S3 E5: Putting the Horse First: Chelsey O’Brien’s RRP Makeover Story and Lessons in Horsemanship (Part 1)

S3 E5: Putting the Horse First: Chelsey O’Brien’s RRP Makeover Story and Lessons in Horsemanship (Part 1)
[00:00:00] Hi everyone. Welcome back to OTT Beyond Tap. I'm niv. And I'm Emily. Hey, nev, what's on tap today? Today we're back with Chelsea O'Brien, who has been a fan favorite recurring guest on OTT Beyond Tap.
We'll start with wrapping up her trip to the RRP makeover, move on to the Real Rider cup, and then talk about what's been happening next in her very busy life. Hi, Chelsea. Hi. Welcome. Welcome back. For anyone who really, I know it's been a little while since we've chatted so for anybody that didn't, hasn't caught up or I think we left off just before the RRP makeover from 2020.
What year is it? 2025 was it was that last year. Can you just give us a quick snapshot about who you are and what you do? Just as a quick refresher.
Okay. My name's Chelsea O'Brien. I run a training [00:01:00] and boarding and lesson and sales barn in Northern Virginia. I mostly focus on restarting thoroughbreds off the track. I've been riding for almost three decades and I've spent probably the last 15 to 20 years restarting off track thoroughbreds.
My favorite thing is problem horses. I'm. Very involved in different facets of the industry. I'm an all around rider, but I also so I do both English and Western. So I've competed in everything from hunters and jumpers to barrels and ranch and western dressage and trail.
And I just believe in creating a well-rounded horse. And then I also have worked in, the show industry show hunter, show jumpers as a show manager. And then also I have worked in the thoroughbred industry primarily as a, brood mare [00:02:00] manager, brood, marere manager or foing attendant.
And so I get to see them through, the beginning of life from the second of conception to birth, to prepping sales yearlings and things like that. And then help them into their second careers.
That is awesome, and not to derail from going back to the retired resource project, but did you say you have 70, you're expecting 77 0 plus babies. That's insane.
Yep. Yep. Yeah. I don't know. Last year was like 42 and then this year it just exploded. We do primarily do thoroughbreds, so I would say, I don't have a direct number, but I would say it's probably about 55 of those are thoroughbreds. And then we did full, like some warm bloods and ponies for people and then those people tell their friends and then everybody tells their friends and then it yeah, a lot of babies coming this year.
We've [00:03:00] had I wanna say, I think, it's hard when you're in the thick of it because you just, things happen so fast now. I think we're about at 26, so Yeah. So the next two months is gonna be wild.
Wow.
I'm just tired thinking about it.
I am all also very tired. So the cohesive thoughts, I, if I start going all around in circles, just give me a minute it'll land.
You're right. Start flagging you down to bring you in for a landing. Oh my goodness. For sure. So going back let's jump back to the RRP. You went with two horses. Can you give us a little kind of rundown on the two horses you brought and what disciplines they were gonna be competing in?
Sometimes I, because of the A DHD I am. A little delusional, like as far as I'm very much like I want the horse to pick what they wanna do. So I had the [00:04:00] pep didn't show AKA peppy who I did the hunters and Western dressage on. And then I had fuzzy wuzzy who I did barrels and ranch on.
So that's like a, that's a big breadth of disciplines to do. And I really didn't think about that. I was just like, oh yeah, we can do this. And we prepared for this, but like, when you get to the competition, I was like, whoa. I have to be very versatile here. So they were two very different horses.
So that was really fun and it was very challenging for me as a trainer, to be so versatile. And I was on the road just about two to three days a week at competitions lessons or clinics pretty much from August till, till October. We were hitting it hard on the road.
And so it was great. It really challenged me and pushed me to be better in so many different [00:05:00] ways. And, the horses really thrived up until, we got to Kentucky. I thought we were peaking at the right time.
Yes. Yes.
It's so hard. The journey that you go on with these horses for a almost a year and getting them to all of, to get them to be ready for what they have to do at the horse park and the atmosphere. I feel like there's so much prep and it's like, how do you get them ready? How do you know that they're gonna peak at that time. So I give you a lot of credit for tackling it with two horses and four disciplines.
Yes. Yeah.
Right. Yeah. Yeah, two, two horses. Like honestly, I think two horses wouldn't be so crazy if I did the same two disciplines on them or whatever, but I decided to be an overachiever because, fuzzy definitely wasn't gonna jump around and peppy definitely wasn't gonna do the barrels. So I, and because.
I always [00:06:00] wanna do, I never wanna force a horse into a discipline. I want them to so my process is very much let's try this and let's try this. And I have a general idea when I see the horse go, what they're going to be, suited for and things. But, if people hadn't followed along with me, I just wanna preface with the fact that, the makeover is just one very small piece to the journey.
For me, I love the makeover because it's very goal oriented for me. And that's something as like a trainer helps me. Choose how we're progressing and give me like a very real goal at the end. But I break those, break things up into really small goals to start with, and then it makes it more manageable.
So for me, in the way that I train, having that goal at the end like really gives me the ambition, the motivation to do all of those things. And so in that way what you will come to find out listeners, is that [00:07:00] my RRP did not go as planned. My, everything fell apart when we were there.
And that's okay. Things happen, it's, like I said, it's all about the journey and what, what you learn about yourself through that journey, not just with the horses, but like what you realize that you're capable of. But it reaffirmed how I feel about, horsemanship and I wouldn't change, anything. I wouldn't have changed anything of how we did it. It's just there was obviously some unfortunate circumstances that happened while we were there. But it made me feel like, okay, my training philosophy is right.
It's just you can't control, the outside world. And that's just a part of it, i'm very blessed to, be a part of Pasture Place who, if people don't know, sponsor have sponsored me for the last three years, and this will be my fourth year with them.
They are so awesome because they underst understand horses and they understand, it doesn't always line up the way [00:08:00] that we, you know, hope. And if it does, that's just the icing on the cake. But but yeah so things didn't really go as planned.
Awesome. Let's break it down per horse. Do you wanna just start with, give him like a little mini background about peppy besides being just the cutest horse of all time. He's really cute.
So peppy is a 5-year-old or was a 5-year-old and now six, but he, he was born to be a hunter. He was unraised. He did have an injury as a three-year-old. He was rehabbed properly had the time off and was still eligible because he had published workouts to compete at RRP.
When you watch this horse go around out in the field, you're like, wow, he was born to be a hunter. There's just, his demeanor, he's very laid back, very chill. He just kinda lopes along. And then, seeing a [00:09:00] horse like that, you're like, I've been dead wrong before where I've said, oh, this will be a barrel horse.
And then it was like, born to be a hunter. But peppy, absolutely like chestnut, big blaze face, four white stockings just the most handsome boy on the face of the planet and the best personality coming through. My program through the year, he came along very quickly.
By the time the summer came, during the spring, because I fall my goal is just to get them very broke at home, get them listening to my seat, getting them, using their bodies properly. I do implement a program called Bounce Through Movement which I highly recommend to anybody who has any sort of it's a great to learn biomechanics through that program.
Getting your horse, using their body better, their top line just being more organized through their body and then it brings a sense of, calmness to them. So that's something that I implement a lot in my program. It's a lot of groundwork. But he just came along very quickly as we were.
Preparing for the makeover. We went to [00:10:00] little schooling jumper shows. We went to little Schooling hunter shows. He like got Champion at like our little fair show, which was pretty cool. He had just started throwing his changes and he was just so consistent. Like he just has that beautiful rhythm and he just finds the jump outta strive really easily.
And it's just like jump, jump, like lo up and then just jumps so cute little knees. And then and he has these beautiful changes and I took him to Upperville, like for a little, there was a schooling hunter show there and he like just blew me outta the water on the warmup day. We didn't have the best of luck in the in the actual show, but still as we're coming out of that, like he's doing great.
And I. All of that. And then and then we were implementing, Western dressage into it as well. So he was starting to work on some lateral movement before we went. And but he just was riding around really great, very broke just getting him here, there and everywhere.
And we were taking lessons once a week over [00:11:00] fences with a hunter trainer and 'cause it's been several years since I actively competed in the Hunters because for most of the last, 10 years, I've mostly focused on Western. So he was a cool step back into that. Oh, I'm still capable of doing this kind of stuff.
So when we got to Kentucky, he was actually like, a little up, but he seemed to be, enjoying his time. He checked in perfect. We got our number and. We had a good actually warmup day that, how many inches of rain was it that day?
Oh, five or six in 24 hours. Yeah, it was brutal.
Yeah. Five inches of rain. And so all of my divisions were outside.
And so we had to warm up outside in the downpour, like the schooling over.
Wait, didn't your saddle get completely destroyed in the rain?
Yeah, my sa [00:12:00] my saddle's ruined. Like it's actually legitimately ruined. The saddle itself is intact, but the seat ripped and all the, all of the the die came out of it.
Oh boy.
And I'm talking like.
I'm warming up and as I'm like trotting along the s sponginess in the inside of the saddle, like the seat is like squi, like it's squishing.
Yeah, you could hear squishing
I had the little bluntstone paddock boots on and the water was coming out of the top of my boots as I was like s schooling and stuff, and. I was just like, this can't even be real life.
like it had up, it's, yeah, it filled your boots and was spilling
And thank gosh, like nev, you gave me some socks. I still have them, I think of you fondly every time I put them on. But gosh, I was just like, [00:13:00] I couldn't believe, like I just, that was not something that I had really prepared for. And at the same time, I'm not sure that I would've wanted to bring another saddle, like to school in if I wasn't gonna show in it.
That was just absolutely bizarre. I saw rain in the forecast. I didn't think it was gonna be historical rains.
I dunno if my field votes have ever dried out ugh,
I know it's like, it took a whole year for my, or not a year, but like six months for my saddle to dry out. It was crazy. And that was great.
And then the day. That was great. That was wonderful. It was an experience. He handled that with flying,
that was great.
It's just how do you prepare, like when that's going on. It's almost like it doesn't even matter. Like the next day is gonna be a totally different experience when it's not just deluge on top of him. And I just remember you, you saying I have to take him up there, I have to get him schooling over some offenses.
Because I think if it were a [00:14:00] horse where you just knew it could go straight in the ring and it would be fine, it would be one thing. But like you knew him well enough to know that he's gonna need to see these jumps.
I'm sure there's a million horses out there who, two, six is not like a problem, but not that it was a problem for him, but it was just like, I don't know, two, six seems really big. And anybody, any, anybody can laugh at me.
It's really big at the makeover though. It's like when they tell you, and it's like a, it's a huge, it's a huge difference between two three and two six. I don't know. I think it's like the older you get. Yeah. It's what is it? But also the jumps there are like highly decorated. They're full out. They're full, they're maxed out, they're big, they're gorgeous and they're likes, I don't know, they're two proper two six.
I feel like it's gonna be impressed.
Yes. And not that I doubted his ability to clear them. He was, he could, he jumps a 10, like the little cute little [00:15:00] knees and all that. But I just I think not only for his mental, for Yes. And there's just a lot going on. There's, the whole what do you call it, like the aisle way where they, all the shopping is all that shopping is right there with the tents and all that.
A trade fair. Yeah. Yeah. Alright. Yep.
Yeah,
it all came in one day. All in one day. So for this year, is it on your like checklist? Ride in a pouring rainstorm before I go
And, so it's not really the same as getting in there. The day, like as horse show day with all of that rain and all that. And to be quite honest, I don't think I've ever put him in that situation, like to have to jump in a monsoon. I don't, I, we had a drought all summer here, like we were begging for rain.
It was a horrible [00:16:00] summer. Yeah,
Gosh. Yeah. Gosh, as long as as long as we get rain, honestly in dec in December here, sorry, I feel like I'm yelling. But in Decem, like December or January, it was we were already considered in severe drought again. And it's certainly making up for it this spring, but that's what happened last year too, was like we had a good spring, perhaps even too wet, and then the like August came around and it was like so dry and the footings so hard and, so there's a lot of things that, you don't necessarily think are going to be things like adversities that you're gonna face when you're there.
We. So show day comes with peppy. Like one day I am showing Western dressage, and the next day I'm showing the show hunters. And when I started schooling him for the Western dressage, I had I'd shown fuzzy all morning. Switching back and forth. [00:17:00] Now I gotta get, peppy ready and like a crazy person.
I'm like, I can't wear the same outfit twice. So I change the outfit and we're, so I'm getting him prepped for the Western dressage and all of that, and I can't wait to talk about F's episode in the morning prior to that. But but so I'm prepping him and he's just not himself. And I'm like, this is, this is not how he usually is.
And so we go up for our test, he just was a little snarky. And, our test didn't go quite the way that I wanted. We may have had some little parkour moments.
Extra movements.
Yeah, some little parkour. And, but all in all it went okay, but in my heart and in my gut, I was like, something's not.
He's not himself. So anyways we make it through, I don't know what I scored, I wanna say it was like 65% 62 or 65. I knew we weren't gonna be up there, but I overall, like considering how we came out and all of that, I was fine [00:18:00] with that. And, overall, very proud of the way that he handled everything.
And the, that day, like I had the chiropractor come check him out and all of that, and then the next day got onto school and for the hunters and he just still wasn't himself. And I'm just not, somebody in pasture place are not people who. It's just one show. He had such a wonderful time up to that.
I don't know it was hard to say what, what was going on, so I don't really feel like he, it wouldn't have been fair to just push, there are times when I feel like there are times when you can, this wasn't in my gut, it was just not the time for for that. Anyhow, so I did end up scratching from the Hunter.
That was sad, but I felt in my gut, like that was the right choice. And I'm always, I'm always about putting the horse first and, being an advocate for them, they can only communicate with us one way, and [00:19:00] he, was acting out of character. As far as I was concerned, that was enough for me to sit, listen to him,
Yeah. Wait, I was just gonna ask you a quick question, which is for people that might be going to the retired race horse project for the first time, w what was your experience like in terms of, having access to the resources that you just spoke of, like the vet and the chiropractor and all that kind of stuff, because I know that they make those people available for the I was gonna say contestants.
Participants.
yeah, so there was, there's a really great network like on Facebook. They have the RRP like trainers only forum, and everybody's like communicating through their obviously, the competition does not want you reaching out to. To ask questions about the competition itself, talk to the office about certain questions, rules, and things like that.
But I was able to find a really great chiropractor through that RRP makeover forum. There's [00:20:00] vets on site. There's, and then there's so many people, veterans who've been there and done that. There's a farrier on site God forbid you lose a shoe or, yes, there's just everything that you can think of there to help your experience.
Sometimes people just want to mag wave their horse, not necessarily because it has an issue. But because, they want to help. People are hauling from a very long ways away. So in reality, you wanna support your horse as much as you can while you're there. So taking advantage of those things and saving the extra money to be able to afford those things while you're here, there will be huge.
Because they are going to be like looking at soundness and you wanna show your horse in the best light, you wanna give them the best opportunity. I wouldn't be trying those things for the first time there 'cause you don't know I, you don't want something to, make your horse sore.
So I would definitely not be. Taking a wild stab at oh, is Magda Wave gonna be a good option for [00:21:00] us? And then all of a sudden your horse is a little funky or whatever. 'Cause that can happen. Not in in rare cases, but you don't wanna find out while you're there. So definitely, test those things out before you go.
No. No.
But yeah, so it was and I'm very lucky because I'm around a lot of really excellent horse women who have so much experience and, I was already, I'd already been through quite a lot and it wasn't with Peppy, it was fuzzy prior to that. Sometimes you, the universe just says it's not your year, and that's okay.
And overall, peppy. Has a great foundation. Peppy is back in at pasture place in Pennsylvania. He's available for adoption. He is up and going and I'm sure they'll be bringing him to some shows in the near future, over the spring and everything. And so I'm looking forward to him continuing his journey and finding his person.
No. Oh, good.
Yeah. We'll keep an eye out for him. In and around [00:22:00] pa.
Yeah, hard to miss him.
Yes, truly. All right. Why don't we dive into Fuzzy's story a little bit. How did she do, how did she settle in when you first got there and deal with everything and just kind tell us how it went.
So fuzzy. Like prior to the competition, she seemed to also be peaking. And like we had all of these amazing experiences. Like I was feeling like super ultra confident. Going into it. She really had come into herself. She's only a four. She made two starts on the track. But all in all, she was a very easy horse to bring along.
Took to things very easily. She has a better brain than my 18-year-old off track thoroughbred. And so she. Is everything seemed to be falling together. We got a lot of help from my trainer from Florida. He helped me, with the ranch portion and all different [00:23:00] things.
It just seemed like we were going, headed in the right direction, feeling really good. We get there, unloads great. We go to check in and I'm looking at her, I think she looks great, and we're walking to the check-in. So you have to do a walking exam first. And we did the walking exam.
I'm feeling great about it and they actually denied me. And so that was a little shocking 'cause I, I personally didn't see it. I'm, obviously, I'm not a vet, I'm not, negating anything. Again, it was a very long, long drive. Coming from Virginia, we were going up through the mountains and the hills of West Virginia.
And it's, it's a good long haul, about 10, 11 hours. So you know, the door there, a little stiff perhaps. That night, we checked her over, lasered her. I have a Beamer, not a Beamer blanket, but something similar to that PMF blanket. And [00:24:00] but because she did not check in with the vet, you are unable to do anything.
Oh wow.
Like you can't lunge your horse. You can't ride your horse. You can. You can't do anything, you can graze. But I had to wait until the next day to be rechecked. Obviously, this gave me a lot of anxiety because, I was, I absolutely would never take a horse that I thought was unsuitable for competition to, that far or anything like that.
Sure.
So the next day the rainy day, we go off and we go for our recheck and we are checked in. Everything's good, we get our number. Everything's great so we can do warmup day. We'll, warmup day is, the six inches of historical rain. Although sorry, hold on. Oh, okay. So we have all the rain that day and then I end up going to, the covered arena to get her [00:25:00] warmed up. But, I had to get peppy done first because it was outside the covered arena was open much longer, all of those things. So I was mostly focused on him. I figured she, he had a lot more sites to take in. I was more concerned about getting him over fences, all of that more than I was worried about getting fuzzy in the covered arena because she really had never had any sort of thing.
However, she had just sat in a trailer for 10 hours and sat in a stall and we were able to walk around a little bit and graze, but she wasn't able to get out and move around and I think perhaps we would've had a better chance had we. Checked in the first day. That's just a part of it.
She seemed okay, all of that. But so we go into, for the covered arena, and I forgot my number. My husband comes, I call him, I'm like, I need you to bring my bridal number. Can you please bring that over? Of course, because I'm very type BI, I'm a DHD, blah, blah, blah.
[00:26:00] So anyhow so we end up he's trying to catch me and she will not stop. And I feel a hump in her back and she has never had a hump in her back. And I'm like, oh my goodness, is this the day? This is the day? Oh gosh. And I'm soaking wet and I'm freezing. And so anyhow, we end up, warming up. She finally comes down, we had a pretty decent warm up in the barrels. You switch, like you have a set time to do the barrels, and we do the, covered arena warmup, barrels, all the jazz and it seems okay, like we're, she seems to be in a better head space, get everybody else situated for the next day. But I look at the schedule and I'm like, how am I gonna do this?
Because it's eight o'clock is the horsemanship pattern for the barrels then 10 o'clock is the ranch pattern and then 11 o'clock, or sorry, one o'clock was [00:27:00] ranch trail, and then three o'clock was my western dressage on peppy. And then at five o'clock was my barrels on fuzzy. So this is where, I had to be very versatile for one day because it, being a barrel racer doesn't always align with being a ranch rider.
And it certainly doesn't always align with being a western dressage rider. And so there was just a lot of a lot of changes like in having to be super on and versatile. But this is how I train the horses at home anyways. So it was just like more so a lot of outfit changes. A lot of tack changes.
I was gonna say let's, we're not even like considering the outfit changes here. And learning, also. Learning all the patterns. Those patterns. I know all the tests, and then remembering which one you're at, and then not making mistakes within that. It's a lot.
Yeah. I was just thinking about that.
I'm gonna be honest, I was so proud of myself because I did not go off [00:28:00] course or off pattern. I'm a wackadoo. So when when I went in to do the, 'cause they don't give you the trail your patterns. Like I know my patterns for next year, I think already. But when it comes to the ranch trail, it's something that they make that day.
Like maybe not that day, but you're not getting it until that day, like a half an hour before, like you get to walk the trail course, but that's it. Like on foot. You don't get, your horses don't get to be exposed to any of it. Barrel day. The barrel horsemanship pattern. I go and do that first.
At eight o'clock in the morning. I'm like rider number two or three, and I'm warming up and fuzzy is wild. And like I'm talking like, this horse has never been wild in our whole entire life. And I'm like oh my gosh. Like it was last night. Now it's today. And she is I don't know what she was doing if we were crow hopping or what, but it felt like the canner her back was so rock solid.
Usually she's very soft to ride. And like her back was so rock solid. I'm, just trying to get her [00:29:00] to get her, get with her head, like just settle into it. But we weren't settling into it. And I'm trying to just like casually do the pattern just so that I'm feeling good about it and then all of a sudden it's five minutes before I have to be in the ring and my rain snaps.
I'm like, oh my gosh, my like. I'm like, oh my gosh. What am I gonna do? So then I have to run up to the, to
Luckily we were stabled, like probably the closest barn, but yeah,
and yeah, right there. Yes. Thank gosh. And so I'm like, oh, okay. Run up there, get, and then I even think I made a bit change, like a lunatic, and I loped around for two seconds and I went down to the arena.
I was like it's gonna be what it's gonna be like. I definitely try my best. So we go in the arena and this horse lays it down, and I'm like, oh, okay. I don't know how much more whiplash I can handle through this whole [00:30:00] experience, because I'm like, yep. And I'm like, okay. I actually feel pretty good about that.
We walk out, I'm like, okay, alright. There's a little confidence boost. So I keep like refreshing and I'm like, oh my gosh, we're like sitting in second place. Cool. I'm so excited. So then we go into the ranch pattern and she goes in, she lays that down too. I'm thrilled. I think we're sitting in like third or fourth place and I'm like, heck yeah.
Okay. Okay, we've been through our hard times, we're gonna make it through. Then we go into ranch trail and I just think. This whole experience has been a lot to start with for fuzz. So we go in and we do our like, you know that you gotta jog in and out of these little trees and then you turn and go across the arena and you're gonna go open the gate and go through the cows.
I, this horse, we walk in there and she's every time we go in here this arena changes. She's [00:31:00] oh gosh. Nope, no. It was like she'd never seen the cow in her whole life. And I was like, oh no. Alright. And we tried our best, but there was no getting over there. She was just a little fried. And I'm like, okay, like that's fine.
We stole the barrels. That was really where I was feeling the most confident. I knew we weren't making it to the finale in the ranch after that because like obviously we were disqualified. Okay, now I gotta regroup. We gotta get to peppy for, Western dressage, we've already gone over how that panned out.
Then get off of peppy now I gotta warm up for barrels at five o'clock. Again, I'm like the third person to go in. And we are
I watched this from the stands from across the arena. Oh man.
I'm gonna be honest with you, I, it took me like a month to watch the live of this. 'Cause somebody was videoing it live and, 'cause like mentally this like really messed me up and fuzzy up. But, so we're sitting at the gate for the [00:32:00] for the barrels and we're just like waiting our turn 'cause I'm the next horse in.
I wanna be ready, I want to get in, yes.
Yeah.
And they want you really on deck. Like when it's when you're next. They want you right up by the end gate. 'cause you go in and out of two separate gates.
Yes. And so like the in gates are very low. And the gentleman in front of me who made his run he sent his horse really fast home. And I don't know if there was a miscommunication, something happened and his horse didn't respond and he, didn't stop. And then he hooked a hard right and came.
Actually jumped out of the arena into me on Fuzzy. And so as he, the horse was jumping out,
He got launched, right?
he, yeah, he fell off and the horse hooked a left and ran into me. And fuzzy like Allie from Pasture Place is holding on a fuzz. She [00:33:00] just, lets go so that, we don't get in a bind. And so he runs into us and chases us into the back, out, back and then proceeds to run into us two more times.
My God.
And, he gets stopped and I have 60 seconds to get into the arena. And
oh my gosh,
I can't believe they didn't give you a little bit of grace there. And give you a minute. I just, you at the end of the pack or something?
I'm gonna be honest with you, like I like. I was in such shock when it happened that I was just like, we just gotta go. We just gotta go. It's our turn. It was like a level of like shock and awe. And I'm just like, okay take a deep breath. We got this. And and yeah.
Yeah, because I did, I, I didn't wanna cause a scene either and be like, I need time or whatever. I'm just a weirdo anyways, I have a hard time [00:34:00] speaking up for myself in general, so nevermind a situation like this. I'm just always oh, I don't wanna inconvenience anybody. That's like the motto of my life.
Yeah.
And your adrenaline's already fired up, so like you, you're probably just I'm just gonna go with it.
And so anyhow, I am, I'm watching, like I'm trying to get her in and she's just bulking at the gate. I can't even get the horse into the pen at all. And, we are balking, we're balking, we're like not moving forward. Finally, she moves forward and I'm like, okay, forward motion, we got this. And then we go to Lopez Circle and she keeps spinning back and you have 30 seconds to get over cross the barrier, cross the timer or else you're disqualified.
She did finally make a, a swoop to go up into that and we did cross barrier and then she spun back and I was just like, oh man she's only four. I'm gonna be honest with you, I don't even [00:35:00] know if my seasoned horses who have been there done that could have recovered from that. So like in such a short period of time, I don't, I actually have never even had that experience at a barrel race.
That's not a common occurrence. So it's not some, something that I would even know what the rules are for that, does the person that's just a bizarre thing to happen and that's like the story of my life, like a series of unfortunate events. So anyways, so I just, I'm obviously disappointed.
I feel that was a really tough experience for a really young horse that I felt like I had prepared really well, and I don't even think there's anything you can do to prepare for that. And either your horse can handle it or they can't and she just couldn't. Now we move on to the next day.
I've scratched, peppy from the Hunters, but I am like, all I have left for that day is now just my second barrel racing run. And so since I wasn't disqualified because we did cross the [00:36:00] timer, we received a no time. So I was like. I just wanted to test and see obviously there's no way to get back into the arena to try to give her a good experience prior to going in there.
It's just you just gotta go and make your next run. So I hopped on her in the morning and I was like, can I get her down to the arena? And honestly she just kept spinning back. Like I couldn't get her near the arena. I couldn't hardly walk her in hand down to the arena. Like she was absolutely fried.
And so at that time I just was like, I just had this epiphany, like I tried to trail rider and I just know her like so well, and I just knew that she, this wasn't her, this isn't fair to her. I don't care about competing that much. Like I'm gonna be totally honest. If somebody told me tomorrow I didn't have to compete a horse ever again, I, it wouldn't matter to me like I [00:37:00] just.
I wanted to do what was right. And unfortunately, prior to all of this, I actually found out that I wasn't even gonna be able to keep fuzzy. I had a different perception of what me and her owners like what our deal was. And so they, I found out maybe like a month before RRP that fuzzy wasn't coming home with me or like she was coming home with me, but like she was gonna go on to be a brood marere.
And that's, that was hard and that was lingering in the back of my head. So maybe I felt more pressure that I had to make it count. At that point with everything going so, just totally awry, I was like, okay, you know what? I nothing like all we need is a positive experience.
Like she's not leaving Kentucky without a good experience. And so I'm out on this trail ride and I'm like, I'm hand walking the pattern. I was like, I don't care what anybody says. And I like, I came back [00:38:00] and I told you, I was like I am hand walking. Like I paid my entry fees. I am like I'm putting my house.
Yeah. So I just said, you know what, this is what I'm doing. Like I, I wa I wasn't asking any questions. I just said, this is how, like this is a horsemanship competition. This is not a normal competition. This is not like. A big barrel race. This is not a super show or whatever where, I'm gonna just take my time and I'm gonna give the horse a good experience.
Yep. And and also if they let me do it for competitive trail, you deserve your however many minutes in the ring too, yeah.
that's all I cared about. I put my little outfit on. I had bought like this Barbie thing, like Barbie outfit, like this pink, shiny thing with these shiny pants. And I'm like, I'm wearing this. 'cause I like, I, maybe I was too ahead of myself thinking that we were gonna make it to the finale, but I was like, had bought this outfit for the finale.
I'm like, this is my finale. [00:39:00] I'm walking this horse through the pattern. I, and I did, I, they were very gracious and let me walk through the pattern and, it may look silly to some people. It may, she should just get her in there or just, do whatever you gotta do to make her do it.
And it was like For what? For what? She's gonna be a broodmare ex right?
Yeah. Yeah. And but I feel like even if you were in good standing, I think you are always someone who's gonna put the horse first. And I think you probably unintentionally inspired a lot of people in that moment because I think I just think that a lot of us have that feeling of we're in a clinic or a, a lesson with a big name rider or a big show, and it's everything feels like it's on the line.
And I think you find out so much about yourself in those moments where you go, I have to just suck it up and maybe feel a little bit embarrassed, but I'm gonna put this animal first because what else? What [00:40:00] else would I do? Yeah,
I hope so.
Yeah. And and again, just like I prefaced with, everything prior to this, like it's one, it's like it's two days. Like we were showing for two days. It, that's it, that's two days of her life, and we had such a wonderful time prior to that. So I don't define our experience together by what happened at RRP.
It was very unfortunate. I feel. So terrible that happened to her. 'cause she's a very nice horse and but things happen. I, my old boss, he had a, a horse who was ready to go to Breeder's Cup and he did a little dispensary and he was out and he had another horse who was also gonna be in the Breeder's Cup, and he spiked a temp the week before.
And that's just, you could make it to the very top. And at the end of the day, these are just animals, they're just, and as [00:41:00] much as you want something, it doesn't make a difference, it's there, it's one day. So it in, in a very big journey.
So from, I felt like I learned a lot, I felt very empowered in that moment. Okay, like I said, I don't I like doing RRP Competing is not my life. I enjoy,
Yeah. I think like I feel like real horsemanship like happens in the trenches.
yes, and I like that. I like the puzzle pieces. I like figuring things out. I like, getting nitty gritty and feeling really bad about myself and why do I do this? And then all of a sudden something happens, I'm like, oh, this is exactly why. And so I think a lot of people's journey, like obviously this is on like hyper speed, right?
The journey to the ROP is getting this done in a really short period of [00:42:00] time. And so for some people a normal horsemanship journey may be like over several years. Like I said, with peppy, going from not ever jumping to like jumping a full two six course, like with all the bells and the whistles and stuff I don't think that's necessarily an easy feat for most horses coming off the track.
Yes, okay, I get it. Any horse should be able to jump to six, it is like two, three seems more manageable. I know it's silly, it's three inches, so at the end of the day I do think that, you can't judge your experiences on one day. And so I'm just grateful for what I was able to accomplish and what I learned through the entire journey.
And I did those horses tho both of those horses gave me an immense amount of confidence. Like they perhaps were even too easy. You know what I mean? I was very blessed with them. And everything that they taught me and gave to [00:43:00] me, like in the, nine month, 10 month journey there.
It just, it's life changing. And until you do the RRP yourself, like you can't really understand what people say when it's it is, it just changes. RRP has changed my life. Not only just that, but like life, the skills that you build by doing RRP, like having a big goal setting those small goals and like how do you manage to get to that big goal? And like sometimes, you have to dig deep to like even be like, 'cause there have been times in the past where I'm like, is this horse even ready?
Do I even send in my final entry? And you just constantly question yourself and then you have to say to yourself like, okay, like actually I do think I can do this. I I, I. Like we're doing it, you just have to take that plunge and it's into the unknown and you have no idea how it's gonna shake out when you get there.
It could be the best experience of your life. It may be very trying, like the situation I had this year, but again, I [00:44:00] now, this, that was my third time here. And I've had the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows
you are like, this is why I do it. Yeah.
That's a lot. No, not at all. No.
Yeah. Yeah, and I think it also, just like you don't realize how the struggles. Or lack of struggles or whatever that you go through with your horses leading up to that event can change your entire philosophy about horses. And that's what it did for me. And I know that like maybe you considered a lot of that happening for you while you were actually in the moment and having those struggles as well.
But it's like you, you're gifted this like skillset and mental fortitude that you're now able to apply to all of the horses that come after that horse.
oh, I'm bulletproof.
Yeah.
Hundred percent now. Now you're ready for anything. Speaking of ready for anything on the heels of the [00:45:00] retired Race Horse project, you also participated in the Real Rider Cup. Can you talk a little bit about what that event is and how it's set up and how you find a horse that you're gonna ride?
I was very honored to be asked by pastor Police to participate. Again, I haven't shown like I've. Haven't actively shown as a hunter or a jumper in many years. Like I start horses over fences, might take them to a little show here and there, or horses that I sell, like I'll do sales videos and stuff of them jumping around, but like actively showing or competing, not, haven't done that in quite some time.
I, I did last year with Peppy, but so I was honored to be asked to join in, peppy wasn't quite ready after RRP to step back into the show ring. But backing that up a little bit, so to participate in the Real Rider Cup, you have to raise a thousand [00:46:00] dollars, I think it's a thousand dollars to be able to participate and all of the proceeds go to Thoroughbred Aftercare, whether it's RRP, I think after the races.
It might be the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance, I think.
Adds a layer, right? Yeah.
And, yes. Yeah. All of the proceeds are going to benefit horses, a aftercare and everything like that. It's a great cause. And, this past year was held in conjunction with the Maryland five Star, so it was a really cool event. We were like the entertainment of the evening, and so everybody dresses up.
You wear jockey silks and it's just you have a team, you compete and you do your little show jump round. They take the best three scores and times of your four teammates and accumulate those and the top. The top teams with the lowest times win and so I got to catch ride, [00:47:00] which I have not catch.
Rode a something over fences in a long time. So the day before I I rode IHSA in college, so I'm not a stranger to catch riding horses over fences. That was like I don't I don't know, like almost 15 years ago. I ride a lot of horses, but I don't ride a lot of finished horses.
I ride a lot of green horses off the track, over fences and stuff. So the day before I tried operation banks and
Who also like from a distance, kinda looks a lot like peppy. Yeah.
Yes. Very similar. Very similar. And so I jumped him around, loved him. We jived. And so the next day we go to the Maryland five star, we get to watch, okay, so I have so much more respect for you guys to do eventing because it's like probably, perhaps one of the only things that I have not done or tried as a discipline because when I was [00:48:00] in when I was a kid at summer camp and stuff, we watched thrills and spills on VHS.
Yes. Oh my gosh. So that is my experience with eventing. So that's why I never was interested in eventing, because that scared the crap out of me.
Okay. Wait. Funny. It's have to stop you right there. We, and even I put that on last night. We were like, oh like literally put that on last night. Oh, we'll do a voiceover and we'll talk about all the like, funny things that happened. And 30 minutes into it we're both like, Emily's I don't think we can talk about this on the podcast.
And I was like, I don't think we can play this. 'cause it's just it's forces falling. It's this graphic. Yeah.
yeah, it's like a bunch of rotational falls into water and stuff and I'm just like, okay. And then so in contrast, we would watch that and then we had to watch the metal McClays. And so I was like, oh I wanna be a McClay rider. I don't wanna do that [00:49:00] crazy stuff. So it was like whiplash.
That's fair. Yeah. Yeah. That's back when none of the jumps down. Entertainment, which is what's crazy is that was an entertainment video that was put out. It was a standalone. Everybody watched Yeah. Literally, right? Concussions and broken legs and just oh.
I don't know if that was on purpose or whatever, but oh, where I'm from, there aren't a ton of invents. It's mostly hunters and jumpers and so anyhow we get to watch the cross country and like we got to see artists go and I was just awe struck in, but my first experience, so I've never seen real cross country up.
Certainly like I've seen a little starter level or something like that, and I've jumped a coop and, a log in my life. But I'm walking up to these jumps and I'm like, these people are insane. This is nuts. Yeah. They're big. And so I ended up, going to, we're standing at [00:50:00] one jump and it's like a combination that everybody had struggled struggled through and void.
Martin comes and I'm like, oh, I actually recognize that person. And he comes around and he jumps down and he goes over the coff and it's that brush jump that's like at the crest of a hill and he just gets a bad spot into it. Horses refuses and he just gets launched over the top.
It gets catapulted. I.
Oh no.
And I'm like, and I'm like, see, this is everybody who's standing there with me.
They're like, this is so great. And I'm like, this is exactly why I don't do this like this. This has cemented the fact that I will never be an inventor, like more power to everybody, but hot. Dang. No thank you. So anyway, so we go to the competition and banks can be a little puke sometimes.
And so he we had a lovely round when we were away from the gate. But he did decide that he did not wanna go past the gate. And so we did not finish our [00:51:00] round. But we did fi we did end up on end on a nice little jump and whatever, and then I fell in love with banks and now banks is now at the farm with me.
I know. I love, oh yeah, I love that he ended up with you. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. Oh my gosh. He's also he's so fancy, like when he was being naughty and he was like doing this really extended rah and you're doing your little queen wave, which I love so much, and he's just like doing this gorgeous trot.
I was like that little shit. He knows exactly what he is doing.
Yeah, that little cheeky bugger, he.
Oh my gosh. And it's horses have totally humbled me this year, man. I have just been able to really laugh at myself. I'm like I really don't have a lot of shame. I just, I. I just don't have any awareness of what other people are thinking really. I'm just like, whatever.
See you later, everybody have a nice time. Bye. Hope we gave you a good show. But I do I love banks and so banks has been here with me for a few months and we are just like [00:52:00] going through the balancer movement stuff and we're gonna try a little western stuff this year.
Yeah,
And depending on how life goes I don't know I get too ambitious, but the upperville little classes with the what do you call it?
They have the too slow to go and the back from the track hack and stuff like that. Yeah. So we're not gonna be ready to do, like we're not gonna do the big three foot, three foot six hunter Derby or anything like that, but we are going to try to do like maybe the back, oh, he's too slow to go.
'cause he was on race.
it. Oh yeah. They have that whole thoroughbred series there now, right? Yeah yeah.
I also love that I remember how nervous you were about going to Upperville last year, and I'm so glad that you went and had a good experience because I think that those bigger shows are really starting to like [00:53:00] send out an olive branch to the thoroughbred people and just be like, come here. You can come and show here.
Guess what? We're gonna make classes for you specific, but you can be in the other classes too if you want to. And I just, I'm just so glad that you went and realized that like you deserve to be there.
Yeah.
And you work just as hard, if not harder than everybody else. So you know, you've earned your place there.
Oh thank you. It, I do think that I get a little, like in my head sometimes I don't deserve to be here. I don't, I don't stand a chance here and stuff. And I think like from my time working in the show farm like at Show Farms and stuff I just see like the background of it and I'm like, I'm just not this elite.
Like I could imposter syndrome, but who really cares? I don't care if I don't have a, $20 million farm with all the bells and the whistles. You don't need any of that. And but in my head I'm just like, I don't deserve to be here. But after, after going, it was like ripping the bandaid off and was like, oh, it's just another horse show.
Like, why am I [00:54:00] being so dramatic?
I know, but I'm still I am, I always picture myself as like little, a little meatball kid. I'm just a little meatball. Don't look. Even though I just said I have no shame. It's just, it's in the moment. I don't really have any shame. But the thought of going places sometimes gives me a lot of anxiety.
It's more like once I'm in a situation, it's like I'm in it. There's no getting outta here, it's.
Honestly, like that's how I am about everything in life. If anybody asks me to go do anything or whatever, like whether it's just go out to dinner or something, I'm like, everybody's gonna think I'm weird. And then I'm there and I'm like, oh, this is fine. It's just, I'm I think about things too much.
I'm an overthinker.
Sure.
Yeah. I'm a little bit that way too, where I'm just kinda I, what did I sign up for?
Yes. Yes. And it's all coming out and being thrown up on you guys at the moment.
All right chelsea, it has been so great catching up with you. And next time with [00:55:00] you, we are going to dive into what life looks like after the makeover, including your new horse, a huge upcoming barrel race, and what happens when the internet suddenly has opinions about how to teach a leg yield.
Yeah, I'm just an animal abuser.
I think so stay tuned. And we'll catch up with you soon between that and a horse that, she gasp, tried to help.
Stay tuned, everybody.