S2 E8: Transitioning Off the Track & Their 'Train to Own' Program: Tom and Clare Mansmann's Approach to Retraining OTTBs (Part 2)

S2 E8: Transitioning Off the Track & Their Train to Own Program: Tom and Clare Mansmann's Approach to Retraining OTTBs (Part 2)
S02 - E08
[00:00:00]
Hi everyone and welcome back to OTTB on Tap. I'm Niamh. And I'm Emily. Hey, Niamh, what's on tap today?
we're back today with Claire and Tom Mansman of Pacific Farm in Hume, Virginia. We're so excited to have split this into two parts because we got to talking last time and really filled up an episode pretty quickly. We were able to split it into two parts for you guys. Let's figure out where we left off.
I have a follow up question about Farrier and hoof care. Do you have anything that you would specific to thoroughbreds that you have found. I know in, the olden days, I feel like we were always told to take, pull their shoes off and turn them out for six months to a year. And I feel like that tide has changed a bit.
But I'm curious if you have anything specific that you like to do when they come off the track in terms, in regards to their feet.
I think there are some horses and if they have the hoof quality to be barefoot for awhile, especially in the transition or when they're hacking, I think it's wonderful.
But our experience is that they need shoes to mold and shape their new hoof quality and their new hoof structure before you could expect them to be barefoot if they can. Yeah. And so I think it's very, I think that horses get into, people get into trouble with pulling shoes too soon because then the horse actually starts getting sore in their whole body.
Yeah. Then they get ulcers. Then they get, and they didn't have them. actually. Or maybe they did, but we don't know, but it was all made worse because I think because horses obviously don't get off their feet much if their feet hurt. That just wears on them and then you have back problems.
Then, so do you have a kissing spine problem or is it because the horse didn't have shoes on and its feet are sore? Yeah. I think that the idea of, I love the idea of horses being able to be barefoot. I think that's great where we are with the gravel roads that we go down the rocks and Virginia clay.
It's. For a lot of horses and then the amount of workload, if they're going to be fox hunting, if they're going to, jumping and then cantering across the gravel road, it's not the most realistic thing. And even with a hoof boot on, and I know those have made some great strides as an example, if you're out hunting or galloping and something twists on those, you're in a bit of a pickle.
Yeah. Somebody that wants to commit to that barefoot journey that's their thing. They really want to do it. I think it's twofold. One, if they want to commit to that, then you need to commit to the time that it takes and that, that could be pulling its shoes and leaving it out for two years and just not.
I was going to say, you're talking at least a year, to grow a new foot, at the minimum. Yeah, the timing is important to know are you thinking you're going to start working with that horse pretty soon after they finished racing or do you literally have 36 months?
Yeah. So I think, if you have 36 months and in a 50 acre field, pull the shoes, absolutely. And start trimming that foot to success. Yeah. And I think that's the thing too, that, You see so many in search of ads and things like that. And I'm sure, it makes you guys, roll your eyes or scratch your head a little bit, but you know a lot of people, consider shoes maintenance.
And one of the big things that we're really trying to prove with this podcast is that maintenance is not a dirty word. It's a part of horse ownership and management. Yeah, management should be maintenance. To me, they're synonymous with one another because horses, , they have needs, physical, mental, emotional needs they're not static.
You don't pick the horse up, take it home. And it has exactly the same needs that it had at the time that you tried that horse. It's not a bicycle. And so we're really just trying to perpetuate this idea that maintenance is. A part of the puzzle as much as anything else is. That's interesting.
That could be a whole nother podcast. If you get me started on the word maintenance is a dirty word around here because of how people feel about. We literally say maintenance has become a dirty word and we want to change that narrative. People even think of it as maintenance only being joint injections.
Of course. But it's come down to the point now where it's the horse has to have four shoes on. That's too much maintenance. But what if it does everything? What if it makes all of your dreams come true? I've Niamher heard of shoes being considered some sort of extracurricular thing.
And I think you find it too, with, because the price of thoroughbreds has, become so much more accessible, I think they're attracting horse owners that are less aware of all of the components that come into owning a horse that needs more care, I think your point was really good of what is the horse?
This is what we try to do in sales. It's very prevalent in a lot of the Western community. A little bit less so oddly in the English community. We're being really honest. This is what the horse gets. This is what we do. This is, it's a schedule. This is what we feed it. This is how we exercise it. This is how we, this is the whole routine.
And it's proven that this is. successful. You don't have to do everything the way we do it, but we've seen this, why we talked about like our sales program of bringing people into work for us for a few months. We like that so much because you took the horse and you're doing literally the opposite of everything that was successful.
Not to say you can't make changes, but you do need to do it systematically. You're already going to take it and change barriers, right? Cause you don't live here or whatever. Really fine. But I always tell people like, take a picture of its feet right now. So you can see what that looks like.
So you can at least compare like, what's going [00:06:00] on? Because so often you get a call and it's, or somebody brings us a horse in training and it's it's the famous line. Why? I just think that the seller was lying to me and you're like, not like our most common thing we see is that the seller lied.
It's more that the seller was handling something. They've given you all that information. And for some reason, there's this disconnect that. you can't do that same thing or that you shouldn't or something. Yeah real quick, just going back to the feet the original question about the so stereotypically I believe thoroughbred horses, can be known for having very long toes and very low heels.
Furthermore, again, this is very much a stereotype because it's not nearly The majority, but it, it can be some of these horses have very thin souls, not to sound like Dr. Richard Mansman, but it's very easy. It's very inexpensive to have any veterinarian come out and take one lateral view of your horse's feet, the left front and the right front.
So that's, it's a total of three. That would be four views, whatever that costs, 50 per view or 20 per view, whatever your front left front, right front. And you can see the density of the sole, just how thick it or thin it is. And again, there's a lot of European horses with really thin soles as well. Cause they're on manicured surfaces all the time.
This is not a thorough unique issue. a lot of European horses or crossbred horses or any other breeds besides thoroughbred who have very low heels. This is not, we can't just keep picking this on thoroughbreds. Once you have that view, then you can give it to your farrier. You can give it to your vet.
You could give it to the person that's buying the horse from you. You can and say here, This is why this horse probably should wear pads for a while because with that frog pressure, they can start to, they literally will grow a thicker soul and things like that. So we try to be scientific, not just a random I think this horse should do this or whatever.
I also wish you could say to somebody, and we broke this down in an episode with Jessica on, in the early days of the podcast, but we talked about all of the Figures that come into play of the cost of horses and so on. But if you could show somebody like a graph of this is how much money you'll save yourself by just getting those four x rays done, just having that information ahead of time before making the horse sore in its feet, making the horse sore in its body, creating ulcers, creating a, and you just wish you could be like, you're not wasting your money by doing this, with my horse that I bought two years ago, like I said, he'd had all of this experience.
But because he was a quarter horse I said, I don't have x rays to look at, so I'm going to x ray his Hawks and his front feet. So I have a starting point of him at his 13 year old year to go forward and decide what I want to do. That was for me, that was money well spent to have information.
It's information. It's going back to that, before you buy the fish, get your aquarium all set up and we all need to probably figure out the pricing on the aquarium. The salt, the plants, the little scuba guy. I just love that analogy so much. And then how many times you need to clean it per week and so forth.
So get that aquarium set up. But yeah, a lot of fairies might say, listen, I don't actually need an x ray. I can see how thin holes are. I can see his white line. I can feel it sometimes. Yeah. With my thumb. And it's like pushing on a baby's hand.
We know what to do here. Great grand. But there has been some situations too, where we'll have a horse that looks like they have a very upright foot. They're not the classic really long toe. There were race planes were like four inches in front of their heel. And we'd still would do a lateral radiograph just because from an educational standpoint and also just to do the right thing for the horse.
And lo and behold, you're like, wow, that coffin joint is really low. This angle looks good, but man, , we got to spread those heels out and lift those heels a little bit. So anyway, yeah, because it, as it turns out, sellers don't have x ray vision.
It's up to people to make those informed decisions for themselves. Unless of course you have done, and you, I'm sure you share that type of information with people that are, buying your horses and things like that. Yeah. Yeah. And these sources are just so incredible too. We see, horse after horse that have had incredibly successful racing careers and are doing incredibly. Amazing things with their new job in any sort of discipline at any level.
And their hoof confirmation is not great. Like God did not touch them with the most, perfect confirmation feet. And that just, their hearts are just so amazing. Yeah. Yeah. And like you said to Claire about, if they're doing the job, if they can prove that they've done the job then some of those things don't really matter as much.
Yeah. I don't want to say we use a lot of glue, but we're definitely not scared to use glue ons because as the horse is, so this is more specific to the thoroughbred. It's not at all. Actually, we just had, we had a big blood that just got blue. As they're gaining strength and learning to step underneath themselves, they step all over themselves.
I, we have horses that start off the track and they're wearing like 18 boots cause they step on the leg and I would boot their forearms if I could. Yeah. Everything they do, they nick themselves. They, because they're stepping in such a different way and they're not, they don't have those squatting muscles.
They can run long and lanky and fast, but ask them to, trot through the tires and they're like Bambi, and so it is funny. We do have horses [00:12:00] that, we have a pile of boots and right now we have one horse that wears boots, but then there's more we'll come in and it's like boots everywhere.
So they also step all over their feet. And so we use the glue so that they're not just tearing up the foot that they're trying to grow. Oh my gosh. And there's nothing worse than trying to rehab. , a really bad heel grab, we do again, we're very blessed to have Alex, but we do empower our farriers, he doesn't want to keep tacking on shoes.
I'll say Hey, listen, hopefully , this horse overreaches and pulls that shoe off in no time. We'll put bell boats on them. Don't be afraid to set that shoe back. Give that horse balance because you're worried. We're going to call you on a Sunday that the horse lost a shoe.
Yeah It's lost a shoe. It's on us. Yeah, no problem.
Exactly or even just glue the heels Yeah, so the shoe could be fully nailed on and you can just glue the heels. It doesn't usually last for that long, but it's actually got more of a chance than the strategy. The horses that are actually going to be working, right? And it's also just great for them to, Have a chance to grow some foot.
Sometimes you pull the racing plates off and there's just nothing to nail to, and you can't let a horse like that go barefoot, it's going to be crippled or the mud season. My goodness. I know. Our farm is actually up on a hill, but where my new thoroughbred is, he's down and the mud and every time I go out into the field, I'm just like, Oh God please still have your shoes on. See if they have them. You can't, you really can't. I know. Though he just got his second shoeing and our farrier Andrew Nielsen, he's amazing. And He commented to the barn manager that the horse not only has good feet, he said, not just for a thoroughbred.
He just has really good feet. And I was like, Oh, okay. Thank goodness.
I think a lot of times too, your farrier wishes, maybe you would get your vet involved. Like I think for the more difficult cases it's good for them to work together and to both have an understanding of what's going on internally. And, to your point. I think that the worst thing for feet in a lot of ways is not being able to move around comfortably.
You've got all of that blood flow and all of that helps support the growth and and all the structures and I think that when a horse gets sore and then it's just a horrible, vicious cycle for the horse.
Oh, yeah. My last horse was really big and really rangy, really leggy. And boy, was the whole mechanics of his from everywhere beyond the saddle, down over his loin, through his hind leg. Everything was so delicately interconnected and, yeah, you have to really take all that stuff into account.
We're going to switch gears a little bit here.
But regarding your sales program, and I know that Claire and I spoke a little bit about this over Facebook messenger, but how is your program different than other resellers?
I think, I could make that a little bit more specific, but I know we spoke a little bit about the fact that you guys like to bring your horses along a little bit longer and get them going a little bit more. And so that is, something that's more unique to some of the other resellers in our area.
So maybe you guys could speak to that.
So. Our business model isn't necessarily based on sales. We are primarily a service.
We're in the service industry. So helping people with their horse. And it just so happens that helping people with their. Retired racehorse has been something that we do a lot of do you want to explain what we came up with as far as the yeah and we joke we're we always say we're not very good horse sellers and partly it's not what we're known for because we go slower.
But do we go slower? Because we're not as good at that, I know Jessica and she does just such a great job with selling horses and truly transitioning them and getting them to their next place, so almost reseller is. Yeah, she's doing that. But she gets them in, she gets their feet done.
She gets, she really has a good system and gets some really quality horses. We we do take in horses direct off the track ourselves sometimes, but most of what we do are help people. With their horses that they've gotten off the track. And many of those people took that horse home and then realized that they needed help.
Sometimes that could be that they want to sell the horse. And we can help with that. But our, infamous line is we'll try to sell the horse back to you. We're the ideal person for this horse. We just need to help you guys. Yeah. Help. That's one of our favorite thing to do, by the way.
Yeah, it is. We get sent a horse or I think I need to sell it because it's just not working out and that this and this and the horse or whatever. And, we say, okay, we'll work with them for a couple of weeks. And then how often can you come and train with us?
Yeah. Two days a week or once a month or whatever. Okay. And then what happens is we literally sell the horse back to them. Because they realize, oh, I just needed to learn how to sit the trot a little bit better and then what would be, oh, I just needed to be able to be confident with the horse, hacking out.
And then that was the major issue. So that's one of the things Claire and I love to do is to sell the horse back to the person. If the horse to be sold, yeah. One thing that we've done a lot and it goes, it's right along the, that same vein is we have found our system is not the only system by any stretch of the imagination, but we have found up a really good flexible system that works the way that we can read horses bring them along.
Our people that help us with the horses, our staff here the way we work together, the way we teach with the horses and everything. We get to know these horses so well that selling them does become difficult because you're sitting there trying to explain every single nuance right here.
And you see it and if they're going to another farm that has a trainer that we know, we're super excited, right? Cause that's easy when you know that trainer and you can say, Hey, this is what we do. This is what's worked. And you know that they can seamlessly move that horse into their training program.
That's our favorite. If the horse is leaving. But what we oftentimes have done is we bring people in and it'll always start with them just coming for a riding lesson. Next thing you know, you found this horse that, really does kind of matchmakers. And so what we started [00:18:00] was a program we call it the train to own.
So it's like a lease to own that person is is taking over the finances on that horse, like a lease, their training, their feed, their vet, all of that. And depending on the horse After X amount of months, that horse is still alive. We say yours for a dollar. You would buy it for a dollar.
And we love that because you could buy the horse for 10, 000, 20, 000, 40, 000 and take it home and not be successful. And that amount of money doesn't make that worth it. Then it went, and then we get a call that they want to sell the horse or, or that something went wrong or they passed it along because they couldn't They weren't having fun with the horse when we saw it as being a potential match.
So when we can bring someone in we, we help them, sometimes they don't know how to put a bandage on a horse or tack it up properly. And so this horse may be greener, but actually if you would just work with us for a little while, we can teach you those things.
Yeah. And we can even put you on a school horse while we work with this off the track horse and you work with us to bring that horse along and at the end of six months or eight months, you guys are together and that it is a viable thing and then you can keep the horse with us. You can take it somewhere else whatever needs to happen.
And that's been a really successful program for us and we really love doing it because we really want people to. To enjoy the horse and to be successful and success is not a ribbon. It's right that you can. You said there's a lot of steps between just leading that horse out of the stall and going to the mounting lock and hopping on.
There's so many things before you can do that. That's amazing. You can take a horse and just take it out of the stall, get on and just go for a ride. It's amazing. It's like a dream. When we get to the point where we have a barn full of horses that like you just You can just get on. Yeah. Really?
Yeah. It's amazing. Yeah. So when people have to understand how astounding I think that is when you can just do that. Yeah. It's great. And people Don't understand how many steps it takes to get to that point safely. And when you are missing those steps, it comes out somewhere. Yeah. Gaps in training and we've talked to Jessica about this before, but I think sometimes the hardest thing to do is ride a horse that somebody else has trained.
She , she talks a little bit about some of the toughest horses that she has to deal with or horses that she gets back when someone else has trained them. And so I think being able to , Work with you guys and understand your approach to the whole picture. It's super fascinating.
And I wish more people were doing that kind of thing because , it's a lot of money to have horses. And if you can't enjoy the horses that you have them what are we even doing? And it's been really successful and a lot of fun. Cause it checks so many boxes. I don't know if we've discussed this before, You go, you try a horse, maybe you go and try it again and then you vet it and you buy it.
And then you're supposed to just take it at home. And you've changed the whole world, so there's a lot of pressure involved in that. And there's a lot of, rightfully so gosh, is this going to work? Is it, what did the vet say? What did the trainer say?
And people put a lot of pressure. They say, this is going to be my forever horse. And I actually, that's not my favorite state. Yeah. Because I agree with that. That's putting so much pressure on yourself that this is going to work for a while before you get married or do like I do. And I've been with my boyfriend for nine and a half years and we're not just still leasing.
It's still leasing. I'm still, it could be a trade in at some point. He doesn't listen to the podcast. It's okay, but that's a lot of pressure to go try a horse a couple of times by try it and buy it. In this case, we spread that out over, three months, six months, budget friendly. I joked around about my last thoroughbred.
I had him for five years. I, spent the first year dealing with his feet. I brought him along myself when I needed help. I put him in professional training. I got him a record with an amateur and then I sold him for a lot of money. And was able to buy the horse of my dreams. So I essentially did a layaway plan while bringing a really nice horse along and then got a really nice horse at the end so there's, there are many ways to find your pathway there.
I love that. And basically it's no money down, 0 percent financing and you can walk away wheNiamher you want. , it's a great business model. And to go out and go horse shopping was bizarre, but it put all of this pressure on me as an individual to be like, how much do you actually know about horses to be able to, I had been on the seller side a lot. We had a lot of horses come through our program.
I was very familiar with that part of the equation, but as a buyer. It was incredibly intimidating to go into somebody's barn, try a horse based on the parameters that you had set out into the atmosphere and then have to make a decision of not a little bit of money, like the most money that I had ever had to buy a horse with, and to make an educated decision by myself.
And it was. It's really daunting. And I feel like somebody who has been lucky enough to learn from great people. And I feel like I have a pretty good foundation on me, but I know very little in the grand scheme of things. Yeah. And I've handled horses for.
Countless pre purchase exams. I've seen it all from the other side over and over again. And to be on the other end of it, I was like, this is way scarier than selling horses, I think. So yeah, I think what you guys are doing is is phenomenal. It's really setting the horse up for success. Yeah. Yeah. And we really like them. Yeah. That really shines through with you guys.
As the admin of this giant OTTB reselling group on Facebook, just the influx of [00:24:00] people that have gotten interested in off track thoroughbreds and which is fantastic, but you can tell by a lot of the questions that are being asked and by.
the problems that people encounter that they're going into it, probably because the price point is a little bit more accessible and they've heard what great horses that they are, but they don't know how to approach their care and riding and training, especially in this first year or so. So really cool program.
. We're going to switch gears again, but before we do, I just wanted to ask you guys, what, Do you think is the most important piece of advice you'd give to someone retraining an off the track thoroughbred for the first time? I'd say the biggest advice is that it's say, riding is a team sport.
So you don't even necessarily have to have a professional cause I don't think it's when somebody says, is this horse like suitable for an adult amateur? I don't know. It depends on the adult amateur. Could be, but also could not be same with the pros.
But then I think doing them all. By yourself is not a great idea. I think you need help. And that actually makes it a lot more fun. Community effort, Yeah. To reach them and to have help. Yeah, absolutely. So seek help for sure. And what Claire and I have discovered, and maybe you guys already knew or what have you, is there's just this massive community.
Of people that love thoroughbred horses from racing and otherwise and it's there is so much out there. But if. If you put limitations on, asking for help and seeking help and when help, literally education. Yeah. Then, Claire and I have this thing where it's, people will say I can't afford this, whatever it is.
I can't afford X, I can't afford Y and can't and won't are two different things. And if you decided that you were going to. Go take ownership of this horse and you're saying can't about anything, finances or otherwise you're probably going to find yourself stuck in a corner somewhere at some point in time.
So we try to make the can'ts, possible. Because there's always a way that, you know, with these horses that we can, do the best we can for them. That could be , more of the downside of the retired race horse is that because some of them can be quite inexpensive compared to the entry level of other, sport horses, then, cutting corners on, getting training, getting lessons, cutting corners on farrier care or veterinary care.
Those seem obvious, but you, not taking riding lessons and getting training for your horse is a huge mistake, and at the end of the day, truly, it's only the horses that suffer. Yeah. That's, I would say getting help especially for the first timer.
Yeah. Have your help and your program already set up, then go get your horse. That's probably a good idea too. Yes. Yeah. No. And, I think you hear these stories all the time of Oh yeah. In some of these barn owner groups and things like that, where they brought a horse home and I didn't approve this horse or it's an off the track thoroughbred and I don't want to ride that.
And it's probably should have had that figured out beforehand. Yeah. Get that aquarium set up before you go get your fish. I like that analogy a lot. It takes a while to get the water right when you I know. Definitely. Yeah. I made that mistake. We have another one too. You want to hear it?
Yes. Cause we get people all the time and I'm just getting old now, so I'll write, but it's like somebody that says, you know what? I want to. I want to start training dolphins. I love dolphins. I'm super interested in learning about dolphins and I want to be a dolphin trainer.
Cool. Can you swim? No, I don't know how to swim. Hang on a second. Probably to start training dolphins. You want to be a little bit capable. You tread water , be comfortable and water a little bit, right? So when we go to, when we go to know how to hold your breath, . Yeah. So when we go to, let alone scuba diving work with these horses, whether it's thoroughbred horses or any horses, you wanna, and unless you're gonna focus on liberty or unmounted work, you probably wanna really.
Practice and be pretty competent at riding and then let's start training horses. Now riding, as we know is a lifelong thing. It's every day we're going to, work harder to have better hands and better leg aids and a better seat balance and so forth. So it's not like I know how to ride now.
It's, I think if you interviewed The greatest writers in the world, they would say, gosh, I got a lot to learn still. But anyway, that's another one that, that I think we should all try to work on our swimming skills as much as possible. Yeah, I like that a lot. And then, and start training dolphins or turtles.
I think Emily is thinking of creative things for the show art for this episode. There's been some good, I've been jotting down some good. Good little quotes here. I have to go be a dolphin trainer.
We had a little holiday party at our barn. On Sunday, and we had Hannah saucy come out and do like a groundwork demonstration for us as a part of it.
And I was talking to her afterwards and I was telling her about interviewing you guys. I was like, I know we all miss Jimmy. So much. , but I've Niamher. Interacted with anybody that reminded me so much of Jimmy than when I was talking with you, Tom. It's like the same feeling.
And she was like, Oh my God, I know. Don't like, so big shoes to fill, but I, You guys are perpetuating so much [00:30:00] good. Yeah. The best thing about hanging out with Jimmy was standing next to him when it, while he was coaching. Yeah. And and we were also we were reiterating what we were talking about, cause last time we were chatting, you were talking about the can't versus won't and gaining access to things that you need when you're taking care of horses.
And I was like, there's just a lot of. Free education out there for you in terms of going and standing and setting fences. Going to watch your friend's lesson. I don't know. It's always strange to me that people go to the barn and just leave immediately, they tack up their horse and they leave.
And I understand I have the luxury of having a very flexible schedule, but even when I didn't, I would take days,, my paid time off at work and I'd drive out to Keelani farm and stand next to Jimmy for hours, . I just want to go stand next to him, and he's . So incredibly unique and how he could how what a lesson you could get without sitting on a horse. Yes. That's why his books are so good. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. This is getting on to Jimmy, but the very first time I rode with Jimmy was at Gladstone. Actually, it was a young writers invitation and.
We got up in the morning, went upstairs, and the first hour and a half was in a classroom. And it was the first real impressionable riding lesson I ever had. And there was no horses. The horses were downstairs underneath us, but with a piece of chalk on a chalkboard. It's taught us how to ride position, the forward seat, the Gallop debt down a bank, up a bank.
I was, and I walked out of there going, what just happened? You're right. There's so much knowledge out there. And the truth is when, we talk about, won't or can't or whatever when it comes to financing your writing or your love for horses or your love for the thoroughbred horse or the retired race horse, there's, things cost money.
So training costs money. Or you could learn as much as you can and continue to learn and train your own horse. Trimming your horse or shoeing your horse costs money. I apprenticed with a farrier for a year and a half. And so I don't have to call a farrier if I need to tap a shoe on or need to trim one of the young horses or whatever.
You can save yourself money by learning as much as you can. And also like sharing what, like I, this is it was strangely really, but my boyfriend works in it, he's a software engineer and his reputation in the industry is for creating mentorship amongst the teams that he's developed over the years.
And it's actually something that he and I talk about a lot. And I wish there was more of a system for people being able to share what they know, I might know an approach to doing something that, somebody else at the barn might not. And quite frankly I feel like it's a little selfish not to help or share your knowledge sometimes when you see somebody struggling or. Do you say, would you like some help with that or have you tried this, not to, let me tell you a story about this. Yeah. Yeah. I had this issue before and here's how I found success with that.
We're on a thoroughbred breeding farm and every year when the babies show up, our bar managers, go in the stalls, play with the babies. Their approach to handling the babies is so cool. And, there's just days where most of the time she'll say no, but I'll be like, do you need any help with turnout or, anything like that?
And she's I got to turn out all the babies. And she knows how crazy I am about learning. And she's do you want to learn how to do it our way? And I was like yes. I want to learn, I want to learn how to do it, and yeah. And so I think. You can still be that curious person that wants to learn.
I also would like to come snuggle babies. Oh my gosh, just come anytime you want to. There's so many babies. They're now their last year's crop is out in this big field and they have this huge turnout shed. And sometimes the sun hits them in such a way that they're all just in a big pile.
And I'm like, I just want to go climbing the hay with them. Dreamy,
So we were gonna talk to you guys about the RRP, but I think we should probably break that into a completely separate episode do either of you have a particular. Success story or horse that came through your program. It doesn't have to be an off the track thoroughbred that you're particularly proud of.
Oh I'd have to talk about the buff dude horse for sure. We've been proud of all of them that have. We've gone on to do things and we love to see them doing things with other people that is actually more of a success than the fact that this little watching the people that own the horse that bought the horse and so forth have, success is just.
It makes Claire and I's total day. It could be at a local dressage show. It could be something that they wanted to do. We've had a client that just wanted to show one time at a show. It's good. It's called Upperville Horse Show. Or go do their first starter or even, the first long trail ride.
Out of the barn or what have you. So just watching that, that success of others with their horses, I think brings us the most pleasure. It was really special. But the buff dude horse was one that he was an early one. We took off the track cause we've had him forever now. That we didn't get a lot of interest in he's very quiet.
He was very small had an old tendon. People would try him and they'd say it was too quiet. So we just kept training him and he was the first and really only one that Jimmy said do you own this one? Oh. I try to say no to it always, corporate horse cause he really likes the horse.
And so he was one that really Jimmy helped us develop. He competed for a few years through preliminary and that's actually a big feat because that is in my spare time. That's not at all something that the, is part of the business that was an extra time that we have somehow that horse managed to to [00:36:00] do those things, with, lots of preparation, but also lots of throw you on the trailer and let's go.
Yeah. And then I got to get back because we've got other things to do and the kids and but he's also one that Jimmy would actually come ride, which was very special. So he rode him yeah, up until a few months, honestly, before he passed away. And that always meant a lot that we had trained a horse that Jimmy.
Wanted to get on what wanted to get on because he knew it was safe and what, felt that he could assist us with when he needed to. And then our daughters now riding and hunting him some, and he just walked into kind of Fox hunting. And so he's just become this horse that we can teach lessons off of him.
And so he's done just a tremendous amount , he has a huge heart. So he's done a tremendous amount of work for us. He's been advertising. He's been educational because we got an opportunity to bring him up from, you Being four years old and off the track And it's pretty cute that the horse has a 13 year old girl with pigtails on him.
Yeah, it's really cute. Jumping and stuff like that. , did she ride at the Thoroughbred Show last year? No. So Evie just started riding a couple of summers ago. Okay. There was a really cute young girl at the thoroughbred show with our student who bought that young horse.
That was amazing. Oh my gosh. And I was just this little girl is and the horse has a jump on it. And the girl was kicking and going, and I was like, look at her go. She's awesome. That's a great teen year old child on a thoroughbred. Four year old horse. So amazing. Love it. Yeah. He had run that year in Florida.
Yes. So badly, like one start. But yeah, that was adorable. Yeah. Yes. We, do have tons of those stories of those horses that, we watch with their owners or we get Most people still stay in touch with us. We still see the pictures. We have one man used to send us a handwritten letter every Christmas, he went on to be a staff horse for an older gentleman.
And again, it's always the ones that don't really make sense. Like it was a lot of horse and and they just were two peas in a pod. So that's amazing. I think each year that we've done the makeover. I think since 2015, 2016, all those horses were special just because I don't know, you went to battle with them for that.
, it's like a mini Kentucky or something like that. So you made it, but he, got through and and all those horses have been placed at great homes. The people that we've helped that have gone to the makeover, usually most of those people were like one time owners, so they didn't do the makeover in multiple years because that's their horse of the lifetime.
Yeah. And that's very rewarding. This last horse that I did the makeover on, his name was trending. He was just so fun. He was so quiet and easy and big scopey. Jumper. And that was just really fun because it was like a vacation with him. You got to show off a little bit and.
70 year old woman just bought him and she's the real deal. She's been fox hunting and for, her whole life. And she loves thoroughbreds and she saw us out in the Hunfield and just asked if she could have them. So that's amazing. That's high praise right there. Praise about those horses.
And the finesse man horse he'll always have a little spot in my heart as he. It was just amazing and I was just teenager didn't know much and he had a big heart and he had a hole in his side. So that was That's so wild. We would love to have you on again. We're actually, Hoping that we can take the four year old, I just got to the RRP, so we'd love to have you on again so we can pick your brain about tips and things and just, you can put me on the spot a little bit and I can ask you some things if you guys would be open to it, either one or both of you, we'd love to have you both on, you're both I think what you're doing at your farm is creating this incredible legacy.
Obviously the farm was there and, but what you guys have done collectively in your past experiences coming together and setting up shop in a really cool area of the country. And. What you're doing is really special. It's like nothing I've ever really heard of before and I just think it's awesome and obviously your passion comes through tenfold, so that's really cool.
Thank you. Emily has one more question to ask you. Oh yes. What's one word you each can have a word that you'd use to describe an O-T-T-B-O-T-T-B do you want me to go first? Yeah. I have a word. Resilient. Good. Love it.
What's yours? I don't know. He's thinking. It's hard to do. It's hard to do. It's gotta be one word, huh? One word. Tom doesn't strike me as a man of one word answers. Can you narrow it down? Yeah. It's spectacular. It's pretty easy. Yeah. I like that. I've always wanted to produce a whole show series. It's going to be called the thoroughbred spectacular and it's going to have huge prize money for it's going to be open hunters and open jumpers and derbies, but they're really spectacular.
They're like up and again from the 1990s and below, we would not be even having this conversation. They're steeplechasers, they're turf horses, they're dirt horses they're fox hunters, they're hunters, they're jumpers, they're idle dices , they're everything.
They literally can do anything. It's just, sometimes we get in the way. Oh, and just wait, we've got a version of our series, OTTB on tap evaluates, where [00:42:00] we're going to break down the confirmation and breeding of Idle Dice, Jet Run, and Epic win. Oh, cool. We thought we'd pick some really standouts from when we were younger .
, you should call Bernie Trarick on that one. You're not the first person to say that to me. Yeah. Yeah. So I might have to do that. You guys, thank you so much for joining us.
Thanks for having us. It's been a pleasure. Absolutely. Thank you.
Just really quick. Claire, what's the best way to get ahold of you? If someone's curious about looking at horses that you guys have for sale or coming and training with you.
Yeah, probably our Facebook page and our Instagram are most active. So we're Pacific Farms Incorporated. And Instagram it's at Pacific Farms. And then our website is pacificfarmsinc. com. 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 inter, interview candidates and topic suggestions at OTTBONTAP. com. and don't forget to sign up for our newsletter. We love hearing from you.
Thank you guys so much. Thank you. All right. Bye. Bye.