She's got something in development that's really exciting. Oh. And where was she located? She's in Kintnersville, which is near. I think it's like Montgomery County. It's about an hour and 15 from where we live. And there's, like I said, there's 30 of them. So Kin, Kenville, Pennsylvania.
Yes. Just for those of us that don't know where we live. And she's Kendra's actually gonna be teaching a clinic series in Wellington, I think in a couple of weeks. So she'll be down there. They must have a horse down there. Yeah. And so you were in a dressage saddle. Did you [00:45:00] bring your own saddle or no?
You can, but they have to be medium wide or wide, I think for Blues back. Because even Blue has saddle fit problems. No, I think it's to allow for the sensors to have the right coverage and everything. I thought the same thing though. But it's wild when you, we got there a little bit before she arrived and.
When she fires up the machine and all of the stuff, blue wakes up and does stretches like a horse. Oh yeah. Yeah. She does that like big, like her neck goes up and she stretches and then she stretches her neck down and I was like, this is crazy. Did What color is she? She's black. And why is her name blue?
I don't know. I should have asked. Oh my gosh. Very cool. Yeah, I can't wait to hear about your next ride. I'm like, also, I'm like, can you gallop? And you said you can jump. Does the whole, does it actually jump? It like, does [00:46:00] this the motion of closing the hip angle and going up and it's really wild.
She could fall off this thing. You have to wear a helmet. Yeah, I thought it was funny when you said you needed to get your helmet. I was like, why You're riding a mechanical horse? But I guess if it's 16 three. Yeah, she's big. I You have to get on her with a four step mounting block.
That's because you can't put your foot in the stirrup to get on. You have to swing your leg over. Oh yeah. Okay. Which probably we shouldn't be getting on from the ground anyway on our poor horses, but Yeah, I know I'm not doing that anymore. I don't think my knees could handle it. Oh my gosh.
My driveway is covered in snow again. I can't update snow. Snowmageddon update just trace to maybe an inch. And you ran outta ice melt? I I might have a very small amount left. Oh boy. I wonder, you know what I'd be really curious about as a [00:47:00] follow up to this is. To query some resellers and find out maybe if they have some funny stories about the self-assessment thing.
I'm just thinking about, I probably great, like greatly underestimate my ability and I, that's not because I think I'm any good, it's just that I think I have more, I think I have more skill than I think I have sometimes. But I think that people either greatly underestimate their ability in the saddle or really overestimate it.
Yeah. You know what's really funny to me is because I feel like I also underestimate my ability and I think most people overestimate though, and that's just bananas to me. Yeah. I'm not climbing on something that I used to do this for a living, right? You have to, I used to climb on things.
I had no idea what they were gonna do. Yeah. But I [00:48:00] knew, here's the thing, when you're getting on an off track thoroughbred, generally speaking, when it's raced, you usually know that the thing is that the horse is broke. And that hopefully, it knows how to behave under saddle. Yeah. In terms of it can carry a rider successfully, carry a rider, it has been done.
And then you watch the race video and the thing is just bucking the entire time. So wasn't there a horse that we Nikki wanted to look at or something years ago and then we watched the race video and it just kept bucking the entire race. Yeah. We're like, I don't think you wanna look at that one.
Yeah. This is why watching the videos on EQU base is so fun though, right? Because you can sometimes see them before and after the race and you get a little glimpse into what they're like. Yes. Yes. And when we do our new evaluates that we've been talking about for six [00:49:00] months now, I'm gonna show you in real time how to actually do all of those fun things.
Get ready, obviously more to come there. Yeah. And we don't want you all to think that we aren't doing the OT TB ONTAP evaluates anymore, where we evaluate the confirmation and pedigree and deter, discuss what we think it's suitable for. We are definitely still doing that, but after our break, it gave us some time to reflect and we wanted to also include some different varying types of content and get an Eva and I just chatting and just chatting about stuff.
Yeah. As a. Is there any burning OTTB gossip or horse world gossip you wanted to get my opinion on? While we're here, I had something and I don't know where I put it. Hold on. Standby. I know, I thought you had something. I thought I did too.
Oh, you know what though? There is an article that the Chronicle of the horse just did about riding a [00:50:00] mechanical horse. I'll send it so you can put it in the show notes. Okay. It's called How a Fake Horse can Help You Ride a real one.
So what would your horse be, let's use Oscar for this, your last OTTB. What would he be like as a human roommate?
Ooh, that's a good one. He'd be the guy that he moves in and you don't think he's very fun at first because he just is to himself and he's quiet. He's this is my food. And he puts like a pieces, he puts Yeah. He is like labeling stuff down the middle. Like the fridge gets divided in half with like a hard line.
Yeah. And then one day you drag him to a party and you realize he's actually really funny and can get along with anybody. And he is like really handsome, but you never, he took his [00:51:00] glasses off. Yes. Like he's hot. He like gets a haircut and like you're just like, oh my God, you like got like a little makeover.
And now he's just he's and then after that one instance where you got to see him being like that, every time you see him he is like, Hey, do you guys wanna do this? Do you wanna go to do this? Let's go do this. And he is like the best wing man. I think that's what he'd be like. He becomes the party animal.
Yeah. He just wants to like goof off. Be silly. But yeah, he is like the one you never see coming and you're like, oh my God, you were there the whole time.
I just watched a movie. It was a romcom called People We Meet on Vacation or People you meet on Vacation. It's pretty cheesy, but it's also really cute and it's on Netflix. It just made me think of that a little bit because it's like this, these friends, like since high school and they go on vacation every summer together just as like a tradition and their friendship and then they realize like they're actually in love with each other.
Come back here for [00:52:00] all the Netflix recommendations. Oh, I have recommendations for days. By the way, to our lovely listeners, sometimes Neve's movie recommendations are not good. I'll be the judge of that. You're not, 'cause you're the one that makes these recommendations. By the way, 30 years ago, I dunno.
20 years ago I guess I recommended that my stepfather watch the movie Vanilla Sky. Oh my God. And he to this day brings it up. Will not he bring, will not let me live it down. Did you have to watch it with him? I don't think so. Oh, okay. That'll be awkward.
So be careful with those wrecks guys.
Never flippantly give a recommendation about a movie or a TV show. 'cause you will, it will follow you the rest of your life.[00:53:00]
All right. Wait. What were you gonna say? I was gonna say let's just say you were shopping for an OTTB right now. What would you be looking for realistically? Putting all of this to
the test, like what? Hi. Okay. Ready? Here we go. Oh, hi Emily. Thanks for calling. I saw that you were interested in coming to look at the, first of all, I'm not calling. Okay. Let's just, okay. We're in person. You've shown up to the barn. You've had a quick discussion. Hi Emily. It's really nice to meet you.
So tell me a little bit about yourself and what you're looking for today. For I want A gate liquor. My horse was licking the gate the other day and I was like, there he is
now. Now he's got his brain back now. What's tricky for me is I. Typically do not enjoy a push [00:54:00] ride. Yeah. I like a horse that has get up and go, but I also want to know that the horse has the brain to handle to handle himself. Yeah. So I don't care if that horse wants to go really fast, I can handle that, but I don't want it to be trying to buck me off while it's going really fast.
You know what I would say about you, we could do our, what would be your elevator pitch. Let's do our elevator pitches for each other about the kind of rider we are. Okay. You go first. Okay. Since this is your great idea. Okay. Unscripted on the fly. All right. I think Emily has some of the best natural feel and.
While she loves an athletic and big moving horse, she wants to make sure she's got a partner that can harness that energy [00:55:00] and use it for the better Good and not for evil. And quite frankly, needs something that doesn't need to be ridden every day. Doesn't need to be the same horse every day. It just needs to not try to kill her.
That's never changed. Although I guess the definition of not trying to kill her probably varies from person to person. Because for sure people watching me ride my old horse, Alex thought he was trying to kill me, but I never felt that way. You were, because we had such a, we had such a partnership.
Yeah. I knew you were just on a missile, that's all. Yeah. You just had to hold on. Yeah. To strap yourself in. All right. Go. So I think for Neves elevator pitch. She wants,
she wants a horse that's emotionally available,
has [00:56:00] a leg in each corner
and is adaptable to what she wants to do with it because she might want to go get her bronze medal, but she also might want to do working equitation, whatever that is. 'cause I'm really excited about that too. It sounds fun. Or she might want to, make it dress up. So like in like for Halloween, like literally, I'm not kidding.
So she is gonna dress up that horse. So he needs to, he or she needs to have the emotional regulation and personality to handle and be adaptable for that. Yes. I like that. That's good. I feel like I should redo yours now that you did mine. So specific. You get the gist. Yeah. What stuff do we have coming up?
We've got some cool stuff coming up. Actually. I think we are going to be interviewing a female former graded stakes winning jockey. Now Outrider. She [00:57:00] sounds absolutely incredible. That's gonna be coming up hopefully soon. What else do we have coming up? We we have to wrap up with Chelsea O'Brien. Yes.
From her makeover experience. And also with Stephanie Parker. Yeah. About her makeover experience and, put a bow on those stories. And it would be great also to check in with our other two makeover trainers, Harley and Amanda. Yeah. And see how their plans. Worked out in the end. Yeah.
And I know Amanda has a new OTTB in her life that looks identical to her warm blood. It's crazy. Isn't that funny how we all have a type She likes some tall, dark, and chaotic. I thought this one was a bit more. Oh, he is very quiet, but Yeah. But he looks very similar. He looks just like presto.
It's crazy. Yeah, [00:58:00] it's so funny. Let us know what you guys think. If you like us just rambling here, or if you prefer it when we're structured and more buttoned up, don't forget to check us out on Patreon. It's patreon.com/otb. On tap. You can sign up for free or if you would like to give us a little support, we would love to welcome you as a new paid member as well.
And you can also. Just listen to episodes, a la carte as well. If there's one that you're like, I really wanna listen to that one, you can. That's true. You can purchase episodes singly and check it out. Yeah. All right. Awesome. Till next time. Cheers. Cheers.