S2 E13: OTTB Aftercare Spotlight: How Mareworthy is Changing the Narrative for Retired Broodmares

S2 E13: OTTB Aftercare Spotlight: How Mareworthy is Changing the Narrative for Retired Broodmares (Transcript)

 [00:00:00] Hi everybody. And welcome back to OTTB on tap. I'm Niamh. And I'm Emily. Hey, Niamh, what's on tap today?

Today, to kick off Aftercare Industry Month, we're thrilled to have Kyle Rothfuss . The co founder of Merworthy, an incredible thoroughbred aftercare organization doing amazing work in the OTTB world. We're so excited to have Kyle here to share his story and talk about what sets Merworthy apart.

Welcome, Kyle. Thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to be here. Let's dive right in. So to start, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your role at Mayorworthy? And also, I know you on Facebook as Kyle the OTTB Mayor Guy. What's the story there? Yeah, I have a lot of personas it would seem online.

I promise I'm not a split personality. I just have a lot of irons in the fire, but actually what kind of started it all was Kyle the OTTB Mayor Guy was my first kind of persona. And it's the most recognizable. And that actually just started because of my 2015 Thoroughbred Makeover mare. So Freya, who I got in 2014 as my first horse back into the horse world.

And she had her own Facebook page in preparation for the Thoroughbred Makeover that year. Which was the first year they did it in Kentucky. And she had a page, which eventually became OTTB Training. And then people kept referring to me as Kyle the OTTB Mayor Guy, because that's all I have, all I would promote.

So I just ran with it. And now it's been it's 30, 000 followers and just a fun audience of people. It's changed a lot. Now we actually have some racehorses we've had of our own. And then there were the. Came to be through that just my experiences, but Mayorworthy is a nonprofit that's focused on retired thoroughbred broodmares.

I actually am the co founder and then president and day to day. Jack of all trades, but we have a board of other members. But officially I'm the co founder and president is my two titles and they're worthy. Wow. That's pretty impressive. Yeah. We've been fortunate enough to have connected with a couple of people related to Meriworthy already, Kathy Goodman and Anika Greeney, both of whom we had some great interviews with, but for listeners who might not be familiar with Meriworthy, what's your mission and how did the organization come to be?

First of all, I'm glad you got to talk to Annika. I apologize for Kathy. No, I love both of you. Kathy is one of our board members and Annika is actually an adopter, so it's great that you've gotten to chat with them. I heard those interviews, they were great. I was glad you got to do that. But, as far as That's Merworthy's mission.

We are focused on protecting retired thoroughbred broodmares. That's at its core. And our focus then becomes working on upstream solutions to help find retired broodmares a home or a purpose after they're done in the breeding shed. And that's really what we are all about. Was there a specific moment or challenge in the industry that inspired you to create Merworthy?

Yeah, so the name Mare Worthy actually came from my 2019 Thoroughbred Makeover Mare, whose name is Worthy of Wings, and yeah, Worthy raced 138 times. She retired from, yeah 119? 38. Whoa! We have another mare here who raced 162 times, so combined between the two of them, they ran 300 times. They both ended their careers in Puerto Rico, which I have been on the board for Caribbean Thoroughbred Aftercare and have been to Puerto Rico to see the track there.

And it's a different style of racing in the sense that they run year round and the horses run a little harder. But what I really saw in being part of that and having Worthy in my barn, she was my second horse I got from. Caribbean Thoroughbred Aftercare. The first was my 2018 makeover mare who was run, binky, run.

But Worthy was my 2019 mare and the last mare I competed with at the makeover. I just realized this is a mare who raced till she was 13. She's incredibly sound. She's athletic. She doesn't have any jewelry on her legs. Like she held up after 138 races. So she ran 87 starts on the mainland and 51 in Puerto Rico.

Oh boy. I'm sorry, what was her Jackie club name again? I want to look her up now. Worthy of wings. Oh, what a great name, too. And I actually got to meet her breeder. Her breeder actually came to the makeover in 2019 and, saw her and it was a really sweet moment. But with having her and having other warhorse mares, I realized there was a real challenge for people to overcome the stereotype that comes with mares, especially warhorse mares who have run a lot and maybe have a little tougher exterior because they've hardened themselves for a longer time at the track.

And mares tend to be approached with this perception of you need to really lay down the law almost. And so they tend to, I think, go into themselves more. So I started the idea of mareworthy as this It's actually for profit fun little group that it was going to be about you are mayor worthy if you can warrant the affection and loyalty of a mayor, a thoroughbred mayor specifically.

So that's where the name came from. It ended up becoming our racing stable for our first racehorse for Lady Diana Former, who is actually the daughter of my 2015 makeover mayor. So worthy's the logo for Mayor Worthy at the track. But when we realized there was a need for a non profit arm to really focus on providing homes and sanctuary for some of these mayors who are harder to find homes for, we transitioned the name to the non profit.

But the start of the name all came from my 2019 makeover mayor. Worthy of Wings inspired this idea of becoming Mayor Worthy. That's such a cool backstory. Don't know what I expected, but that's not exactly what I expected, but that's something that they should make a Disney movie about, like [00:06:00] Dreamer or, one of those types of movies.

Maybe someday that would be very good. Yeah. So well, since those early days, how has Mare Worthy grown and or evolved? And are there any particular milestones that you're particularly proud of? Yeah, so when my husband, Sean, I moved to Kentucky in June of 2022, and it was with the goal of finding a farm more in thoroughbred country where we could have a sanctuary set up and start Merworthy.

So we've really only been officially established for two years. This March is our two year anniversary of receiving our 501c3. So it's a short time, but in that time last year we received our first Thoroughbred Charities of America grant. So it was really great to feel acknowledged and recognized and receive, be a grant recipient for TCA.

Obviously, TCA is the title sponsor for the Thoroughbred Makeover every year, so I've always been a huge fan. And then we just launched our first cohort for Merworthy Academy. And so it's really cool to see the programs that have launched. We've adopted several horses and we've gotten horses out of kill pens and learned about that more and starting to make some lead way with the industry around how we approach group mares.

But I think the biggest milestone so far have been receiving that first TCA grant and then launching their, where the academy as a way to help. inspire other people to feel like they're prepared and ready to have their first horse.

So I've seen some posts on Facebook and social media about your Mareworthy Academy. Can you tell us a little bit more about that program? Of course. Remember, the Academy is an eight week free course, mostly virtual, but the focus is for people who have little to no horse experience to get an introduction to what it's like to be a horse owner and where it really came from was.

It's harder to find adopters for an 18 year old mare who people tend to, let's face it, we all think if you have a horse, you have to ride it. There's a certain level of, horses have utility, and if they don't have utility, it's a lot harder to home them. My thought was there are people out there who just admire horses.

But don't feel that they're qualified to have them and that if we connect them with the right information and the right tribe of people, that they actually will feel confident adopting their first horse. So for us, it was really a sales funnel almost for adopters to say, Hey, Join this program. It's eight weeks long.

So there's a weekly live session. There's some reading material and some suggested resources. And then there's a component where in the second month, there is a requirement to volunteer at a local equine nonprofit, preferably third red, but it could be, anything. And the goal is to get the hands on experience as a volunteer and then hopefully adopt from that organization.

Of course, we hope they volunteer at Merworthy here in Georgetown, Kentucky, but we're not here, right? We'd rather be getting horses that are harder to home into those homes that are willing to have more of a pasture puff. We were talking to Allie Rawls from Pastured Place a couple months ago, and one of the things that they're trying to do with their organization is a similar type of working with horses that are not necessarily rideable, but somebody wants to just enjoy the experience of being around a horse, but they're also starting to think about doing.

 Virtual adoptions of horses where they'll support a horse at the organization that's in sanctuary and get updates. Maybe they can come out and meet it if they're local. And I think, like you said, there are a lot of people that want to get involved or maybe have the property to have a retirement horse , at their place.

Where do they start? It's such a great resource. We look at it too, from a standpoint of that person who's looking to get their first thoroughbred, they often rush to the four or five year old and they maybe have never had a whole ball and we know how that.

can sometimes turn out versus the 18 year old, 19 year old mare who's had several foals and is a great learning horse to learn from. And then you have a built in babysitter when you get that four year old or five year old. That's a great point that you're not as worried about. Now I have to figure out socialization for this young horse who has all this energy because you have a calming source right there.

So it's not obviously for me where they were always going to be. A little biased toward adopt a retired thorough red bro marere at the same time. It's really that first step into horse ownership and why not start with an older horse or a pastured horse or a pleasure horse rather than we see everyone rush out to get the young straight off the track.

I'm going to ride it eventually, and they haven't even taken lessons on a lesson horse, and that always is concerning. Yeah, no, I think that's such a brilliant idea. To connect buyers with these horses because there is such a Unfortunate preconception that if your horse is not Rideable that nobody wants to pasture puff, right?

I see that all the time out there where someone's looking to rehome Their horse that can't be ridden anymore. And a lot of times the conventional wisdom is well, maybe you should consider Humanely euthanizing it if you can't keep it anymore, but I love that you're Doing this educational outreach.

I think that could be so effective and such a needed part of the industry. It aligns a lot with RRP. I've always been a big part of Retired Resource Project and it aligns with their mission to increase the demand for thoroughbreds and second careers. Just a different kind of demand.

They've done such a great job with it. I've always admired that and I was like, this is. Basically a way to increase demand for horses that maybe don't fit that traditional path of, I have a riding horse. Yeah, absolutely. And Emily and I, when we were doing this together, we partnered with a local to us rescue organization and would take in a couple of their horses for [00:12:00] training and things like that alongside our thoroughbred business.

And what we found That was interesting was that would meet these really genuine people that, had the time, had the resources or had the property available to them, but they didn't have that hands on experience or knowledge base to really set them off on the right foot.

And without that, you can end up with the horses in not so great places with an uneducated. owner or adopter. And so I think there is a quite a bit of responsibility on aftercare organizations and making sure that those. Connections are, educated on both sides and that because there's only so much you can do in terms of looking at people's references it's definitely needed and feeling like a resource at the end of the day, anyone who adopts from Mayworthy, I want them to feel like they can bring the horse back with no questions asked or. Even better, we can keep the horse in that position and they can feel confident asking for help and not feel like they're expected to know the answer or have the money.

Because sometimes we run into financial situations and things happen. And if I feel confident that I can ask for help and that organization will step forward. Great. Part of our adoption process is actually to. Require an annual veterinary exam, but we pay for it because we want to make sure that a veterinarian is looking at that horse at least once a year.

And if that means we're funding it, but I want that conversation to start from day one that when you have a question, don't be afraid to ask us because nobody knows everything. I still ask my veterinarian way more questions than she probably wants to answer, right? But I have to be willing to ask the question and I have to feel like she won't judge me for asking it.

 It's one of the reasons that we started this podcast because, through our collective experience and then through our Facebook group, OTTB market, you just see the same questions. Being asked over and over again by, genuine people that, got their first off the track thoroughbred and that kind of just, we're starting at square one and this is our contribution to the resource space, as it were.

So, you touched on this a little bit, or we're going to get into more detail about this, but can you tell us a little bit about Mayorworthy's unique approach to matchmaking potential adopters with available mayors? Yes, so we start obviously by understanding that not every horse is going to be a ridden horse.

So sometimes it's Educating an adopter about that when you have the 15 year old kid who wants to gallop a horse And that's what they put in their adoption application The unique approach more is I really rely on technology a lot. I love artificial intelligence. I love websites and platforms that run automation.

My full time job is in learning and development. So for a large organization, so I'm used to using automation. We actually use a lot of automation for our adoption process so that it helps us funnel things differently. That person with little experience is going to get a different type of response than the person and funneled into a different person within the organization versus someone who.

has a lot of experience. I might be the one vetting them personally so that it funnels it that way. Additionally, once we match someone and that horse is homed, we have automation to send follow ups for them because I think that's where a lot of organizations, it's hard to keep track once the horse leaves your facility.

So we want those automated touch points to go out that say, Hey, it's been a week. How are things going? Did you reach out to your farrier yet? How's your feed schedule going? Here's some things to keep in mind and happen that, the one month mark and the three month mark, and then every six months from there.

So there's a touch point, but at the end of the day, it's about really talking to people. I think that's where we miss. In today's society, we don't take the time to pick up the phone and call and say, let's just chat. Let's understand you think you really want Spanish flower, but in reality, actually, furthermore, to be a better mare for you.

This is why having that consultative approach to it helps them realize that the horse they really think they want actually might not be the one that they're looking at a picture of and being realistic about their goals. So I encourage everyone, whether you're buying a horse, adopting a horse, first thing is to write out your unicorn list and don't stray from it.

 You want a chestnut horse, then only look at chestnut horses, do it. Otherwise you will make compromise. And then you may not be perfectly matched at the end of the day. I looked at chestnuts and ended up with a bay. So clearly it's not all about color, but.

You not make that exception when you start to say I could live with that. If you can't live with X, Y, and Z, yeah, that down ahead of time. It also puts out in the universe, the things you really do want. And guess what? When you put it out there and you haven't really want, it tends to attract that.

Yeah, I love that. It reminds me so much of the famous Jimmy Wofford quote about the end of the day By the horse that had, you love his head hanging over the stall door and it took me a long time I think to understand what he meant by that when I was younger and I read that quote and I was like I don't really Get it.

But now I do because when you're initially drawn to something or it's what you really want you're going to Probably be happy with it more if that makes sense and you'll try harder Yeah, you'll keep it around longer too Because of the fact that you know that this is what I really want my first dressage coach actually told me the best way To pick a horse is to go out in the field of a hundred horses and lay down and let the horse pick you And I said, it'd be great if we could all do that but honestly even here when we had trainers in town for the makeover we had people just walking around and The field going up to horses.

Kathy actually was out in the field to figure out which horse would follow her around. Ironically, it was one of the older horses who's not really going to be eligible and isn't right. But those horses will start to gravitate to you and [00:18:00] then you start to wonder why are they, and you look at them a little differently.

So yeah, I'd love to be able to do that with everyone, right? Just go out in the field and walk around in a field of four year olds. Probably wouldn't send them out, but in a field of 18, I feel a little safer with that. Yeah. No it's funny too my personal horse now, not my thoroughbred he's a quarter horse and he's like a mare in a gelding's body, to a tee, and he hates everybody.

but he loves me. It's ridiculous. And it's just really funny because I'll go up to his stall and he'll have his ears flat back, but he'll have his muzzle on my shoulder. As soon as I'm near, and I've never had that super intense connection with a horse in my life.

And I've had a lot of horses, but now that I've felt that it's magical. And I always tell people when they're horse shopping or looking for a horse to adopt is. to trust your gut and your gut will generally never lead you in the wrong way. So you can have your list and everything, but you know what your gut's telling you.

And it could just be this horse gives me a really great feeling. And sometimes that's all it takes. And then all the other pieces will fall in, we're going to switch gears up a bit and talk about the retired racehorse project. You were Chatting with us over email that Mareworthy co hosted a symposium at the Retired Racehorse Project in 2024.

How did that come about and what was the mission there? Yeah, so just to clarify my notes on that, was ahead of the makeover. So it was actually the Retired Racehorse Project and Mareworthy co hosted, last July, so it was a little bit ahead, a broodmare symposium that was actually , supported mostly by ASPCA, actually, right?

Retired Racehorse. Help support that for RP and it came about just because. I've now, again, as Kyle, the OTV mayor guy, I've gotten the, that reputation, but now it's, Oh, brood mayors call Kyle. When Kirsten wanted to put together an educational opportunity for brood mayors, as they have the brood mayor division now at the retired racehorse project makeover, she wanted to make sure there were resources out there about how to select a brood mayor.

And what to do. And she being the amazing leader she is said, I don't know everything. Let me ask Kyle what we should do for this. So she reached out to us and Mayorworthy was able to co host that simply because of the long relationship I have with RRP and the team there, and it was. Our role, really, Mary Worthy's role to help find horses to come to the event as sample horses and help outline Really, what are the topics that need to be covered?

What's unique to a broodmare and we all when you get a horse off the track They're already in work their body conditions gonna if anything They're probably gonna lose a little weight because they're losing muscle and then gain weight we all go through that experience versus a broodmare is going to be very round when you get her and it's going to be probably more widespread and she may have had some laminitic changes in the past and there's different things to look at when you're thinking physical confirmation they may be more pigeon toed because over time they get older and they we tow in naturally but carrying weight they'll do that as well so it was really as a Tool for RP to help provide educational resources.

And those videos are on their website now about selecting and transitioning a broodmare from retirement from breeding into a riding career. So it was a really cool event and just. long time relationship with RRP is what really made that happen. I can't imagine what it must be like to see horses that have come through your program compete at the makeover.

Can you tell us about any standout moments or horses you're especially proud of from? your makeover experiences, but also from that maybe have come through Mareworthy. Yeah, so I think I had a very storied five year career with the makeover of never doing extremely well, but always having an amazing time.

So my first Mare, I think we all can relate to that if you've Done the makeover. It's, you go in with all the expectations, right? Of, we're going to do this amazing thing. And then the horses hold my beer. So

I think actually having taken five different mayors and of those five, three of them still live here at the farm with me. So one was my very first mayor, the 2015 mayor, who was the most prepared Freya, her jockey club name is lady Mac jazz, but she was. competing training level dressage regionally doing really well.

We were on track to do really great at the makeover and she popped a curb two weeks before we were supposed to go to Kentucky. So she was too unsound for me to travel with. What a shame. And her freestyle was literally, we had balloons tied to her halter with a blindfold across her face and I would ride her out.

She's ready for it, right? She was ready. She'd been showing, doing demonstration rides. So that was probably the best thing that could have happened to me and the worst thing, because the worst, I didn't go to Kentucky that year, but that meant that I had to go a second year.

Oh, I'll get a horse in new vocations this year. The most beautiful mare ever comes through a moon. I had been watching for a while. She showed up the day she showed up. I said, mine, give me. So she came to me and she was just super athletic, super full of herself and super sensitive, but an amazing mare.

And we went to the makeover fairly prepared, but she was not mentally prepared for the big environment there. And she just decided she had this great new trick of bucking in hand. And it was the hind legs went straight up in the air. So there's tons of photos of me smiling and laughing, but with my mare's hind end in the air.

And I think that actually was really an amazing, she's actually been rehomed. And when we moved to Kentucky, I rehomed her with one of our veterinary technicians in Ohio, who's been inventing her and having a blast with her. She's, it's in the perfect spot for her, right? It was that moment of I love that mare and I didn't want, she was just sitting around, wasn't doing anything.

I think that was really a great story because She was such a challenging mare there and I [00:24:00] didn't really get to do anything. We scratched dressage and our freestyle was me leading her around the indoor arena, bucking in hand, but Hey, we had fun. And the best part is right before that, she was out in the warmup arena cantering loose on the, beautiful.

She got into a covered arena and I still blame Cedar Potts for that because she went before us and had an amazing freestyle and the crowd was cheering like crazy and Moon just went boom. So my freestyle time was me just getting her to relax and calm down. And I think that was really probably what most people would look at as probably the worst experience you could have.

You didn't get to compete in anything. Reality, it actually humanized me as an individual. It showed that horses have bad days. It's okay to just work with them and keep a smile on your face. But the most prideful moment was definitely seeing a goalie compete in barrels this year. So seeing the first mare worthy mare.

Really? We had to there this year from airworthy. So Baltimore babes. So you talked to both Kathy and Anika. But a goalie just had a stellar showing and to show up the retired racehorses and be like, look, I've been off the track and standing in a field for three years, just getting fat and I've had the fastest barrel time of all the horses for the week.

Yeah. It was a really exciting moment to see that a horse we helped place did so well. Yeah, and not to mention, she's such an incredible mover. I know that Annika has really high hopes for her to do other things as well. And it's it's pretty it's amazing to watch that mare go, because you can see it in the way that she handles the turns and , or the way that she even just comes in.

 The future is really bright for that mare. It's really cool. And she's a great, from a standpoint of, she's a 270, 000 broodmare prospect. She's a lovely pedigree, physically, and her owners did the right thing. They retired her at seven when they couldn't get her pregnant and they tried for three seasons.

They put everything, instead of just continuing, they didn't dump her somewhere. They reached out to new vocations who put them in touch with us and we brought her in. And it was like on a, it was the perfect match for her. And now she's out, doing, I think they just had a really good weekend with, at a another barrel race.

 She sends me updates regularly and, the mayor is definitely loving the job, but also I told her she probably, she started teaching her to jump and the stalls are half stalls at the venue. And I was going to jump out of that stall at one of these points. And she's a beautiful mover and she's a sweetheart of a mare, but she's definitely an athlete.

Yeah. Yeah. From your perspective, what impact does the thoroughbred makeover have on the perception of OTTBs and their potential in second careers, in particular with brood mares? I think in one word, it's huge. The impact that the makeover has on the perception of OTTBs is. A, the versatility that they bring, right?

When you put 10 disciplines together in one venue and you see the same breed of horse doing all 10 disciplines, it's pretty impressive, right? To see a horse driving in freestyle, and then we expect to see them in the polo field, right? So that's maybe not, or jumping, but see them in Western dressage and just going around and seeing these horses work cattle.

That's a pretty awesome moment to think Hey, this really changes the perception. And when you just look at the numbers of horses that, the demand has been there for people to find a horse to compete with, I think it has totally had a huge impact on the perception of OTTBs and what they can do.

We now see them barrel racing and more and more of it. More of them working in the ranch divisions and they're not just for jumping or racing anymore. They're for a lot of other things. So I think that's one of the big parts. And I think particularly to broodmares, it's a new program.

So it's still growing, but I think it it really shifts the mindset. And I've had owners that have retired mares to us that are like, do you think she's still can be written? Yes. And then they see it, right? They see a 16 year old mare back in the dressage ring or under saddle. And I'm not an advocate to say that every single mare who retires should go back under saddle, but.

the ones who do, they still love it. They pick it up quickly when they physically are able, right? I think that's the hard part I think that was the first part RRP was concerned about when they keep the broodmare separate is they won't be able to physically compete with the younger horses.

And in some ways, yes, but then we see a goalie who was a younger broodmare, right? But I think that perception That will help me change the thoroughbred industry is that if you retire these horses at a useful age, they have more options instead of breeding that mare until she's 18. Breed her until she's 8, 9, 10 and retire her then after she's had 4 or 5 foals instead of 12 foals.

And she has more options than just going back out to pasture right away. Yeah, I mean there's plenty of horses coming off the track, finishing their racing careers. And they've in some ways had a harder life , physically than, a broodmare that's had a couple of foals.

Actually, the more that we're talking about this, I'm like, we've got a couple of really nicely bred broodmares at our farm. Wait a second. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good. All right, so looking to the future, do you see your partnership with the RRP evolving? Are there any new opportunities or goals on the horizon related to the makeover?

There's nothing official in the works yet, but we certainly always talk and they're great at including me as a thought partner on things for when it comes to broodmares. So I'm always grateful for that. As far as how we want to help support RRP and even in unofficial ways we're looking at trying to.

make more incentive for people to bring a broodmare to the makeover and whether that's Actually helping our PFundries more cash prize so that there's additional cash incentive because I know that's been a concern, right? There's not as much cash in it for the broodmares, right?

Although it's been increased this year. Thanks to ASPCA I think increased that funding so that dollar [00:30:00] amount is larger The other side of it is showing people that you're not here just for the makeover. So helping coordinate tours to the breeding farms and helping those people who bring their broodmares connect a little more with the industry here in Lexington.

The last piece we're trying to get going this year, just so much in we haven't publicized anything yet, but I'll share it with you. It's looking at trying to do more of a breed inspection or breed show style in hand. So that a lot of these mares, and we can do it virtually initially so that at least that way, or if people have a brood mare here at the makeover, be able to actually have them be inspected by a breed judge that can give them an honest opinion of the mare's confirmation and movement in hand.

And start to really generate that mindset of it would be great to some of these younger broodmares specifically, or even mares in general, get them into breed registries for sport. Long term, my big vision, it's not mare related, but my big vision is to get a registry for thoroughbreds that would be That's obviously a very large undertaking, but something that, I'm happy for anyone to reach out and provide assistance on.

I'm talking with a few friends that I know that would be great advocates for that, but helping take this to the next level. And I think RRP is a great platform to help with that, to show what does a thoroughbred's life look like after they're done at the track. or the breeding shed. And if I can help add programs that support that, that's really the big goal at the end of the day is say, what can we put out there that shows other options for the thoroughbred after they're done with racing or breeding?

Kaitlin Luna, Ph. D.: Do you mean creating more of a a sport horse thoroughbred breeding, official umbrella? Yeah, I think that's really cool. And we talk about this a lot off mic, but there's such a need for one breeding in the U S and, thoroughbreds come up a lot when you talk about, how much blood do these horses have

and where we're located, there are some very good dedicated breeders that are really trying to. evolve that as much as they can at this stage, but it would be really cool to see it transgress into something like that. And a lot of that came from, so that first mare I had for the makeover in 2015, her daughter, Lady Diana Farmer, who went on to race, had her first foal last year, and he was a colt, and he's a lovely, Diana is a 17 one hand thoroughbred, very big bodied, very correct, very athletic, very tough, but very athletic.

And her son is , a lovely colt, but I don't know that he's gonna be a race stallion. I don't even know that I'd want that. I don't know that I think that's the life I'd want for him. But I think he'll be a lovely sport horse, and I don't plan to geld him as long as he keeps his brain about him, which .

I lead all three of our yearlings together at the same time, they're just well behaved. The other colt will get gelded because he's not the brightest. But , Picasso's proven he's got the brain and he has the build for, and I think he'll have a great athletic career.

I'd love to think long term for him. I'd love for him to be able to create sport horse babies. The challenge is I don't want them all to be warm bloods. I've worked in the world. It's nothing against warm bloods. It's just, I'm proud of thoroughbreds. So I might not be able to put them in the jockey club registry and I might not be able to call them a thoroughbred, but I'd still like to know that everything traces back to thoroughbred pedigree.

And that if I ran it, to your point, they would be a hundred percent thoroughbred. They wouldn't be eligible to race. but they'd be eligible to be in the new registry. So yeah, that's the big, hairy, audacious goal of standing up a new registry. I might be the modern day Justin Morgan, but it'll be with, thoroughbreds instead.

 I need to have you back on the podcast with our friend Amanda Chance. She's really involved in breeding and pedigree and all that kind of stuff. And she studies intensely. Thoroughbred lineage and blood and modern day sport horses. And it would be really interesting hearing the two of you go back and forth about this.

Cause I think she feels pretty strongly about it as well. So if she was listening to the podcast, Amanda, you need to come on with Kyle.

, so we're gonna ask you now about some of your success stories. You've had some incredible horses come through your program. Can you share a success story or two that really stands out to you?

Yeah, I think the one who stands out to me probably the most that came through Mareworthy is Vee. And it's one of these where she didn't go on to do anything great or amazing. She's still here as a sanctuary resident. But we got Vee from a Killpen auction, actually, in the summer of 2023. And we do a reproductive exam whenever Mare that arrives, she was in foal.

So we knew we had some unknown baby in the belly. And we knew it wasn't a third read because there were no cover reports done. So she was in full, we had no idea, full date, et cetera. What was really amazing about V's story is that the day that we found out she was in trouble, we reached out to her past connections, which we always do.

I always like to keep a close relationship with them and just approach that from a good place. And even though they hadn't had her in 12 years Louie and Diane actually. Stepped up and financially we're like, what are we going to do? Where do you tell me what we need? They have been amazing supporters.

They were literally the day that the Philly was born last February 23rd. They send more funds, but they've also been amazing advocates from airworthy so much so that this year they brought Sean and I out to breeders cup in California and they live in the San Diego area and breeders cup was at Del Mar this year.

So we actually went out and they had a. Fundraiser at their home on the Thursday night of Breeders Cup. They took us to the races, like top style dinner all the time. [00:36:00] All because of this one mare who, now her filly is coming a year old, and we'll get her ready and get her adopted. And She's a very athletic She's got, I'll put it this way, She's half quarter horse type.

And she's definitely very much got the quarter horse hind end. And she's a very nice filly and a very correct filly, but she's a big girl. And we're just excited that this story. V is one of those success stories that you go into not expecting. We don't go into any of this expecting we're going to find this amazing donor out of it.

We go from a standpoint of I always believe that the person who had them in their previous life at some point actually wants to do right by the horse. And I call them with the same approach if I was a breeder and my horse ended up in a bad situation, I'm calling and saying, Hey, you probably didn't know, but, and what was really cool was at the Breeders Cup party.

So her last jockey was Aaron Greider. Her last trainer was Bob Hess, who is their current trainer as well. So literally her last owner, trainer, and jockey were all in the room with us. How amazing is that? So just a really neat story to be like, here's a mare who, was just left for whatever.

She's here now and she'll stay here on sanctuary forever. And just her story of. Where she went from and how her past connections stepped forward and how much they've been a part of our lives now and a part of Mareworthy and then they've really been to the farm. They were out last February and visited right before she had her foal and they were out and they did photos with V and Just really cool to see I just wanted to add here as well that There's a bit of a misconception that when a horse ends up at a kill pen if it's a thoroughbred and, you've got a tattoo or a name they're quick to jump on the internet and look up the connections.

 It's really important to remember that, whoever's listed on Equibase or Pedigree Query as the most recent connections might not have had that horse in a long time.

So definitely it's important. amazing to be able to reconnect with those people because, like you said, you get these incredible stories like this, but you have to be a little bit careful about creating blame with what's on paper, so to speak as the the last people that had the horse.

And , I think people see horses in the Copan and then they get very emotional about it Obviously as you would and it's always disappointing to see a thoroughbred in the Copan but just to be mindful that there are many connections involved and like you say the breeders and the Trainers really do care about where these horses end up and if you can reach out to those people and see if they want to Jump in and help that's always Incredible.

Yeah. And it's a lot of why I got involved, not Kill Ben specifically, but a lot of why I started breeding to race and racing was because I said, I need to have a seat at the table. And I see so many good people in the sport. And I think we need to look at the thoroughbred industry holistically. And right now it's very siloed into breeding, racing, and aftercare.

And when we can get to a point where we can say it's the thoroughbred life cycle, and we're all part of this together, we'll stop pointing fingers and start making solutions. Yeah. We've been talking about that full circle aspect since we started this podcast and just some of the people that we've been able to connect with.

And it's been very cool to see how the optics of the racing industry are starting to shift and the public perception of the racing industry aftercare industry as a whole is completely starting to evolve and. We're really excited about that. Yeah, me too. All right. So let's talk about some adopters. Have you heard from adopters who found their perfect partner through Merworthy?

And do you have any memorable stories you'd like to share there? So we do hear from them regularly. It's actually. Yep. Funny. I don't even have to ask for updates. We get text messages of pictures of them out in the snow with their blankets on and it's really cool. One of the things that we actually do since we can't obviously house everything here at the farm in Kentucky and there's mares sometimes in other places, we actually offer a direct placement option.

So we will basically help list the mare on our website and we will help find an adopter and the person who has that mare is for the mayor until we find a place. Once they find an adopter, then we actually do everything on papers. We never even meet the mayor. We do all the transition of ownership via contracts on both ends.

And then the mayor goes there and the responsibility lies with us to follow up. So it takes responsibility off that owner's plate and gives it to us to make sure we're following up, which is something that not everyone's doing. It can be a little bit scary because you never meet the adopters.

But what I find is even in those scenarios, so we have those horses storm on by was when we recently was a rehome like that in Michigan and her adopter is just amazing at sending us unsolicited photos and updates. And we get texts and emails that are great. Obviously, a goalie, we hear from Annika all the time, which is great.

She gives us updates when she's out, and she's just so involved. But one of the really cool stories that we get follow ups on is, an Indiana Knight was another mare that we got from a kill pen, actually, that was there because she had been diagnosed with a cancer, and was told to her previous owner, was told that the mare had no time to really live, and she couldn't bring herself to euthanize the mare.

She gave her to a dealer and the dealer put her in a bad spot. We got her and we just got her at the understanding that our adopter was going to just be hospice for her. She's got a lot of experience with that. In India and I, that was two and a half years ago and she's still showing her and she's using her.

She's very healthy and fine. And getting those updates is really special because it's a mare who was basically left for, So you're not going to have a life and we did all the followup diagnostics to make sure what's really going on. And here she is now with a second chance on life.

The other it's so Baltimore, babe, we get too many updates because that's Kathy. No, Kathy's great. And Kathy actually became a board member from airworthy because of babe. So I think it's a really cool connection there [00:42:00] of she helped us fundraise for babe when babe was in a bad spot. And she set forward to adopt her, and then she also became very adamant about she wanted to be part of Mayorworthy.

And so it's really cool that Babe has that connection of Kathy joining the board and joining Mayorworthy and being involved because of a mayor who really spoke to her. And it's just really a cool, we get those updates very regularly. She's a real force of nature and getting to meet her.

And actually I rode with her in one of her clinics. I rode and after the racist horse that I had never seen before and just showed up and rode in one of her clinics. And she's just an incredible human. You can't help, but. Feel good when you're around her. So, we're going to talk now about some of the challenges and future goals of Mayorworthy.

What are some of the biggest hurdles that your organization faces right now? I think most organizations will probably have the exact same piece there, but. Finding adopters and finding funds, right? So funding and adopters are really your biggest challenge. I could say space, but at the end of the day, there's other ways to solve the space piece, right?

 I can have a thousand acre farm and not have enough space, but if I can figure out a way to, get the adoption pipeline more direct placement get that adoption piece to maybe be more foster based and finding unused land that I can maybe lease or have donated to the organization just for grazing land, right?

There's other ways to approach it, but adopters who want older. Mayors who might not be rideable or may not be competitive mayors definitely is a harder challenge. So I'm hoping, remember, the Academy helps solve that a little bit. Fundraising is just, a non stop job. So no organization has enough money.

No human being, unless you're, certain billionaires in the world, has enough money we're always going to work. So I think those are definitely some of the biggest hurdles we're facing right now. Taylor Swift, we're looking at you. Exactly. We'll take a couple hundred grand and we'll be happy.

At the industry as a whole, what trends are you noticing in Thoroughbred aftercare right now? So I believe there's more collaboration starting to happen, which is exciting to see. There's more conversations I've been involved in that are including both. the racing industry side or breeding industry side.

And like I said earlier, I don't like to think of it as two separate industries, but really honestly, the industry as a whole is starting to include aftercare in more conversations. So that is, a shift that or a trend that I'm starting to notice a lot more. The other side of it is that just aftercare organizations in general, I think are starting to be a little more collaborative.

I think we're supporting each other differently. I think we're really understanding that we're in all this together and it's not a competition. So I'd happily share my resources with someone else if it means it gets a horse placed. I think that's really the trend I'm seeing a shift toward is that the industry is taking more notes and recognizing aftercare, but that also aftercares in and of themselves are collaborating better.

And looking ahead, how do you see aftercare evolving in the next few years? So my hope is that it continues to become more integrated in the entire thoroughbred industry. I think if we can think of what I, as a breeder myself, we have three foals due this year, and I'm breeding a sport horse period. So I am hoping and I do believe that the future of OTCB aftercare is really going to be about The breeding industry breeding a horse for the receiving end rather than a horse for the midterm.

And so I like to look at this as I got into the breeding and racing side because I was receiving the product, right? I don't like to talk about horses as products, but in the scenario, right? I was receiving the output and I was receiving it after it had been through process. If I could tell the person producing the product on the front end production line, hey, if you did this, and this, it would make my life a lot easier later, right?

 If breeding could let me know as well, like why that horse ends up that way. So when I started to actually have those conversations to say why am I getting this horse that's this, and this? And actually at the track, we do this. And it was a really real experience for me when I realized I sent our first foal to the track for training.

And she's perfectly trained because I trained her, right? So she hasn't started herself. She knows everything, but she had never had a chain over her nose because I don't use them regularly. So she was rope halter trained and she was, she was pressure trained, but I watched a groom try and take her into a wash stall with a chain over her nose, which is standard protocol, right?

And she was just refusing to go forward. And so I said, I realized right away what it was. The pressure was over the nose, pulling tighter. She's going backwards. She understands pressure, just not that pressure. Yeah. And so I took her to the line and she went up because I was like, you've gotta learn to go into this pressure.

 I'm now failed you by not teaching you this at home, but by understanding those little moments of seeing what that real. Outcome can be of how do you ask them to do a flying change? Yes, they can stand still at the track. Yes, they do know this, but having that conversation, I think the more that we are all integrated over the next few years, and the more we have those tables and those talks where we all get together.

And I'm hopeful to be someone that can help introduce those tables and get that going. I think that we have a bright future for aftercare because it won't be aftercare anymore. It will be just the third phase of a horse's life cycle. It's the full cycle. It's just, this is just a part of it.

And breeders will breed horses that can race, but also have Sport potential. Yes. And it's so interesting because we talk a lot about kind of the different language, that an off track thoroughbred has. Yes, they're broke to ride, but they sometimes speak a slightly different language than a rider that say has been riding 100 jumpers their whole life.

Something as simple as it's going too fast and I'm pulling back and it's not slowing down. That's typical riding. You would think that's what you do. But a racehorse [00:48:00] might not have the same reaction. So it's really interesting to have that analogy of just as simple as chain over the nose versus rope halter training.

You don't, if you don't know the other word, you can't teach it. So when you're speaking French or German and you're a native English speaker you don't just naturally all of a sudden hear German and understand it. I have to take the time to understand the track language so I can translate it.

Otherwise, my horse is just stuck there in the middle going I don't understand what you're asking for. And even when I transitioned from reining to dressage, I remember coming back to my first reining coach's horse and getting on and she kept cross cantering every time I'd ask her to lope.

He was so mad at me. What are you doing? I'm just inside leg at the girth, outside leg behind the girth tip nose to the inside, right? He's get your inside leg off that horse, because, meaning, that was just throwing her like, , which lead do you want? It was just the outside leg behind the girth, it was all I cinch, it was all I really needed.

But If I would have gotten on that horse as a dressage rider as a dressage prospect, I would have been like, she knows nothing. She was one of the world's best reigning horses. We knew a lot. That's not what I was asking her. I started following this jockey who actually I'm going to reach out to cause I'd love to have him on the podcast.

I know he's done some other podcasts, but he rides over at parks near us. And when I looked him up on Facebook to add him as a friend. it was like, Oh, such and such content creator. And I was like, wait a second. So I go on his page and he has the most incredible, he has some sort of mount that can do video from the front of his helmet, facing back at him.

So from the horse's ears back at him and in a bunch of different views, but. He'll do stuff like a day in the life of a racehorse and it'll be everything from him, getting legged up in the shed row, walked out to the gap, and what he does at first, how the horses react sometimes, when they're waiting around for the truck to open, switching leads, doing all this stuff.

Everybody who owns an off the truck thoroughbred should watch these videos because it's this. Open book of here's all the stuff that they know. It's very cool. And he does commentary while he's going along and he's got his favorite horses that he likes to gallop and the ones that he finds a little bit tougher and things like that.

And so I'm eager to have him on. None of that ever gets old to me. I always want to know more and more about all of the ins and outs. Yeah. Sorry. I just got on a tangent. I did. I'm sorry. That's my contribution to the podcast. It's a great tangent because it's honestly, it's even just for the general public.

Yeah. But one of the fails I see is that we're so the industry itself is so guarded because it's under so much scrutiny. And so they don't want to share because I even fear people coming to my farm, they take the wrong picture of the wrong horse at the wrong angle.

We're starving all of our horses, or right. So I get it, but until we're more transparent in general, and we share that information freely. Information is power, and we can help control the conversation. That's why I love movements like Light Up Racing. I love Amplify Racing. Amplify Racing does a great job of putting out content like that, but for youth.

And then Light Up Racing, as far as helping get that narrative going, we need to be transparent. It makes a big difference. Yeah. And it's funny that you say that. I had taken my new four year old off the track thoroughbred to his first outing a couple weeks ago, and I blew his mind a little bit.

I feel a little bit badly about that, but he'd always shipped to race, and I think he just thought he was racing, and we got there, and there's five horses jumping around in this big indoor, and his way of handling his stress was not to be spooky or rank or anything but he just mauled me the whole time.

And, after, getting , hit by his head like a wrecking ball like 300th time, I'm swatting at him a little bit and just, making sure that his head meets something that's not my head. And I was like, if somebody walked in here right now and was videoing this from across the ring, they'd be like, there's a girl in there just beating this horse in the face.

And nothing could have been further than the truth. I was just putting something in between. Yep. My, my body and his head, this is, the best that you can do sometimes is when you're under those kinds of pressures, but yeah, I think you're really right.

And that's another thing that we're trying to do here. We've started to create a little bit of content about, our methodology and approach to things because We think it's important , to share all of that stuff. For listeners that want to support Mayorworthy, how can they get involved and are there specific ways to help like volunteering or donating?

So I said, fundraising is always top of mind, right? We have two key ways for fundraising. Obviously you can. Donate anytime at MayorWorthy. com slash donate. But we also have a program called Pasture Pals, which is just our recurring monthly donors. And we do a monthly newsletter that goes out. All the mayors at the sanctuary write their letters each month and get a digital letter.

It's written in the voice of each mayor update for the month. So anyone who wants to become a pasture pal, it's a great way to give us a budgetable, sustainable. Source of income and that's just merworthy. com slash pasture pals, but it's also a link to that on the donate page. Volunteering wise. Yes, we certainly can use volunteers in Georgetown, Kentucky.

We have a form that you can fill out on the merworthy page, merworthy. com slash volunteer, and you can actually fill it out if you have any interest in volunteering. Awesome. And if you're interested in adopting, I know you talked a little bit about this earlier, but what does the process look like with your organization?

Yes, the step one is really to submit an inquiry. And that's really just to say, Hey, I'm interested. It's not an application. We try to avoid the big application process. And then we have a conversation. So we don't ask for references. Really what we're gathering information wise, it's going to be in the adoption agreement.

So the adoption agreement will give us your veterinarian's name and your address and all those other pieces. But the process really is just to say, Hey, I'm interested. And this is what I'm looking for. And then we have a follow up conversation. And if it sounds like you have a horse in mind right now, we can certainly pair that up and we [00:54:00] move along there.

And then the big thing we asked for in the process is just follow up. So we currently only adopt out within 300 miles of central Kentucky for horses at our farm. So we can follow more easily, but if it's a direct placement horse, like we have some right now in Pennsylvania. Obviously, they'd be a little closer to you.

So we want to say that, we obviously that's something that we would be looking at doing that. And we manage that a little differently, but yep. Starting with an inquiry on the website at merrily. com slash adopt. And then we have a conversation and then just an adoption agreement. That sounds great.

And so much less intimidating than a lot of those, you get hit with the wall of the huge form application. We didn't ask this question actually earlier, but how many available mares do you have in the program right now? So everything's technically available.

At the end of the day we had a sanctuary mare that we adopted out at 24 to go be a babysitter. She's a nanny here in the Lexington, Kentucky area. She wasn't necessarily listed for adoption, but someone was looking for a mare with a 99 and or older.

And we had a mare for born in 99. So that was a grant. She's been great over there. Currently. Technically eligible at the farm. We have four officially available for adoption here at the farm. There are three on the website that are direct placement. So there's seven currently available of those.

I do know for sure. Two of them are definitely eligible for this year's retired resource project makeover in the broodmare division. And one of them is our C section mare from last year. So Horse Husband Stables is my for profit farm and we had a mare last year who required a C section and we retired her after that.

That was her first foal. So he's a yearling now, and she's a very lovely now eight year old who's had one foal and had a great recovery after her C section. And so she's eligible this year and also next year. Awesome. And do you have any advice for first time adopters who might be considering an OTTB?

Ask questions. I think that's the first thing is ask questions and make sure you put a good network in place. So have a good veterinarian and have a good farrier. And if you start there and you're willing to ask questions, I think that is the best thing you can do. And I don't mean tire kicker type questions of does the horse like governments right.

Asking questions that, that are, even if you think you know the answer, it's okay to say what's a normal day look like for this horse? That's actually a great question, right? What's the normal day, what's normal for them. And then that first time when you get that horse in is don't do anything with them for the first week.

Just observe them. Take the time to get to know their normal because if you know they're normal, then you know when they're not normal and you know that something's wrong. But I think that's the biggest piece of advice I can tell anyone is. Ask questions and be realistic about your actual abilities.

If you really are a timid rider, don't pick the horse that the first time you see it, you're making exceptions of I didn't get to ride it this time, but I will next time. That's probably harder. Or make sure you have a trainer in place, right? That's the bigger part is yeah, there, but be willing to ask questions is my baseline for everyone.

That's great advice. All right. As we wrap up, Kyle, what's one thing you wish more people knew about OTTBs or thoroughbred aftercare? I think the first piece is that thoroughbred stereotypes do not hold true. That's one of the biggest parts for me. And then the other one that really always comes to mind is that So I see it so often, everyone says alfalfa made my OTTB hot, right?

And I will tell you this alfalfa or a good forage, a good feed program will make your horse healthy and therefore they will have more energy and that you need to balance that energy with work and exercise. So I wish more people knew that thoroughbreds have an amazing work ethic. They have a motor that will go and go.

And you just need to direct that to where you need it to go. But don't think that underfeeding them is the key to working with them. The key is get them healthy and give them the appropriate exercise or turnout or whatever that might be to keep their mind busy and make sure that you're giving them that enrichment.

I think that's an excellent point too because I think when they come off the track and they've been on this high octane feed and then they go through a transition period. Maybe their body is just shifting a little bit. Maybe they dropped some weight or, they're reluctant to eat the hay that you've got.

Cause it's not as good as the hay that they got at the track and things like that, , so you might have a certain type of horse when you bring it home and maybe you start riding a little bit and it seems pretty quiet, but it's probably because it just overall doesn't feel that great. It's not necessarily sore or not necessarily ulcery or anything like that.

It just feels. a little dull, and then it gets good nutrients, gets refeeding, the proper stuff, its body starts to feel good. And then all of a sudden you're like, Whoa, the personalities there, the body starts feeling good and they feel good. And that should be embraced and not something that people get afraid of.

What's next for Meriworthy? Are there any exciting projects or events or goals that you guys are working toward this year? The big goal for this year is to become Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance Accredited. This is our first year to be eligible for that, so we'll be applying for that. And that's really the big goal for the year is to become TAA accredited.

Obviously, to also still qualify for our TCA grant this year. And then we're actually working on putting together a capital campaign to start fundraising to buy our own farm. Mayorworthy is housed at Sean and I's personal farm. But it's quickly outgrown our facility and we would love for it to have its own space and its own identity.

So we provide free board to Mayorworthy, which is great and Mayorworthy pays their own their own hay and vet bills or anything, but it would be nice for Mayorworthy to have its own identity. So we're going to start moving toward that direction. I don't know that'll be this year, but at least it's on the [01:00:00] horizon of knowing we need more space and just with intention putting that out there and saying, here we go, we're going to try for it.

Yeah, and more space means more horses that you guys can bring in and you can do more. You will always fill up that space. Yes, no matter. Like you said, you have a thousand acres, you will fill it up. A friend's husband says, horses are not a solid, they're a gas. It's beyond the space you give them. Very good.

All right. Most importantly, before we go, where can our listeners learn more about Mayorworthy or get in touch with you? So the website, mayorworthy. com, M A R E W O R T H Y. com. On Facebook, we're Mayorworthy, and that's really where the social we're most active on. We do have a handle on. Twitter X, but we're not on there as often.

So usually Facebook's great. And then our website has all of our contact information. Thank you so much, Kyle, for joining us today and sharing all the work that you do with Mayorworthy and that you're doing with your husband. It's been really incredible talking to you. It's been great to be here.

Thank you so much for having me. All right. We have one more question for you. What's one word you would use to describe an OTTB? Yeah, this is a hard one because it's so many words. Literally, my notes at a time, I was like, I have so many words. I think what I really. What draws me to them more than anything when I look at all the reason I've worked with in the in over time and Specifically the off track horses who have had time at the track is personality I mean I wrote down things like talented athlete loyal there's this whole but I think at the end of the day Personality is just I mean my quarter horse has never had and I know you sounds like maybe you have a quarter horse with a big personality, but right like I feel like I never had the same kind of personality for each of them and some of the things they learn when they're at the track.

It's the weird little habits they might have or the little perks they might pick up. So yeah, the word I just lean toward all the time is what draws me to my off track thoroughbreds more than anything is their unique, big kind of crazy, fun, goofy. Sour, whatever that might be, personalities.

That sounds like a lot of words there, hang on. It's a lot of words. The personality covers all of them. There we go. We keep our horses on a thoroughbred breeding farm and a lot of the boarders that keep their horses there are also thoroughbreds. And I cannot agree with you more because you go out in the field with the babies, for example.

And you can pick them out by their personalities. You might forget who they are because they're all fuzzy and they all looked like little brown blobs in the winter, but their personalities just come up and you're like, Oh, there you are. I remember you. And to our listeners thanks for tuning in.

Be sure to check out Mayorworthy and support their amazing mission. If you liked 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 contact us. with interview candidates and topic suggestions at OTTB on tap. com. We love hearing from you until next time.

Cheers.