When we last left off everything was going great, but these are horses and not for the faint of heart. Scout suffered a kick to his front leg. Fortunately, it was up high and involved only bone and not tendons or ligaments. This meant some time off from training and digital X-rays to ensure it wasn’t something serious like a sequestrum (from Merriam-Webster: fragment of dead bone detached from adjoining sound bone). We lost about three weeks altogether.

Then, there’s the addition of his glue-on shoe. Giving Scout time off gave him more energy to play and he managed to rip a shoe off along with a large amount of hoof, requiring an expensive glue-on shoe. Overall, Scout has pretty good feet, but this summer I’ve had a lot of hoof issues because of the weather pattern: dry and extreme heat and then massive amounts of rain. 

I’ve had Scout out and about enough to be comfortable with taking him to the Thoroughbred Makeover but one thing I hadn’t gotten the chance to do was take him for an overnight trip. An opportunity arose when I was invited to a Gary Rockwell clinic with my Thoroughbred upper-level dressage horse, Fellow. Several times a year, I take Fellow to work with Gary at Jericho Sport Horses in New Hope, Pa. It’s about a four-hour drive from Leighton Farm. Gary flies up from Wellington and that cost has to be covered, so it’s an expensive trip for me but well worth it for the help he provides with Fellow. 

It was a great opportunity to take Scout for an overnight trip to a controlled environment and to get some solid coaching. I first decided I would not take Fellow. You see, Fellow is as high maintenance as they come. He becomes frantic when I take other horses with him to competitions. I decided long ago, when Fellow jumped out of his stall while one of his stablemates was getting a bath, that he should travel alone. I’ve become quite good at managing him and keeping him calm and happy. I suppose I needed a reminder of this, so I decided to take Fellow. In all honesty, I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to work him with Gary.

Fellow was true to form, having frantic tantrums any time my focus wasn’t completely on him. We run on a shoestring budget here, so I can’t afford help when I travel with horses. This makes it complicated when I have to clean Scout’s stall or lead them both to turn out. I was able to get an extra set of hands now and then, but sheesh, it would be nice if Fellow could give me a break once in a while. He absolutely could not.

The good news from all of this is that Scout remained unflappable. Instead of getting upset that Fellow was frantic, he seemed to keep to his own, munching hay and probably wondering what was wrong with Fellow. He trained beautifully, and I feel even more confident that I’m not over facing him by taking him to such a big venue this early in his training.

I was able to get a great Airbnb on a horse farm in Kentucky, close to the Kentucky Horse Park. Scout will be staying there with me and shipping into the Thoroughbred Makeover each day. He has a stall at the Kentucky Horse Park, too. This way, he can enjoy some turn out and get away from the hustle and bustle. He would probably be fine staying at the horse park but it seemed wrong to push the envelope even further with this very special 4-year-old baby horse. If I keep asking, I’ll find his limit and I try not to go there with any horse.

My plan up to the Thoroughbred Makeover is to continue to develop Scout’s skills and get back into a regular retraining routine until the event. He needs more work on his canter departs. His canter is so naturally uphill and expressive that he needs more strength to carry it. I will comment that this is a great problem to have. Then there’s the matter of the dreaded freestyle. I need to start working on that …

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.