In June, we took Scout to another local dressage schooling show. He was composed and did a great job earning second- and third-place ribbons. More importantly, he improved in every way. He was more relaxed and even more on the aids. He seemed to “get” the idea of what he was doing there, performing both tests smoothly. Kristen rode him again and did a wonderful job.

Let’s talk about Kristen. She has been riding for a very long time. She began at Oldfields School developing a good foundation as a hunter/jumper rider. She took breaks from riding to go to college and for some life events. Kristen started working at Leighton Farm in the mornings and has been dependable and devoted to the horses. In the last couple years she began to take an interest in dressage, riding at a nearby stable, so it was only natural to put her on some horses here at Leighton Farm, the home base of Thoroughbred Placement Resources.

We feel it’s important to help people interested in working with and riding retired racehorses. Part of our mission at TPR is to educate people in properly riding and retraining them. The hope is they will then share this knowledge with others. Kristen has done a great job learning how we work with these wonderful horses. My goal for Scout is to expose him to things and at the same time, I’ve been able to show Kristen how to properly get new trainees off the farm and out to competition while building their confidence.

Scout continues to make steady progress although we weren’t able to move up to the Training Level 2 dressage test for this show. I had a bad fall from another horse (not Scout) in the beginning of June which resulted in my having to take time off from riding and training horses. This meant I didn’t get his canter where it needed to be in time for the show. If you want the canter to be relaxed you absolutely cannot rush it. There’s still plenty of time to put a relaxed and balanced canter on him so I feel confident that Scout is still on schedule to get to the Makeover.

The canter challenges the horse’s balance more than the trot or walk. This is because in one phase of the canter, all four feet are off the ground and in the next phase, the horse lands on one front leg which determines the lead the horse is on. This means if he isn’t over his feet, he will land out of balance, and to a horse that is falling. If the horse has the physical development and skills to regain balance without speeding up before we introduce the canter, he will not become tense and worry about losing his balance. So we take the time to give the horse these skills in the trot before moving up to canter work.

It’s incredibly hot and Scout has excelled when going off-site, so we are going to focus on riding and training him on the farm for now. I don’t compete or take horses off the farm during July and most of August due to the heat. There is much we can accomplish on the farm until then. I am very happy he’s done so well in the trips off the farm. It takes the pressure off.

Scout has been very easy and fun to train up to this point. This is something we can’t take for granted. Anyone who has horses can tell you there are countless things that can go wrong. The direction of the training must be dictated by Scout and so far, he’s making steady progress. This is a gift and it’s important to enjoy and appreciate every moment of it.

The Jockey Club supports many aftercare initiatives including the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance, the only accrediting body in aftercare, and Thoroughbred Incentive Program (T.I.P.), which encourages the retraining of Thoroughbreds into other disciplines upon completion of careers. View all of the initiatives supported by The Jockey Club.