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June 4, 2024
Ep 25: Uncovering those 'Diamond in the Rough' OTTBs with Chelsey O'Brien
Join us for another installment of our OTTB on Tap - Retired Racehorse collaboration! In this episode, we chat with Virginia-based trainer, Chelsey O’Brien, about her 2024 RRP Makeover horse, Unbeknownst to Me, or “UBie” as he is known in the barn. UBie raced 15 times and earned a little over $71,000 as a racehorse. He’s owned and sponsored for the RRP Makeover by Pastured Place, a 501(c)(3) providing retirement, rehabilitation, retraining, and rehoming to Thoroughbreds.
In this episode, Chelsey reveals that they often look to place OTTBs that may be otherwise overlooked for adoption with trainers for the Makeover. Learn about how she connected with UBie, his strengths and weaknesses, and her philosophy on retraining OTTBs. She is pointing UBie towards barrels and western dressage for the Makeover.
Learn more about Chelsey’s journey to the 2024 RRP Makeover and follow along our OTTB on Tap – Retired Racehorse Project collaboration series at https://ottbontap.com/24-rrp-makeover
Past episodes of the OTTB on Tap & Retired Racehorse Project Collaboration – RRP Trainer Chronicles Series:
Ep 14: RRP Trainer Chronicles: Where the Journey to Greatness Begins
Ep 20: First Steps with Annika: Restarting Former OTTB Broodmares
Ep 21: Lauren Garrett-Bond's Holistic Approach to Restarting Her OTTB Mare, Tizbit
Ep 24: OTTB Training as a Team: Julianne & Ashley Work Together Toward the RRP Makeover
Notes:
Learn more and donate to Pastured Place https://pasturedplace.org/
Jockey Club Thoroughbred Connect (must log in/sign up for an account): https://www.registry.jockeyclub.com/registry.cfm?page=thoroughbredConnect
Learn more about the Retired Racehorse Project
Chelsey O’Brien
Horse trainer
Chelsey O’Brien is a self professed OTTB lover. She started riding at the age of 5 in Massachusetts and grew up as the guinea pig/crash test dummy for all kinds of horses primarily in the hunter jumper realm. As a teen, she helped to restart dozens of OTTBs and helped and boarded at a farm that did layups, rehabs, restarts and resales where she learned about the bigger aspects of horses, not just riding. This led to purchasing her own project at 16 to bring along alone that further cemented her love and devotion to the thoroughbred.
After a bad riding accident causing serious concussion during an IHSA show in college that left doctors telling her she should never ride again, Chelsey took time off only to find a life without horses was not one for her. What better way to come back into a year off of riding by going to Suffolk downs and buying one three days off the races? This horse, who was purchased for what looked like a fabulous conformation for the hunters, quickly showed her ineptitude for that discipline which had Chelsey seeking to get creative to find what set her mare’s heart on fire. By chance, she tried barrel racing and that was the ticket.
While training this horse for barrel racing, Chelsey also worked at a thoroughbred breeding farm in Southern Indiana, where she furthered her education of proper husbandry, foaling, handling, and large scale operations while helping with over 100 mares in foal, foals, weanlings, yearlings, in the breeding shed and daily care. She headed home to New England with that experience and a few more OTTBs and st… Read More
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