2019 Is Off To A (Not) Racing Start

Well, I thought the big news for New Year's Day was going to be something fun I'm going to try with the Wool House this year, but it turns out the big news is we got a new horse!

Being without a horse this past year has been...so...(insert so many words).  Robin helped me clean all my tack for my birthday when she was here in August and it was a Job as I hadn't even been in the tack room all year and everything was molded and...so sad.

I had several kind people offer me horses throughout the year, but I knew the only horses I'd be willing to try on our rich grass were Thoroughbreds...and I am not a Thoroughbred person.  They are beautiful and versatile and talented...and, as a whole, way more horse than I would ever feel comfortable with.  I'd accepted that my horse days were over until a carriage driving friend asked if I'd considered a Standardbred.  

Um...no...I hadn't.  

I honestly didn't really know anything about Standardbreds other than seeing them pulling Amish buggies around town and that a girl I groomed Saddlebreds with many years ago told stories about jumping on and riding them around the backside of the tracks in the afternoons when they weren't racing.  

I talked to our vet and a friend who has handled Standardbreds, did some research online and found the Standardbred Retirement Foundation and New Vocations, a race horse (Thoroughbreds and Standardbreds) adoption program.  The SRF had several nice sounding possibilities, but they were all in NY and NJ.  New Vocations has a Standardbred facility much closer, in Ohio, and they had a couple strong candidates as well.  

With high hopes, but no expectations, we hooked up the trailer yesterday and headed north to check out a couple horses we'd been approved to adopt.  I was extremely impressed with all the horses we looked at, the knowledge the manager had of each horse, the talented rider who came in to show the horses...and the breed in general.  Without further ado...meet Frankie's Rockstar :-).

Frankie is a three and a half year old gelding who has had some soundness issues and was not going to make it as a race horse.  Apparently the groom who cared for him throughout thought enough of him that she bought him herself so she could send him to New Vocations in hopes he'd find a safe pleasure horse home, not pulling an Amish buggy or...

Frankie walked right into the trailer and rode like a trooper all the way home in the horrible rain and wind yesterday afternoon.  We got home in the dark, but he quietly backed off the trailer and walked right into the barn full of sheep.  We got him set up in one of the outside stalls and while he was obviously scared and missing his buddies, he handled his first night here like a...rock star :-).

Because the weather in Ohio has been as wet as here, he hadn't been turned out for a good while.  I turned him out in the arena this morning rather than the big field.  He skipped around for few minutes but then settled right down.  After about 45 minutes I brought him back to the barn, brushed him, trimmed his bridle path, took him outside to hose his muddy legs off and put him back in his stall.  He was a complete gentleman.

Now keep in mind that even though he IS very well mannered, he's honestly just a baby, even more so because of the time off he had due to his leg injury.  We have plenty of ground work to do before we can safely ride or drive off into the setting sun ;-).  That being said, I'm very excited to start the new year with a horse again.  The relationship you have with a horse is something so different than any other.  

And while Frankie is puzzling things out... ;-)