Oak Hill - 2022 TB Makeover Grad

10/10/2022

We're here and settled in! Went for a little schooling ride which was.... eventful...🤣.... But Odin is happily hacking around on the buckle and seems content. Oh and we're stabled across from none other than Whitmore 🤩🤩🤩🤩!

10/03/2022

Alright Team! Below is our Makeover stabling and ride time!

Assuming all continues to go well 🤞, Wednesday 10/12 at 10:06am we'll be trotting down centerline in the Rolex arena for Training Level Test 2 followed immediately after by a demo ride which I will hopefully have planned out by then but also may just wing it because my mental exhaustion is still pretty high at this point! 🤣

We will also be competing in the Jockey Club's Thoroughbred Incentive Program Dressage Championships in Intro because YOLO🤣💁🏼‍♀️. We will be doing 2 tests and a halter class. The schedule for that is:

Friday 10/14
1:33 PM - Dressage test
2:45 PM - Halter Class

Saturday 10/15-
9:06 AM - Dressage Test

I welcome all visitors, especially those bearing adult beverages 🥂🤣 and Jackie and I are aiming to have the most fun and laid back barn environment in the entire HP so stop by Barn 6 (stall 47) and hang out!

I'm going to be volunteering as much as possible in my down time so if I'm not there when you stop by, that's likely where I'll be! Speaking of volunteering, this show is a monster to put on and any and all volunteer hours people can give are greatly appreciated. If you stop by to see Odin and I or just to watch the show for a bit, consider also volunteering for a few hours!

Odin felt great under saddle yesterday and while I certainly would have liked these past 3 weeks to be for polishing and fine tuning, such is life and at this point I'm just glad to be able to go at all (knock on wood). I'm super thankful for all the work we've put in throughout the year up until this point because without that foundation to fall back on next week, we likely would be scratching all together. Extra thankful for a horse that had a rough 3 weeks and came back happy as a clam and without missing much of a beat at all. It's been a journey to get there for sure.

One week until Makeover Move in!!

10/01/2022

Back behind these red ears for the first time in 3 weeks. Happy to report he felt 100% (maybe more like 110% 🥴🤣). Going to reassess tomorrow now that we've taken the edge off but 🤞🤞🤞. Rides times and stabling are up for The Makeover and we'll be riding Wednesday morning. As soon as I'm sure we're all systems go I'll share more details!

09/30/2022

Ok Team after a week in Sigafoos and popping a heel abscess 🥴, Odin is finally sound (and galloping celebratory laps around his field so seriously.... please pray for my sanity). The Makeover is still tentative at this point due to the late date but I want to get a few assessment rides in before making the call either way. Fingers crossed!🤞

09/26/2022

That look when the good drugs hit you 🤣. Welp we're sound on a straight line but not in a circle yet. Podiatrist was out this afternoon and we took x-rays. Thankfully nothing alarming or major, just thin soles which we already knew. He's hoof testing slightly positive in his heels and toe but nothing crazy. After discussing options and the timeline I made the decision to go ahead and put him in Sigafoos 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮. So here's hoping that makes the difference and we're back at it by the weekend. PEMF scheduled again for Wednesday and we are working very hard on our stretches. Keep sending all the good jingles our way. 🤞🤞

P.s- everyone who has been out to work on him in the past week+ has commented on what a cool horse he is which makes me cry every time because it's so true and as all my friends have reminded me daily, even if we don't make it to the Makeover I have a REALLY cool horse. 😭♥️

09/23/2022

Well we're still not 100% but Odin was all about the PEMF work this morning. Next call is to a podiatrist. His feet definitely feel better but I just want to make sure we're doing everything right. As suspected his shoulders and lower neck were very sore but responded well to the PEMF which was encouraging news. 19 days but who's counting? (It's me 🙋‍♀️, I'm counting. It's fine... everything is fine. Send bourbon 🥃🤣😭🥴🙃).

09/22/2022

Well, not the update I wanted to be making 20 days before the Makeover. 😟 I've officially scratched from what should have been our final prep show this weekend due to an unfortunate farrier enduced lameness 🥴. I'm trying not to panic but definitely feeling the stress. We've been dealing with it all week and luckily he's improved but not 100% so we're going to keep taking it easy. More body work is being done tomorrow to try and preserve the progress we've made over the past 10 months in his neck and shoulders. I've shed more than a few tears this week but luckily have a huge support system who are literally keeping me from the edge. Going to see how he is this weekend and if not much better I'll be calling in the big guns. On the bright side, im super happy with how he's looking and just have to stay positive at this point. Send all the good jingles our way and I'll keep you posted! 😭🤞

09/10/2022

Got our first look at the Kentucky Horse Park today at MSEDA's Dressage at the Park! Super impressed with how Odin handled the dressage complex at the Horse Park and even though that's not where we'll be showing for The Makeover I'm hoping it's a good indication of how he will handle the environment here in October. He also was happy to hang out in his stall all day which was one of the last big experiences I wanted him to have before The Makeover. He was a champ for his first braiding experience too! We definitely have room for lots of improvement in the tests themselves but today was just about the experience and I think we can call this one a huge win (Thank God because I really needed him to show up today for my Makeover mental preparedness 😂🙈). The next time we'll see these views will be at The Makeover next month. Crazy how fast time has gone.

08/26/2022

Sunsets with the best boy🌅😍. Worked on some of our homework from Linda tonight after a few days off. Definitely seeing progress which is exciting. We're entered for our recognized debut at MSEDA's Dressage at the Park on September 10. It will be a big step up but hoping a good experience at the Kentucky Horse Park will make for an even better experience during The Makeover. From now until Makeover time my schedule is insane with the Keeneland September sales starting right after MSEDA. So while we're still going to work on cleaning some issues up.... I'm mostly going to just enjoy our time and ride when I can. 😊

08/21/2022

Have to brag on this dude for a minute. This is going to be a long long but stick with me. We've had some really frustrating rides over the last month revolving around certain issues Odin always had just not resolving or progressing and in same cases getting worse. Our right side has been our nemesis since day one and especially at the canter we have really struggled. I've been working hard with our chiropractor and vet (we added acupuncture which Odin LOVED) to address these but ultimately the road block is deep seated issues he has and some holes in my riding preventing us from getting through it like we should. So going into the schooling show this weekend I just wanted to

1. Remember the test because this is still a nearly impossible task for me 😂🙃🙈 and
2. Focus on having rideability in the areas that we have more control over mainly our medium and free walk and left canter and trot circles. If we could get a few steps of stretchy trot even better.

Odin was very professional in warmup and the show was a lovely laid back atmosphere so we were both pretty relaxed when it came time for us to trot down center line. And let me tell you, it was hands down our most relaxed and rideable test to date. There is definitely room for improvement (essentially all our canter work 🥴) but Odin for the first time at a show gave the stretchy trot a real try and our final halt scored an 8 which was about as big a victory as you could ever give me because halting and downward transitions have been some of our biggest issues as Odin has a fondness for really bracing against your rein and hand. It scored a 66.7 which floored me (and was 8 pts better than our test at Champagne Run 🥴😂) but most importantly I felt like finally I was seeing major progress in our trouble areas.

Then today I had an already scheduled lesson with local dressage trainer Linda Strine. It was our first truly solo trip (Odin has traveled alone a lot now but I haven't taken him by myself anywhere yet) and let me tell you.....Odin was an absolute champ. If nothing else was accomplished this year, having a horse that wouldn't load on the trailer when I bought him in December and was anxious riding in the trailer by himself for the first few months turn into something that I can safely and without stress take places by myself would be the only victory I needed. 😭💪

Odin was great in the lesson and Linda was able to give us some good advice and exercises to work through our issues to the right. I'm excited to work on these at home and see if we can make more progress. Linda, who has done The Makeover before, and I had a long chat about how getting a horse from racing to dressage ring in essentially a year really is a huge task and it's for sure harder for some horses than others. I think the reason I get so frustrated with myself the past few months is that I see how cool a horse Odin is turning out to be but the progress isn't always as fast as I hope. Partly that's to do with me and partly it's his body still adjusting. Ultimately the goal of The Makeover is to get as far as you can by October and to show off what you can do best at the time and celebrate that. There are some really great moments under saddle and there are some not so good ones too. And that's probably how the Makeover test will go too. But when I think about the challenges this horse has overcome this year it actually makes me pretty emotional.

At the end of the day I somehow lucked into exactly the horse I said I wanted - something I can go and have fun with! How cool is that?!

I'm not sure how much training I'll get done in the final run up to the Makeover with the September sale quickly approaching but just as Jackie and I named our stabling group.... we're going to be "just happy to be here"!

08/03/2022

New blog for ABR is out!

Wherefore art thou, right lead? In my last blog post, I was planning to spend the next month charting out the third version of our show schedule and building on the lessons learned during the Dom Schramm clinic. However, as has become standard procedure on this journey, almost as soon as I hit submi...

08/02/2022

Welp, I guess it's really happening!!!!

07/26/2022

Sunday marked one year since Odin's last race! He celebrated by pulling a shoe 🥴🙃🙈. We were supposed to show on Saturday but depending on the farrier schedule we may be reworking that plan. Regardless I think he's taking to his new job so well and I can't wait to see where we are in another years time!

07/15/2022

For those of you following along with the blogs, you know that our recognized dressage show goals have been put on hold temporarily. That means we're onto version 3 of the show season calendar! 🤣 So today I entered not one, but two, shows (WHO AM I EVEN?!) ....the first being Horse Aid Live on July 30th where we'll be doing Intro C and Training 2 dressage tests. This is our first attempt at test that involves canter at a show and will be only our 2nd show. I'm not going into it planning for Training 2 to be anywhere near perfect but rather a way for us to take a crack at it in a public/show environment so we know more of what we need to work on at home.

So considering all that, i've also entered Champagne Run's Mini Trial/Dressage show on August 14th where I plan to take a proper crack at Training 2 (hopefully applying all the improvements we make after the July 30 show).

Beyond those dates I don't have much of a solid plan yet. Ill see how we get through Horse Aid Live on the 30th and then go from there!

The TB Makeover is only 3 months away, how is that possible? I toggle between feeling totally prepared and totally unprepared almost daily but hoping that in getting out this summer and going as many of these little shows as possible, I will start leaning more towards the prepared side more consistently.

07/12/2022

Check out the newest blog post for America's Best Racing!

After Oak Hill (Odin) and my first show, I sat down to look at the schedule of local shows and map out a path that concluded with the Thoroughbred Makeover in October.

06/20/2022

Clinic recap!

When I signed up to ride in a clinic with a 5* rider I made it clear that we weren't really jumping and was smartly encouraged by just about everyone I know who has ridden with Dom Schramm before to still go for it. So off we went with zero expectations and absolutely no clue what to expect. Day 1 was admittedly rough. It was pretty evident early on that my idea of "not really jumping" and everyone else's was not the same. After we struggled with even the most basic exercises Dom quickly adjusted them to allow us to actually learn the basics that we clearly didn't know yet. Once Odin sorted out that FORWARD was the answer he really started to actually try. Unfortunately, our lesson coincided with the WICKED storm that blew into central KY on Friday and so we had to abruptly end and take shelter. On the plus side, I now know what I can safely trot Odin up a road in pouring rain and major winds and dodge into an unfamiliar barn without issue so I'm sure that is a skill that will serve us in the future 😂. Day 2 was beautiful weather but I honestly had no idea what to expect. To be honest, im not sure Dom did either and I think Odin genuinely shocked both of us by showing up Day 2 and proving that he had learned so much on day 1 and was brave, consistent, and willing. We had no refusals on Day 2 and Odin was confidently taking me to jumps and listening well to my aids at the ones he was more unsure of. The result was jumping some little skinny vertical lines, a fun diamond exercise, and our first ever full course. I wasn't sure the jumping would come back to me and I definitely have a lot of work to do on my timing and position but I had so much fun at the end of the day and I think Odin did too! Not sure how much jumping we will be doing this year but am really excited to have some great new exercises to incorporate into our flat work. Very glad that I had so many people in my camp to gently push me out of my comfort zone so that this weekend growth was possible! Maybe there is some Eventing and Jumper shows in our future after all!

https://youtu.be/zbuTPJarhVE

06/18/2022

Had such a great time at the Dom Schramm Clinic- Lexington KY Presented by Vetoquinol Equine clinic! Will elaborate more next week after I sleep for 36293739273 hrs because I am exhausted 🤣🤣🤣.

06/13/2022

We're taking a big step out of my comfort zone this weekend and riding in a 2 day clinic with 5* Eventer Dom Schramm. I haven't done a ton of jumping with Odin (the occasional x-rail) so we're doing the babiest of levels but I am really looking forward to a weekend of learning and challenging myself and Odin! Stay tunned!

06/07/2022

New blog post for America's Best Racing just posted! Check it out!

https://www.americasbestracing.net/lifestyle/2022-thoroughbred-makeover-diary-the-process-vital-path-win-odin

When I set out to write the blog for this month, I had a lot of ways that I thought it would go – focusing on the show Odin and I did and the good and bad takeaways. While I definitely want to do that, I’ve seen so many other Thoroughbred Makeover trainers posting about their experiences back in...

06/02/2022

A bit of a frustrating ride tonight as we work through some baby attitude things but I think he's got this whole self loading thing down at least!!! 💪💪

05/29/2022

Finally broke down and bought a dressage saddle which didn't come with a tiara 👑 sooooo I feel like I've been mislead about the whole Dressage Queen thing BUT.....what I wasn't mislead about was this giant red horse who was 😍😍😍😍😍😍 today during our first ride in the aforementioned new dressage saddle. Honestly couldn't be more thrilled with him. I'm having some anxiety/back pain issues that are causing canter work to be more complicated than I imagined but I'm going to work hard to overcome those issues in the coming weeks! Looking forward to our first real dressage show.

Edit: He then self loaded to go home! 😭❤️😭❤️😭 A+ for the redhead today!

05/23/2022

Odin had a great adjustment today with the chiropractor who gave us the all clear to start really applying more pressure under saddle. I have been opting to take things really slow and steady as we sorted out his body better but today he adjusted so well that it's time to start turning up the training! Excited to meet this milestone that we've been working towards since January! The plan right now is to do one more show in June but spend the month really working on our canter work with the goal of competing in the Summer Classic Kentucky Dressage Association show on July 8/9 🤞.

05/16/2022

Warm up for "jumping" was definitely more chaotic and busy than for dressage and Odin had a few tense baby moments that probably would have made me panic had I not had good friends standing around and being super encouraging and also answering all my questions because I apparently forgot everything about horse showing 🤣🙈. My plan was actually to walk this course because I was being a big chicken but when we got in the arena Odin said he needed to move his feet a little faster to help deal with his nerves so that's what we did. He was literally foot perfect, don't know what I was worried about at all. I'm not sure we will be doing anything much bigger than cross rails for the foreseeable future but I'm looking forward to adding more cavaletti work into our training! Couldn't be more happy with my big red horse after this weekend and looking forward to the next show!

05/16/2022

There are definitely things we can improve on this test but at the end of the day I'm so happy with how Odin tried hard in a challenging environment to put in a respectable first dressage test. Warmup was in a grass field and he handled that environment so beautifully and warmed up so relaxed and rideable. The arena for the test was an indoor he's never seen before and due to the size we didn't have room to go around the ring like you usually do so it really was a lot of firsts happening at once. Additionally the judge rang the bell really soon after I entered so I panicked a bit and didn't really get him together enough before trotting down centerline. He was definitely more tense and nervous in the indoor and the open windows were a lot of distractions to cope with but ultimately he did everything I asked and even handled a moment where a horse in the connecting barn screamed and kicked the wall just as we were turning down center line to finish (turn the volume up to hear it 🤣). We scored a 34.1 and the judges comments were about what I expected about needing to work on connection more but said Odin had "potential" which definitely made me smile. Definitely a huge weight off my shoulders to have this first test under our belt. Looking forward to improving for the next one!

05/15/2022

I just had to take a video because I couldn't believe how cool, calm, and collected Odin was at the trailer all day. Started out with some expected nerves (I mean, sameeeee 🤣) but settled right in and watched horses walk past him going to and from the arenas all day like a seasoned pro. I've never actually owned a horse that is pleasant to be around at shows and relaxes enough that I can actually hang out and relax too. Maybe horse shows are fun after all 🤣.

05/14/2022

Videos and a longer post later but we did it! Odin was so great! Very proud of us today!!!

05/14/2022

Welp trailer is packed, tack is somewhat clean, horse will hopefully be clean in the morning at the crack a dawn when I get to the barn 🙃, and final prep ride is done. Had a pretty rough ride 2 days ago, took yesterday off to breathe, but super happy after our ride tonight. If we can do anything close to this tomorrow I'll be so happy. Now let's all 🤞hope I can remember the test when the bell rings. 🤣🥴

05/11/2022

Another America's Best Racing blog is up focusing on the physical aspects of training that we've been tackling over the past 5+ months!

https://www.americasbestracing.net/lifestyle/2022-thoroughbred-makeover-diary-huge-milestone-training-process-odin

It’s no secret that Thoroughbreds retiring from the track often have a variety of things that need to be addressed before they are really ready, both mentally and physically, to take on a new career. The degree to which an owner and trainer has to address these things differs wildly from horse to ...

05/10/2022

Ride times are up for our first baby show on Saturday! I have no idea what to expect and honestly, I am just hoping I can remember the dressage test 🥴. Only way to get better (both him and me) is to go and do it so stay tuned!

05/02/2022

Some screenshots from our last lesson. Usually I like just posting the videos because it tells a more realistic story but had to share these! He's starting to look like a real Dressage horse. Excited for our first show in 12 days and counting!