S2 E10: OTTB Training Diaries: Go Green (Oscar)'s Journey Kicks Off with December Progress

Transcript - S2 E10: OTTB Training Diaries: Go Green (Oscar)'s Journey Kicks Off with December Progress
[00:00:00]
I don't know. Anyway, anyways, how was your day? He was really good. I just brought him up and just groomed him and stuff. And. I don't know, man. The brain on that horse is I don't know what I'm waiting for necessarily, but he just okay, there she is. I'll come up the icy driveway and stand quietly while I pull off your two blankets and be groomed with the, Air blowing up your butt, yeah. I don't know. I'm, I just feel very lucky every time I work with him. Cause he just likes being around me, like likes interacting and doesn't seem to like, you're like, what is this? I know I'm like, I feel very lucky. I'm just, winter sucks and it's impossible to get anything done.
But if all I'm getting done is. Confirming my relationship with him. That's still something. Yeah, I before this latest cold snap on like the windiest day in the world. I decided to fly my baby horse kite into the barn and put on her heavy for the first time ever and it was so cold. Her heavy was like hanging up on the wall.
And it was like frozen. It was crinkling. Oh no. Like it was like snap, crackle pop cause it's just crispy. Cause she'd never, I'd put it on her to try it on, but I don't know if froze or something. And I was like, I might. Die getting this on her. And actually it was fine, but I was just thinking I'll just go real bad.
Oh, and I also feel because you're so cold and it's, you're wearing like 6, 000 layers, like doing anything is like impossible, right? So I was like, don't step on my foot because my foot, it's just going to fall off. But we were talking about that today. I was like, this is the time of year where it's always annoying when they step on you, but like in the cold, but I was trying to put his two blankets back on.
So I've got the first one on and then I go to put the second one on and I do this big motion. I'm going to heave it all the way over the top of him and I'm standing on the end of it. So I basically almost pulled it out from underneath of myself and fell underneath of him. Yeah. Anyway, let's start this thing. Hi, everyone, and welcome back to OTTB OnTap. I'm Nev. And I'm Emily. Hey, Nev. What's on tap today? Today, we're talking all about Go Green's December progress.
It's been an exciting month with a lot of new milestones, and I can't wait to share all the details. Before we get into the specifics, why don't you give us a quick recap? What were the major highlights from November? Take care. And how did they set the stage for this month? So he arrived mid November, actually November 15th to be exact.
And we let him settle into life at castle rock farm. He's been really flat footed about everything, including in the first week that he was on the farm, the local Fox hunt, which leaves from. Basically the bottom of our property came by twice. So baptism by fire, yeah. Hope you like it. Now he just thinks it's normal.
He doesn't know any different. Yeah, exactly. And what's neat is that he's down in the bottom barn, which is, Horses that are always closest to the activity. And I actually think that those horses don't care at all. Even the babies, like they're like there goes the Fox hunt. Yeah, actually, maybe that's why Lexi's pretty good about it.
Cause she's seen it since day one. Yeah, that's a good point. Follow us for more pro tips, but just for November, we focused on groundwork building his confidence in the basic things like learning to stand on the cross ties outside. He had his first ferry appointment, so he got his race plates back.
Pulled and initial assessment by my farrier also the day that the farrier was there and they brought him in to get his race plates off. The fox hunt came through as he was being shot the first time. So that was fun. And I just did a couple of first rides to just assess if I thought he was going to be a good candidate for the RRP.
Following the guideline of allowed rides before December 1st, I think I sat on them twice before December 1st. Fitted him for a bridal tried some of my tack on he is very close to. Gem, my event horses size. So he's been sharing blankets and things like that, but he's got his own bridal.
And unfortunately my beautiful new Albion saddle does not fit him whatsoever. So we're on the hunt to find something just to get us through it while he builds his top line. And then we'll go from there. Always fun. The quest for the saddle fit on a rapidly changing back.
Let's talk training goals for December then. What were you hoping to achieve with Oscar in the month of December now that training's officially open for the RRP horses? Yeah, I was really excited when December 1st came around because I felt like, all right, let's get into it. And then we had a late Thanksgiving this year.
So Thanksgiving happened and then it was my birthday, right? And then it was my birthday and then it was your birthday and then it was Christmas. And I. Get really busy with my portrait work this time of year. So I was finishing up a lot of client stuff, making sure I was meeting deadlines so that they could get their Christmas cards out.
It's also the busiest time of year for my job in the city. And then, you've got Christmas party invites all the time. So while I was really excited that we had what was looking to be a mild December, I was also just burning the candle at both ends, both socially and work wise. But yeah I just want to get, a couple of proper first rides on him and install some of the basics. And how did that go? What do you mean when you say basics, Neve? Hold on, I gotta pull up my soapbox. I'm just kidding. Oh boy. Wine, please! I know, we're recording at 4.
15 and I'm like, is this early for happy [00:06:00] hour? It is Friday. I think one of the things that we can all get lured into, especially when the weather gets cold and the horses are a bit more up is rushing through things to get to our goal for the day. And I did those first couple of assessment rides in November, but I wanted to slow things way down, which.
I'm talking about slowing things way down from getting on him and walking and trotting him. Really slowing things down. Just so that I wasn't skipping steps and rushing anything. And I mean taking it down to a microscopic level. As in every time I'm interacting with him, making my moments really intentional.
So that's. As soon as I touch him, get him from his field or get him from his stall. So I've been following the TRT method for a couple of months. And I think it's just such an incredible extension of the groundwork that I already knew, and it's teaching me a lot of things. New ideas and even a more precise way of communicating with the horse and how to help emotionally regulate a horse.
It's eyeopening. And so I work with him in a rope halter over his leather halter. And it's got like a long, heavy lead rope, just your typical, natural horsemanship halter. My. Rope halter has four little tiny knots on it. And that's my personal preference of how I like to work with young horses is I like that.
I think most thoroughbreds respect a chain as well. And I think it's whatever you want to use is, cause it's fine for you. But I dunno, I think with a rope halter, you have better timing with any corrections and your release is better timed in a way. Is it you're never hitting that point of super tightness with a chain or a cotton lead rope where they have to really get to the end of it before they understand what you're asking them for. Yeah, I feel like it's as effective, if not more effective than a chain in like normal circumstances. Yeah. To be quite honest. Yeah, and I think since adapting to one like several years ago with one of my Thoroughbreds, like I've never looked back.
I just always grab it as a tool because when it's just on the horse and you just have the weight of the lead rope, like you don't have to do anything. It's just there and when you need it, it's right there too. So by basics, I just mean. Proper leading, stopping when I want the horse to stop, like respecting my space.
If I walk slow, I want the horse to walk slow with me. If I walk quickly, I want the horse to, walk quickly with me. So he is down below in our, at our barn and it's a pretty long hill. Uphill, and so I just even do stuff going to and from his paddock just to reinforce stuff where, we're going back to his paddock.
I might stop five times on the way down just to reinforce yes, you're done, but also you can still listen to me. And then, teaching him about being on the cross ties. So our cross ties are out outside and they're very challenging. I think to work with they can see everything.
Yeah. At least , there's a rail behind them, which is if you've never crossed tied your off track thoroughbred before, they generally have not been crossed tied. Or you should assume that they have not been cross tied and make sure that you introduce them to it slowly and generally it's nice.
If they have something behind them, like a solid wall or a rail. So that way, if they run backwards they're less likely to because there's something behind them, but also that they can't just break the crosshairs and go running out in the countryside because that's never happened to me. Or me. And it's a good point too, because I think a lot of times when you deal with trainers at the track, they'll say, Oh yeah, he ties and this and that.
And really what they mean is that the horse ties to a single tie in the stall and is tacked up that way. Okay. Usually with a hay net nearby yeah, so that can be a big one. And where our cross ties are, there can be horses coming and going behind them. Like I said, they can see everything.
And so he's been pretty good on the cross ties, but then you have to up the Annie by putting horses on either side of him. And then sometimes the horses come and go and. I like to try to make it so they don't have a chance to fail if possible. I think thoroughbreds especially are just incredibly clever.
They understand when you do things by repetition really well. And so I think that if you never let, it's what I was talking about with the TRT method has this kind of theory that if you never let the horse get into fight or flight mode. You have more control over their emotional regulation and that's going to make me sound a little touchy feely, but I'd rather anticipate that the horse is going to do something worrisome on the cross ties and unhook one of the ties before letting them hit the ties and then see what happens.
Inevitably they're going to hit the ties at some, something's going to scare them and they're going to do it. But at the same time I think you can do a lot to set them up for success in that way. Yeah. Yeah. But so just walking away from them, Oh, I forgot something in my tack trunk.
I forgot something in the tack room. Can I safely walk away from him and know that he can handle life by himself for a minute? And when you are starting off, you can have a helper there or just another set of eyes and just say Hey, I'm just running to the tack room.
Keep an eye on him. So yeah that kind of stuff. And then it's such basic stuff. We're talking about the real basic basics here, but they're so important and it's stuff like this that you don't really think about when you're getting a new horse until you're like, Oh, crap, has no idea what I'm trying to do with it here.
And why is that? Yeah. Because it knows a different language. Yes. Still knows how to horse, but just a little bit differently. Yeah. Yeah. And you just, I don't know, for me, I'm alone at the barn a lot. And so I think by skipping these steps, you end up with a horse that doesn't know [00:12:00] how to control themselves without you restricting them in some ways.
And that can be . Dangerous is the wrong word, but that can be a false sense of security because the horses always had someone being like no, you have to stay right there. I'm holding you, and it's just a lot of reinforcement, a lot of just constant reinforcement of if he steps forward too much on the cross ties and he's hitting the end of the tie, I just, push on his shoulder and ask him to take a couple of steps back and just continue what I'm doing.
It doesn't have to be a big deal. But it's just that constant repetition of here's the right place. Here's where I'd like you to stand, you know? And then another thing I think that's a really good point to make for these horses coming off the track is that they're groomed probably in a different way at the track.
I think each track probably has a different methodology when it comes to this. So don't be surprised when you get the horse home and it really does not like being curried or, some of them really like it, again, your mileage may vary, but I find that they can be a little bit sensitive to grooming initially and Some of that is just because of how they're used to being groomed.
And some of it's just body soreness, they just came off the track. Their body was used to eating one thing, doing one thing, and now you've changed everything. So I'm sure that they just want to crawl out of their skin a little bit. Yeah. They oftentimes just don't have any sort of a coat.
So they're very kind of thin skinned and just sensitive. And sometimes that never changes. Yeah. They don't love being groomed. Yeah. Soft brushes. Yeah, exactly. And I just find that the best thing you can do is even if it's just one brush that they really like with strangely, Oscar is a little bit sensitive for grooming.
But I bought this really stiff mud brush and he loves it. And I think that that would be the worst brush to use on him. And he actually really likes it. But it's also like a nice way to get to know your horse a little bit. If you find after a month or two that they're still really sensitive in a particular area, that might be a good indication that.
Maybe there's a little residual soreness there and you might want to have your vet or body worker take a look or whatever Another thing. I'm big on is I have been the person to hold horses for the farrier for hours and hours and hours So I really Want my horse to respect Somebody working underneath of them.
So at the track sometimes they're had their feet picked out a little bit of a different way. They might pick out both feet from the same side, et cetera. I just try to make it really methodical. I try to encourage them to allow me to hold their foot up and.
Just basic stuff like, don't pull your foot away from me because the farrier's not going to like that. I've also don't know if you've ever, you or our listeners have ever seen a horse shod at the track, but it's way faster. It's like a pit crew. Way faster than what a typical sport horse farrier does.
And they don't know how to get steel shoes burned onto them. So that's a scary thing. Your farrier will never be upset with you for reinforcing the basics of holding their foot up because, actually this is a great point because when he first arrived, he had his four racing plates on and he was walking out of his back shoes and lo and behold, he sprung One of his hind shoes, just enough that the clip was in a area where he could have stepped on it and that would have been a real pain in the butt to deal with.
Yeah. So my bar manager has, a basic set of farrier tools, like a nail grabber and a where are the technical terms? It's a nail grabber and a who's he, what's it? I don't know. She's got one of the things, one of the little pliers. You're like, I wish this was a video because she's making she's making lobster pinchers with her.
She is. Anyways, she has some basic tools, it took the two of With our very rudimentary knowledge of how to get this shoe off, with this, he was right off the track. We had to get him to hold his foot up while the two of us just fumbled around back there and, thank goodness we got the damn thing off.
But also her son's a farrier. So how does she not know how to pull off a shoe? I don't know. I was like, you're going to have to do it. And she's just I don't, I'm not very good at this. And I'm just like, I don't see how that can be an excuse. I don't know. It's probably why, because he usually does it.
Yes. Yeah. So just even in that experience, I was like here we go. Jason, we're looking at you. Yeah. So yeah, just, basic stuff like that. And then what else did I do with him?. I just taught him to lunge in both directions at the walk, trot and canter. He also stands quietly at the mounting block to get on without a ground person, which is awesome. Not from the beginning, though. Not from the beginning. So we worked towards that.
Yeah. Honestly, he probably would have been okay to get on, but I think it's always safer for the first couple of rides to have a really good ground person and clipped on the end of the lead rope, because you. Just don't know. It's nice to have a smaller enclosure, like a round pen too.
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Ask us how we know. Oh, we free jumped him one day and he was really cute about that. He's quite brave. And he learned about ground poles and he's done a little bit of work in a neck stretcher and seems to very much enjoy stretching his nose down to the ground.
That's good, because he's built and goes with his head straight up in the air. Yeah. Teaching him to stretch over his back and use himself, I think is going to be a major unlock for him. Yes. And how is the actual tacking up and bridling going. Oh yeah. So I would say the trickiest thing with him right now is bridling him.
And part of that is because I've never met a horse like this in my life. He wants you to scratch his face all the time. [00:18:00] He's very itchy, but when you take his bridle off, I can take the stiffest curry I have and he will just rub his whole face all over it. It's very cute, but when you're trying to bridle him and he's swinging his head around like a wrecking ball and then because his head is straight up in the air, when he decides he wants to get very tall, I can barely reach him.
And he's only 15 and three, but gets that head up and he might as well be a percheron. So we're working with that. I think he's improving
mostly it's me clinging to his face and being like just hold on a second I'll try to sneak some blooper reels of Neve trying to get a bridle on this for it's cute it's not all fun and games like I said we're having some saddle woes right now, but we'll get that sorted out soon. Yeah, so he's got such a big personality.
Can you tell us a little bit about his quirks and how they've gone this month? Yeah, , he's got a really endearing personality. I think he's got a very special eye, like you notice them in a crowd of horses. Cause he's just got this look on his face. He comes to me in the field, which that never gets old.
Come on guys. Emily can tell you her baby horse will gallop up to her and it's And then one day they don't, though, and that is heartbreaking.
She's been on a little bit of a break, so now she's doing it again, but we went through a little phase where she'll whinny, and then she's no, you can come over here. So her horse's field and my event horse's field are like side by side. And my horse will make me come.
All the way to the end of the field. And he knows I have a pocket full of treats. He doesn't care. And then I'll see her and she'll just call her horse over and she whinnies and comes galloping up. And I'm like, that's nice. It's the one thing I've trained her to do. It's very cute. The only thing.
He's a funny personality. Cause I find him to be very sweet, but man, I've never met a horse that can turn on a dime like he does. When he gets grumpy or grouchy, we were in the ring one day and we had a friend there with us a little paint horse with us. And we were trying to take a nice photo of the two of them next to each other.
And then one of the outtakes, Oscar just has his ears flat back. Yeah, it's just like such a Jekyll and Hyde kind of thing. I mentioned that he likes having his face scratched a lot. Oh, this is like the cutest thing. I probably won't think it's cute when I get knocked down for it and dressage, but he sticks just the very front of his tongue in between his teeth and it reminds me of Charlie Brown or something trying to concentrate with his
tongue, sticking out a little bit. It is really cute. It's very cute. I'm hopeful it won't get you knocked down, marked down. There we go. That's the word. Cause he's not flipping his tongue over and putting out the side of his mouth. No. It's maybe not even noticeable .
If you're on the far side of the dressage ring, , you can see it from the front sometimes, I think, but but he's also very quiet with his mouth when you ride him. So he's concentrating and he's got to hold his little tongue like that is really cute.
I haven't been able to get a good picture of it, but. Yeah, maybe tomorrow. All right. Next up, let's talk about his management. Any updates on his health and nutrition? Yeah. Obviously I'm not sure what he was eating at the track, but I assume it was some high octane feed. So yeah, he gets as a regular part of being at our farm, Purina impact with gastric support and then I learned with my last thoroughbred to really embrace the tribute series of feeds, but I just use them as a top dressing.
My old horse was, he wasn't a hard keeper. He was just a big horse that took a lot of. Management when it came to making sure he had enough, calories for the energy that he was exerting and things like that. You always wanted to stay a little ahead of the curve in terms of his weight and stuff like that, just to make sure he had enough that he could burn it off and not look thin or whatever, with Oscar, I'm using tribute, calm and easy.
And then tribute K finish they're just high fat, high protein no sugar. And I find that they just help coat and they just keep the horse looking good, honestly. You did get him at probably one of the hardest times of the year to get a thoroughbred, right? Right before it got.
Super cold. So not only are you dealing with all of the changes that he's going through, but also just it's cold and they're going to burn a lot more calories. And yeah, they do burn a lot of calories just trying to stay warm. And we're very lucky at our farm. They have basically free choice hay. At all times.
He also gets some you seven added as well for extra gut support. And then with him, and I did this with my last thoroughbred as well, but I When I bring him into work with him, I soak alfalfa pellets and then this sort of chopped hay product called triple crown stress free fortified forage.
And he gets a little mash of that when he comes in. And I just think that. They've had so many changes going on in their lives. It's a nice way to just coat the lining of their stomach before you ask them to do anything. And I'll do that even if he's just coming in to be groomed or anything like that, just as a part of our routine.
And he gets a little treat before we do any work. So yeah. Yeah. I think that's a good practice. I always particularly with thoroughbreds, but I don't like to just bring them in from the field and put them on cross size and start tacking them up. I think they really appreciate coming in, have a pee first of all.
and have a little bite to eat. Whether they're ulcery or not, it can't hurt. Plus it makes them happy to come in because they know they're going to get something. It just sets you off. I feel on A better note than just dragging them in from the field and throwing them on the [00:24:00] crosshairs and throwing a saddle on their back.
It takes a little extra time, right? Yeah. I've just built it into when I get there, I soak the feed for him and then I go get him. And then while he's eating that, I get all my things out and and what's nice about it too, is that he has to come in to a different barn and a different stall and just be by himself, which I think is another, just good practice, and then speaking of being by himself, he got his first turnout buddy. So he's out with another thoroughbred who may be going back to the track soon. So he'll probably get a couple of new friends soon, but his friend is quite attached to him. He is not attached to his friend, which is nice.
Sometimes they get their first friend and they're haven't had friends in years. And I'm not leaving them. Yeah. Instant besties. Instant besties. It does happen. So something to think about. Yeah. Sometimes it's nice if you can have three in a field for sure. Being that the other horse was just on a little bit of a break from racing.
And we'll be leaving soon. It's not as much of an issue, but it can sometimes be an issue if the other horse is somebody's. Riding horse and then the horse is getting worried and anxious and again, it's just stable management stuff You just have to keep an eye out for sure. So moving on to our next little phase here Horses always have a way of surprising us in real life situations.
Did oscar have any memorable moments this month? I think we've talked about how he has this very upright head carriage and he had this huge underneck muscle You Actually, I was noticing today, he looks a little weedy right now, cause he's just lost all of his condition. Yeah. But I was mentioning to my barn manager look at his neck.
He's let go of that under neck muscle. Oh, that's good. So it's he's got this pencil neck right now, but at least he doesn't have this bulging under neck muscle anymore. But so one of the things I I taught him actually through. TRT is to help release the tension in his neck. And so it was just this you can do it on any horse and there's a whole bunch of different ways to do it, but basically finding a piece of tension in the part of the body that you're trying to release the tension in.
And then you hold. into the tension harder and then you let it go is the second the horse wants to give and so He's taught himself now that when he gets tense and the head goes up I can almost just touch his neck now and he'll just do it. I don't even have to do anything but I started doing it on different parts of his body and what's been cool is that sometimes I'll work with him when the horses are coming in from their field, it's dinner time or there's a lot going on.
I think that's a really good opportunity to reinforce cues like that, where you've done it in a quiet place. Now let's up the ante a little bit and see if we can do it when you're really alert, and then. What's been really cool is that I started to teach him to do it under saddle where I just put a little bit of pressure just in front of the withers and it was really cool because you saw me one day doing it and you were like, yeah, I'm like, what are you doing?
But it's night and day he goes from giraffe to calm and you can see his whole eyes soften to lick and chew. It was like he was holding in a big breath and then he just suddenly let it out. That's really cool. And I guess you learn something new all the time, right?
Yeah. I never would have thought of that as a cue to get a horse to lower their head, but it's wild. It's really interesting. Yeah. So let's tie this back to the bigger picture, the retired resource project makeover, which takes place in October of this year how did the December work align with your preparation for that event? In a perfect world, it wouldn't be 20 degrees and there wouldn't be snow on the ground. And I'd be It would've been rough. I'd be riding him up to the ring and walk trot cantering but it's just been so hard to piece together a couple of days in a row to really make that happen.
And again, I don't see the sense in rushing him. I know he can walk trot canter. That's not a problem. But we have conquered writing to and from the ring, which has been cool. We've had some nice walk, trot rides where he's shown me some glimmers of brilliance, I think. And then we've just been doing some slightly more complicated work in the round pen that you've actually been helping me with to help.
install better steering aids and some reinforcement of stop and go and things like that. Yeah, we actually have some videos of that work that hopefully we will be releasing as well So you guys can check it out just some different cues about how to think about Everyone talks about the half halt, but how do you actually teach a horse to learn how to do it and how do you get the feel as a rider to learn how to do it?
So we have some tips for you there. And also steering, when you got on something that has no steering and it's like a wet noodle, what do you do? Yeah. It can be a little bit disconcerting, especially if you're not riding. Off track thoroughbreds day in, day out, or on track thoroughbreds.
Yeah, no, exactly. And it's tough too. We were actually making this point the other day. When you're riding a horse that doesn't have great steering, the best thing you can do is ride them forward, but it's very difficult to ride them forward if you can't trust the steering, right? And then if you're in a round pen.
It's hard to make that you're in a safe place, but it's harder to get them going forward because they're always turning. So you're running around in circles. That pun was not intended, but yeah. No, I think slowing everything down, particularly when the ground is partially or maybe totally frozen or let's say it's super hot.
And in summertime, there's a lot that you can do without actually going. At speed to set yourself up for success when you get there. Yeah, for sure. And I think there's a really nice horse in there and I'm just really excited to help bring him along. He's [00:30:00] okay. It's all right.
So do you have any benchmarks or timelines that you're aiming for in the upcoming months? Like we were just saying, I think you've just really helped me appreciate the milestones that. We've accomplished so far. Sometimes you'll just look at me and you're like, you did great today.
And I'm like, what did I even do? I just went to the ring, it's so easy to think that you should be further along. I think Chelsea talked about this too. It's hard not to look around at other people that, have hopeful RRP horses and think, gosh, I wish I was in Florida or whatever, yeah, they're like cantering around jumping and you're like, how, what? I'm like, how am I going to get there? But I can say that sometimes it's just good to take stock of everything that's going so far. I really like how engaging he is. He seems more and more in tuned and connected to me.
And I just want to keep reinforcing all the stuff he knows how to do already. Just keep telling him he's done a great job, celebrating all the things that he knows. And every time he learned something new, really celebrating that. And we can add, complexity and expectations as we go along.
Yeah. And right now I want to feel like I can send them forward and straight. And I think a lot of the other stuff is going to work itself out. I think once I get into the space where I can ride him that way, just the rest is going to come a lot easier.
Yeah, and I think, watching you work with him, you've definitely gained in confidence, even in the few rides that you've been able to do, where I know you can tell maybe you're not going quote unquote forward enough. It's still, He's still tracking up he's still going forward. Yeah, it's not he's not Petering out so much so from the ground.
I think it's a different perspective than when you're on them for sure yeah And Emily said he is a bit of a noodle too So I am excited about that in a way because I feel like he's gonna be really fun like Feeling throughout his body. Once he understands how to bend around his rib cage and things like that right now it's just a bit more of you turn his nose and the body just goes in one direction and everything else goes in another other direction, but we'll get it.
Yeah. So are you happy with how everything's going so far? Yeah, I'm, when you're in a climate, like climate like ours right now, you just have to be okay with going slow and also not rushing. And those sound like two of the same things, but they're different in my mind.
And I think he's got a nice sense of who he is as a horse. I think he's got a little bit of an ego and I think it's going to be cool to see how that comes out over time. So the big question is how is your RRP makeover application going, Neve? After our last episode with Chelsea, it really got me going.
I got into the portal. I'd already made my profile in there. So on the RRP site, there's a place where you can make a. A profile and what's actually really nice about it. And they must know how worse people work basically, but you can go back in and anytime you make a change, it just auto saves.
And so you can stop and start it as many times as you want. You don't have to sit down and get it all done and then send it in. So I'm having a little bit of a hard time worrying that I don't have enough on paper results to really be a standout, but I'm hoping that I can do a good enough job explaining my hands on experience.
And how it applies to off the track thoroughbreds to make myself sound competent. Have you found whatever videos you need to submit? Oh I'm probably just going to use one from a dressage show for the one just to send in and then. I'm not really sure about the second one because I'm not really sure exactly what I want to do discipline wise, but we'll see.
I definitely have some stuff buried in a YouTube channel I can tap into. I feel like you've got some videos from competing gym that you probably find. Yeah. I think so too. I still don't know what discipline she's aiming for. So we'll see. The big reveal. Barrel racing. I think he'd be a good barrel racer.
Yeah. It's so funny. His former trainer at the track sent me a video of him and one of our other horses playing in an indoor. It must've been last winter or something. And how does she have an indoor and we don't, I don't know. He was galloping around and he's doing these hair pin turns like a horse.
Yeah. And I sent it to Chelsea and she's maybe I can convince you to come to the dark side. I was like, I don't think so. Maybe you could team up with her. Oh my gosh. That'd be amazing. I think you both as a team, wouldn't you both have to do barrels then? Yeah, probably. You just, we'll just do barrels.
Tie you will be like Yellowstone will duct tape you to the saddle slap him on the butt. We won't tell you ahead of time though. Perfect.
All right. Nebo. This has been such a great update. Let's recap. That doesn't make any sense. How are we going to recap by saying what's next for January? I don't know. Cut that. Okay. All right. All right, Niamh. This has been such a great update. Thank you for the recap from December. Can you talk? Are you okay?
What? Can you not hear me? I can't. Do I sound stupid? No, it sounds good. I quit, guys. I'm trying to so this has been such a great update, Niamh, thank you so much. I wanted to give a little recap here from December. Sounds like you worked on some great groundwork. You guys are really laying a great foundation.
You've learned some new things under saddle. And what is next for January? Any big plans? The weather is garbage. Can you describe it? Just enough snow to be super annoying. Just enough snow so that you can't do anything in the snow without getting big ice balls in the horse's feet.
It's also below [00:36:00] freezing every day. It's been so cold and it has been horrifically windy., our farm's always windy and you get used to it in a way, but it has been like, you can't get anything done in this wind. It's rough. It's awful. But so coming up in January, I guess we've got a couple of weeks left.
I've got a, big plan coming up tomorrow. He's going to go on his first field trip off the farm. He is going to go over to a local indoor and we're going to have a lesson with Sally cousins, who is amazing. Hi, Sally. If you're listening, we can recap and see how this goes, but I'm really excited for Sally to meet him.
I basically told her , Do you have a spot for a horse that's never been off the farm and just came off the track and I've only walked in and trotted it. And she was like, yep, bring them over.
We're going to be there with another young not young thoroughbred, but another thoroughbred that's very recently off the track and has had very limited experience. So it's probably a perfect little outing for him. It's a barn that I feel very comfortable going to, and I've got a couple of ground people helping me.
Emily is going to be there. I will be there to take video and honestly and offer support. Yeah. Mostly it's just about him going to a new place, going on his, trailer ride. We'll see. I have no expectations for him except for just to go and try. And he's so far, he's been great at that.
And I feel like I'm mentally in a good place to give him a good confidence, inspiring, inspiring. Yeah. So to be honest, you haven't shipped them anywhere yet. So that is a good test. Usually OTTBs are good shippers, but we'll find out that. Yeah. And he's got a buddy to go with, so that's always nice.
And yeah and it'd be easier getting the bride along. Cause he'll be in the trailer.
We need to get you a stepladder. Yeah, I know. And then, we're going to go from there. We're just going to keep on building. I feel like January is going to be a little bit of a wash, but I do think if the snow will melt, we'll be able to start building on what we've already been doing.
Yeah. Yeah. It sounds like you're building a great foundation. Sounds super exciting. Listeners, make sure to subscribe and follow along as we continue Oscar's journey. And if you have questions for Neve about her training methods or Oscar's progress, send them in to us for the next episode. Ooh, that would be super fun.
Please send some hard questions and we won't tell her what they are ahead of time. We should have a code word for the email subject line, something that Neve would never open, like hamburger is the subject line of your email. Why would I not open that? Oh, because I told you not to.
Because you told me not to. So those will be the secret weapons. No, you know what it says? It says spreadsheets. Yes. Send your question with the subject line spreadsheet. To OTTB on tap at gmail. com. And then I will keep them secret and we will spring them on Neve in the next episode. I love it. So until then, thanks for tuning in.
If you like what you heard. Yeah. If you like what you heard today. Oh my God. Stop. I, what's funny is that people have commented about how much they like the rapport between the two of us. And I was like, I don't know. I just feel like we're cartoon characters. We are. If we are. Oh my God.
This is the third time you've come. I'm gonna do it again. Please don't. Someone needs to do a caricature of us. I don't want, I don't want to see it though. There's some crazy flattering caricature. No, there's some crazy caricature guy that I keep seeing on Instagram and he just videos the reactions of the people that he does the caricatures for because they are out of control, the way that he draws people and it's so funny.
Oh my god, that's your little dumpster fire. Yeah, isn't he cute? It's so cute. I have a little crocheted dumpster fire at my desk. It's very appropriate. All right. Do you want to do the outro, Nev? Jesus. I'd love to do the outro if you just stop talking.
If you like what you heard today, please leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts. You can follow OTTB ON TAP on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, and also sign up for our newsletter and bonus content at www. ottbontap. com. We love hearing from you. Also, we have brand new stickers that are going to be coming.
If you leave us a review, You can get stickers. Yes. Beer related stickers. Yeah. And there's a surprise design that nobody saw. . It's only going to be up for another couple of weeks. I think. Yep. And the January. Get them while you can.
All right. Until next time. Cheers. Cheers.