To me, the most important thing you have to learn how to do when it comes to bringing young horses of any breed along is to trust the process. It oftentimes feels like for every step you take forward, you take two or three back. That has definitely been the theme of the last couple months or so for Valobra, aka “Maverick” and me both.

I had major surgery in early February that kept me out of the tack for about six weeks. During that time, I sent Maverick to get some training hoping it would be a good leg up to have us show ready by early May.

As is the way things often go with horses, he had other plans. We dealt with some lingering issues related to a pretty nasty abscess he had back in January and some of the usual bumps in the road that come with getting over some of the racetrack soreness and growth spurts. After a bit of vet work he was able to get back on track but it has definitely left me feeling like we are a bit behind the 8-ball.

Jordan Sigmon photo

To add to it, when I was on my way up to Lexington to pick him up I had a bit of a mishap with my trailer coming off the hitch going down the road. Thankfully the trailer was empty and nobody was hurt, and of course as they usually do in times of need my village of people in the horse world came together to help me arrange other transport for Maverick and get things sorted out with the trailer in a timely manner. In the meantime, that has left us immobile while I wait for my trailer to get fixed.

I had hoped to be able to jump right into taking lessons and going on trips to Masterson when I got myself back in the tack, but for now we’re doing as much as we can while stuck at the farm. He’s proven to be very intelligent, which can be good and bad. I have to make sure I don’t do too much of the same thing with him and try to switch things up every ride so he doesn’t find it necessary to make things exciting on his own accord.

At the moment I’m in the busiest part of Paramedic school with clinicals in full swing and our cardiology unit starting this week, so finding the time to ride can be challenging, but most weeks I’m able to get at least four good rides in. The weather has been playing a big factor lately with all the rain too. I usually try to spend two rides out of the week really focused on getting some good flatwork in. The other two or three days are either trail riding, letting him go for a nice gallop on the hills, and if the weather permits popping over a few jumps.

He’s definitely still in the toddler stage. When you ask him to do something that is hard or that he doesn’t quite understand he tends to lean towards stomping his feet and pouting at first. But the arguments are getting shorter and less frequent so it’s definitely progress in the right direction.

The one thing that has always stood out about this horse to me and keeps me encouraged through the hard days is his quality. He has three beautiful gaits and is so naturally supple as well as a very soft mouth, which is a testament to the quality of his riders during his time on the track. So many of the aspects of transitioning from racehorse to sport horse have been so easy for him because of these things, and it gives me a lot of hope and excitement for the horse I’ll have when he puts it all together.

About a week ago I was popping him over some small verticals and it really stuck out to me how adjustable he was already. The other two OTTBs that I restarted took quite some time to understand more subtle cues like half halts. This horse, I swear it seems like he came pre-programmed with them.

I’ve only recently gotten to the point where I trust him to keep the foolishness at bay enough to see what kind of a gallop he has, and man is this horse gonna eat up a cross country course! He has one of those gallops that you could ride all day, smooth but powerful and full of options.

So I will continue to trust the process and do the hard work. And hopefully soon we will be mobile again so we can get back on track to make our horse show debut, albeit a little later than planned.

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.