S2 Ep1: OTTBs are like Potato Chips, and so are we! Kicking off Season 2!

S2 Ep1

[00:00:00] All right. Okay. This has to sound better than the first time. I know. Let's look alive here. So I guess you didn't like my idea, which was for us to replay clips of the painful first episode introduction, and then we'd have to listen to it and comment, but that would be a problem.

Because I've Niamher listened. Actually listened to it. First of all, there was like a mistake in the recording, which I discovered. I'm sure I probably knew it at the time, but I was so desperate just to get it out that I was just like, whatever. What's the mistake? I don't know. I think it starts mid sentence or something.

We were just amazed that it worked at all. That's also when I was trying to edit using a program. I know everything was brand new and I was like, I don't even know if this is going to work. Long gone are the days where you're just putting two cassette tapes into a boom box and making a mixtape for your friends with commentary.

It would be the funniest thing if this was all just major gaslighting on me. And you're like, yeah, we have this podcast, you're on it. And it just didn't exist. I just cut you out of it every time. The program that we use, actually, you can record conversations of you talking and it will learn your voice and I can actually have it just AI, do one of our voices, if it has enough to sample from.

So you're saying you have me say things I don't really say. Maybe, I don't know. You just might have to listen.

Hi everyone. And welcome back to OTTB on tap. I'm Niamhe. And I'm Emily. Hey, Niamh, what's on tap today? We're welcoming in our guests, our listeners, to Season 2. There are no guests. We have no guests. It's just us. Sorry, guys. This is the first episode of Season 2, which is so exciting. Emily, can you believe that we made it this far?

No. No and yes. Yesterday sat down in the morning and I was like, let me make this quick reel and I'm going to put every episode into it. And it took me like two hours.

I was like, Oh my goodness. And I thought my laptop was going to blow up before I got it exported because the file was so huge. But no, we have done quite a lot in a year, 46 episodes. It's mind boggling. Yeah, so this is technically our 47th episode. We're not exactly sure how the episodes are going to be numbered.

We'll figure that out if it gets confusing for you guys. We want to make it as simple as possible, but we did want to do season by season just to keep it simple. ourselves on track a little bit. But it's really wild and we just thought it would be a great time to recap the last year and reintroduce ourselves to our listeners.

Yeah, because the first introduction needs to disappear. Yes. From the internet. Immediately, if not sooner. Don't listen to that one. Don't listen to it. Unfortunately, I think 300 people have listened to it. Oh boy. Yikes. Okay. So anyway, if you are a long time listener, thank you for making it past our original intro and for being with us over the last year and for our new listeners.

Hello. We are so glad that you found us. We've been getting some great feedback from everybody lately and it really I know that we say this, but anytime we get a positive comment or an email or a message on Facebook or Instagram or anything like that, we're just blown away. We really truly do love hearing from you.

Positive comments only, just kidding. We are actually happy to hear constructive criticism as well. But yeah, we do. We do love hearing from you guys. It's we'll screenshot things or text each other and we get really excited about it. When I was putting this episode together, I thought it might be good to go back and listen to the original and holy cow, guys, it's really cringeworthy.

 Obviously we've loosened up a lot. We've both learned how to talk into a void and get through it. Over the fact that our voices are being recorded in perpetuity. As I just decided, is my microphone actually on? I guess I can see. Wait, why? How come mine doesn't appear to be on? That's not moving when I.

So it's, I can see yours moving when you talk, but when I'm talking, mine's not moving. I can see yours moving when you talk. Then, We're probably okay. Okay. Yours is green. So this is what about a well oiled machine we are. We still have to tap our mics and so it's still cringeworthy. Yeah, exactly.

But it literally sounds like somebody is doing some sort of proof of life video where we're a hostage and someone's going hi, I'm Niamhe. And I'm being fed okay. And guess what, Niamh, everyone knows cause they've already listened to it. So I know we sound pretty nervous and we were definitely afraid to show who we really are.

And if you're still here, that means you like a couple of stone cold weirdos that are just really into off the track thoroughbreds. So thank you for sticking with us. We did want to give A hearty shout out to Kimber from Trotty by Nature. We started a little project whereby we thought maybe if we encourage listeners to leave us reviews.

and send us a PM with their address. We will send them an OTTB on tap sticker. So Kimber left us a really nice review from Trouty by nature, which is her business. Also I should mention that Kimber is only 14 and has re homed [00:06:00] five off the track thoroughbreds this year, which is just amazing. But she also took it upon herself to send us a, The most amazing box of swag.

So she sends us each a t shirt, a hoodie yeah, no, we are absolutely loving it. And one day we might try to make ourselves presentable enough for a photograph and maybe we'll take a photo wearing our gear, but we're super loving it. So I will say I'm wearing my trotty by nature t shirt as we speak.

So we could take a picture of you in your headphones with your wet hair. Yeah.

Perfect. But anyway, check them out. They do really great work, Trotty by Nature. I believe she is located in Montana, which is pretty cool. I think she's on her way to Las Vegas right now for a big competition. We're fangirling over here cause we think it's so cool what you're doing.

Yes, very much when we first started this podcast a year ago, it was a really steep learning curve for both of us. As you guys probably know we're both creative types. We both come from creative backgrounds and we really enjoy learning how to do something new, but we didn't realize what we were getting ourselves into when we decided to start a podcast.

We do everything ourselves from writing the episodes, the interviews, producing the episodes, the recording, editing, all of the social media, all of the SEO the website. Everything as a team, Emily and I do everything ourselves. And so it's been really fun. And we have a ton of ideas of what we want to do in the future, but I feel like now we're feeling.

Save for the every once in a while microphone malfunction. We're doing pretty good. Yes. Thank you all so much. We would not be here without our wonderful listeners and big news before we get started on our lovely reintroduction, we want to announce our contest winner.

 There was a hotly contested contest. Such a great script that I wrote our sister Facebook group, which is OTTB market and OTTB on tap decided to join together and do a cover photo for OTTB market contest. Paired with an underdog story for the podcast. And let me tell you, the response was overwhelming.

So overwhelming that I actually had to turn off my notifications on Facebook because it was nonstop. So just thank you all for your participation and for sharing the amazing stories. , at first we thought maybe we'd get five finalists. We ended up with 10 finalists. And there were two that really, all of the stories are incredible, but two got the most of the popular vote.

And I think they ended up, even though they each had hundreds of votes, they ended up like eight, eight votes away from each other. However, the ultimate winner who will be on the cover photo is Jason Hillman and his OTTB mayor Cruz with Brandon. And we'd love to have him on the podcast at some point to share.

He has a really remarkable story about a very feisty thoroughbred mare that, guess what, would not pass a pre purchase. She was described as a physical train wreck. And now they're out successfully running and jumping and inventing At what novice level about to move up the training. Yeah however We also want to extend an invitation to juliana prusak and too much crown or nemo to his friends to come on the podcast and tell their underdog story on an upcoming episode.

She starts her story As nemo has kissing 23rd and my veterinarian had high hopes You We'd still be able to make it to RRP this year. As soon as he was finishing rehabbing from surgery, he was in a pasture accident in July and was millimeters away from puncturing the stifle. So we really cannot wait to have Julianna on and hear all about that.

Yeah. And they were also at the RRP this year and they did a freestyle, dressed as Dory and Nemo from Finding Nemo. Yeah. So yeah, really excited to hear that story. It sounds like quite the comeback. Yeah, really cool. And again, a real, timely story about things that are going on with thoroughbreds right now in terms of kissing spine and whatnot.

So love to pick up brain about that. Absolutely. All right, Emily we're going to start with you to do our reintroduction. You had a pretty unique path with OTTBs and as long as I've known you, you've always been incredibly humble about your successes. I know that you, don't really enjoy talking about your achievements necessarily.

Can you tell us how you got started with OTTBs and some of the highlights of your career with them? Sure. I will make it short and impactful. . So I started off at a local lesson barn when I was like eight years old and ended up in 4 H and eventually in Pony Club. And it just so happened that Most of the horses I ended up riding ended up being off track thoroughbreds.

The barn I was at had quite a few of them. And I didn't have the funds to purchase a horse or even really lease a horse. So I was basically riding what I was able to ride and, what was it offered to me and available to me. So that's how it all started. Notable achievement of my like young riding courier when I was 14, this was not on an OTTB, but I ended up being the Area 2 Prelim Young Rider Champion and reserve in the overall division.

And that was actually on a leased horse that my trainer owned. Eventually, I earned my [00:12:00] HA in Pony Club, and I got my first horse, who was an off the track thoroughbred, Alex, when I was 16. His jockey club name was Smokey Fire, for those of you interested in looking him up. He's not the one by Smoke Glackin.

He's the one by Sea Fire. He's the older one. Because I'm old I wanted a horse that would jump the jumps, no matter what I did. That was basically my criteria. I had a very long criteria, to be honest, but that was like the biggest thing was that the horse was going to jump the jumps.

And boy, did he ever. If you go back to some of our episodes, you can hear about my experiences at Young Riders where I got completely run away with on steeplechase. Though my team did earn the silver medal in the one star long format. So basically a preliminary level championship. Then we moved up to intermediate.

We did the two star long format at Bromont. And then in 1999, when I was the ripe old age of 19, I wrote Alex at the Rolex Kentucky three day event at the three star level, which was also long format, cause that's all we had back in that day. But basically we jumped around most of the big advanced tracks anywhere from Florida to Canada.

In the late nineties, early two thousands. We made it to the USCT developing rider list for training sessions. And we're long listed for the Pan Ams and the Olympics way back in the day. So that's my claim to fame. And, I always loved the off track thoroughbred, but his heart and his just tenacity.

It's what really, it was just quintessential of the off the counter bread. Yeah, and I think that you've been chasing that dragon ever since Alex. I don't think you've ever sat on anything quite like him. I wouldn't say I'm chasing the dragon. I think everyone else wants me to chase the dragon.

I have no desire to do that. I guess what I mean is that you haven't really sat on anything that gave you that same feeling. I've ridden some horses that felt similar to him, but Niamher one that was like, If you point him at the jump, you'd better hold on because he's going to jump it.

And if you're worried about that, then don't do it. So after all your success as a young rider through the advanced level, you took a pretty long break from riding and what made you decide to come back to horses? I have a wonderful friend who kept sending me canter ads because canter had started up somewhere in that time period.

I was like, Oh, look at this makes it so easy. You can look at all these horses and make appointments and go to the track and go buy them and train them and resell them. And Oh, what a great idea. About 15 years ago, right? What year is it? I don't do math. I don't know. Yeah, I had to have been about 15 years ago.

Probably something like that. Yeah. Anyway, so we bought a horse together and then I bought another one and then I quickly decided that's when we met. And then I quickly decided that I needed to immerse myself more into riding because I was frustrated that. After about 10 years off, I wasn't quite as natural as it had been.

In writing as an adult amateur is a totally different experience. It's very difficult. I give adult Amis a lot of credit. So I ended up re immersing myself. And doing crazy things like bartending all night in Philly and then driving out to feed the horses in the morning out in Cochranville, Pennsylvania from my bartending gig in Philly which is like an hour and 15 minutes each way.

But you do what you have to do to get it, it done. And that's how I've always been, I think. Yeah. And then you really dove in and decided that you were going to start an actual business buying and selling horses off the track. How did you make the big leap from graphic designer slash bartender to being a professional reseller of off the track thoroughbreds?

Yeah, I think it's like a slow burn and the potato chips, , meaning you can't just have one. Part of what I did, and we talked about this in the episode about Prima and the RRP, but I went to work for a notable reseller at the time and got back immersed in just being the first one on the off track thoroughbred, showing it to clients, learning how to pick them out knowing What made them tick and really how to select and choose them and make it almost like second nature and then Ended up branching out renting a farm or a barn and quickly acquiring more buying and selling.

And that just developed into my own business. So I did that for about five years. I still kept some roots in bartending and design while I did that. But it was definitely my primary. primary, what's the word? Occupation for quite a while. But I had a business called OTTB marketplace.

And I really wanted to create a community, but that I would have enough horses to show people that were of different types and suited different types of riders. And some of them would be fresh off the track. Some would have more training. So it ended up being a really nice situation of being able to say, Hey, I've got five to 10 horses available.

Why don't you come out and see them? What are you looking for? And we'll go from there. And [00:18:00] can you talk about any highlights or. Notable stories from that experience. Oh my goodness. It's not for the weak of heart. Weak stomach or anything. Don't be weak. You can't be weak because it chews you up and spits you out.

Even when you're not weak. Yeah. I work a corporate job now and there's a lot of times when i'm like, oh Finally, I could go back and spend all day at the barn and I see a thoroughbred online and i'm like Gosh, I could buy that and bring it home and retrain it and sell it.

But for me, while I was doing it, I unfortunately Niamher was able to really establish a great base for my operation. I had to move a lot. It's really hard to find a good farm to rent that has all of the things that you need and is still. affordable and sustainable. So a lot of what I remember from that time are things like frozen hoses and big grain bills and missing shoes and.

Holding the horses for the farrier for the thousandth time and then going inside and okay, I've got emails I've got to get back to people and schedule people to come out and see the horses Yeah, are they gonna keep their shoes on and? In the morning, we're gonna show up. Are they gonna show up? And are they going to be, are they going to be as described, right?

I always try my very best to describe my horses and I got a lot of comments that the horses were as described or nicer. Sometimes clients would show up and you wouldn't quite know if they should even get on the horse. So that's something that I think that resellers really struggle with is These are very green horses, not that they aren't broke and not that they aren't used to being ridden, but it's a totally different style of riding and to suddenly have a lot of different people come and get on them That also have different styles can be very confusing for them so it's an art and I loved doing it, but for me it wasn't sustainable as a long term career and I do not regret my decision to get out of that lifestyle.

And then now I have one horse and that's a lot more sustainable. Yeah. I think it's one of the reasons that we really enjoy talking to resellers now on the podcast is cause we can really relate and empathize with the struggles.

I think the struggles that are going on now are even stronger than they were when we were doing it together. And we talked about that a little bit in the last two episodes with Jessica, but yeah it's not for the faint of heart and it's very tough and it does. Chew you up and spit you out for sure, but like doing this which when we hear from people it's so rewarding there's horses that I bought and sold and sometimes got to do some retraining on or took to shows and They're still out there competing and I hear about them and you know It really is cool to know that you've been a part of that journey.

I don't regret it But yeah it's not the most enviable job in the world. Let's put it that way. One day we'll have to do an episode where we just talk about funny things that have happened. Maybe we'll save that for Patreon. , just in case we hurt anybody's feelings, but we have a lot of funny stories, but I did get to meet.

And so did you for those Niamh, when she worked for me had a very crucial role, which was while I was riding the horse, she had to talk to the clients. So you've also got to meet some really great people along the way. And witnessed a lot of vettings, which honestly Yeah. were so educational, and so many of the vets in this area were really generous with their time and would answer my questions, and give me a lot of information that they really didn't have to, and so I feel incredibly grateful for being so immersed in that entire process.

I feel like most vets are so happy to find somebody that really wants to learn, and farriers too, we had a wonderful farrier who was like an encyclopedia of knowledge. Love him. Sometimes you'd be like, all right, can you just finish? on. But he taught us a lot too. Yeah.

All right. Is that enough about me? Finally? I think so. I got on my soapbox a little. Are you proud of me? I am. Usually me. It's your turn now. Tell us about your background with horses, Niamhe. And what can you remember about your early experiences with off track thoroughbreds? Yeah, so I was born in Ireland. I'm still an Irish citizen and I've lived in the States for a long time.

But I moved from Ireland to the Bahamas when I was three and I started riding off track. really young, like four or four and a half years old with a British riding instructor on the island of Grand Bahama. Her name was Mrs. Wagner, and she taught English riding lessons. And that's where I got my first experience.

I started riding a little pony. Next thing I know, I'm on this young chestnut mare horse and away we went. And I was actually pretty allergic to everything at the barn, but I just wanted to do it so much that I just kept going back. And I used to try to help out and figure out ways to, get more.

experience and learn more. And when I was eight, we moved to England. I grew up in Yorkshire. And so I got a more on the traditional riding experience of living in England. I would go for a lesson and we would either have an indoor lesson and outdoor lesson, or we'd go on a beach hack, which was amazing.

But again, if you were somebody who really wanted to learn, you could just hang around the barn and you could hack all the ponies out to their turnout field at the end of the weekend, or you So there were a lot of opportunities there, [00:24:00] and it was a very independent thinking type of operation. So you'd go in, they'd tell you which horse you were riding, and you would go and collect their tack, bring it to their stall and tack them up and get them ready.

And and then I moved to the States when I was 13 and I got back into riding with a couple of friends of mine when I was about 13 or 14. And I rode for a woman in Florida who was a mostly a dressage rider, an upper level dressage rider, but she did some eventing. She was incredibly tough. She gave me a lot of really good opportunities.

 My parents really couldn't afford to pay for a riding lesson, so I would just go and I'd muck all these stalls and Work as much as I could to earn a lesson, and then I could ride some of her ponies. And I was really little when I was younger, and I would ride some of her horses and ponies in Shows and things like that.

So she did give me a lot of opportunities, but looking back, there's a lot of scary stuff that happened back then. It was the early 90s. So I'm sure we all have those stories. But you brought back some memories talking about tacking up ponies. And just let loose. Yeah, there was like a pack of us and we used to work at the summer camp at the barn I started riding at.

And we would, like basically tack up the campers horses for them and basically teach them. And I remember the same thing. We'd ride them bareback out to the field at the end of the day and all that stuff. It's funny. Parallel uNiamherse. Yeah. It's really wild. And so one summer one of my best friends at the time, her grandmother lived in Southern Pines, North Carolina.

And we went up and visited and wrote a little bit. And then the next summer we went up as working students and worked for a lady that was based right next Southern Pines, cross country course. So we actually used to go hacking through there. And that was really my first memory of Pinehurst.

properly riding an off the track thoroughbred. I'd always ridden ponies because I was little, but the instructor there liked that I was so small and so she put me on a lot of these off the track thoroughbreds and I met some really incredible ones that year. One that sold while I was there that summer I got taken off with for the first time with an off track thoroughbred out in the Southern Pines, Wisconsin.

Woods, which Emily is very familiar with. It's terrifying. There's a lot of trees and turns. And and I fell in love with my first off the track thoroughbred there as well. He was a really cool horse that had a sinus surgery and everybody was afraid of him. And I just really bonded with him.

And I've got some really cute photos of me riding and competing him. So that was my early days. And then I I took a big break from riding after high school, probably 10 or 15 years off. And then I moved to Philadelphia and I became friends with a girl who was volunteering at an equine therapy center just outside of Philadelphia called Pegasus.

And I started volunteering there. I'd always done a lot of volunteering and when I was younger and at first I was just walking with the riders next to them or leading the horses and then I started grooming them and then I started exercise riding them. And the next thing I'm looking for an instructor and thinking about horses in a more serious way.

trading in my white Troxel helmet for something a little bit more suitable and stuff like that. But I ended up connecting with a woman in South Jersey whose husband was a race trainer and she had a ton of off track thoroughbred. She did a little bit of breeding and things like that. And yeah, that's how I wiggled my way back into the world.

And then she gave me a project horse to ride at Chestnut Mare. And Yeah, the rest is history, but that's about where our paths crossed. I think. You do love to tell this story about two girls who, two girls walk into a bar and they've been told, you've got to meet my friend.

She likes horse horses too. And I'm sure you guys all have that story. But I met Emily because she was her boyfriend and my boyfriend knew each other. And so we all met at a birthday party at this bar. And I, introduced myself to her and embarrassed myself. I don't recall this being embarrassing but yeah, basically what an OTTB was.

So I was. Perfectly happy. That was my threshold. I was like, all right, you're in. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. She showed me a couple of pictures of her new acquisitions. And then I was like, Oh, what kind of riding do you do? And she said, eventing. And I said, Oh, I, did a little venting too. And I said, Oh, what level did you compete through?

And she goes, Oh, I advanced. And then I just blacked out for a minute and was like, I'm sorry, I thought you said advanced. And then just quietly just stopped really talking about horses and then looked her up later on Facebook. And her profile photo was her Kentucky. jumping over this massive hay bale jump with her off the track thoroughbred, Alex, and I knew instantly that I wanted to be friends with this woman, and I haven't gotten rid of her since. Just kidding. Yeah. No, but it is true. I was glad that you were not. into western pleasure or nothing wrong with saddle breads, tennessee walking horses yeah yeah, but we definitely connected over that and then I had just I think I was in the process of purchasing My second horse since getting back into riding at that time and I had nowhere for him to really go So, Niamh, I was like, Hey, Niamh, didn't [00:30:00] you say you know somebody with a barn and then things just evolved from there.

Then I made her buy a horse and made me work for her, maybe quit my job, become the world's oldest working students and here we are with a podcast that she also made me do. Also I was trying to think of a crazy story, I think we might've mentioned this. In our first episode, but I wouldn't know.

A good one is when you get to the barn and it's the middle of winter and there's three feet of snow on the ground And there's no water Yes, so what do you do? Oh you take every available container and it's only the two of you So you've got like 10 horses that need water. So you go take every available container and precariously like You halfway gets submerged in this rushing stream to fill up buckets of water and then carry them uphill both ways back to the barn for the horses who then are like, we don't need water.

They're like, that water is too cold. Get that out of here. We actually have pictures of me like hanging on the side of this snow drift trying to get water out of the stream. It's just guys owning horses and reselling them is super fun. It's very glamorous. People wonder why I don't like winter. I have more stories like that.

All right, so fast forward probably 10 years Maybe more I apparently I can't do math so many wild adventures. We have had countless conversations dozens of off track thoroughbreds later What actually inspired us to create the podcast? When we were buying and selling horses together, we wanted to create a Facebook group that featured all of the listings for OTTBs at the time, there weren't really a ton out there and we selfishly wanted to see the listings before anyone else. As any good reseller knows, you have to strike while the iron is hot, which means sometimes buying horses in the middle of the night with very little information to go on. We started OTTB market.

And that group took on a life of its own and now has 100, 000 members. I think it was around the 75, 000 mark when we were having lunch together at our local haunt, The Whip, and we were having a discussion about frequent themes and how we had all this collective knowledge. And it dawned on us that we already had this great audience to tap into.

And so we started researching how to create a podcast. And I was like, let's do a podcast. And you were like no, I remember we were both like, wait, we could do that. And then we both started getting really excited. And. The way that we do things is then we jump in 125%. We don't do anything less than a hundred percent, which is why we are starting season two right after season one.

We did get a lot of panicked people that were like, wait, is there going to be a break between season one and season two? Are we going to have to wait for season two? And I was like, Oh my gosh, this is crazy. No, because we do not have an off switch. Apparently. Yeah, but we got gear and a name and soon we were recording our very first episode.

Yeah. And so I think you guys know this if you've been listening to us for a long time, but we actually can't record in the same space. I know a lot of podcasters did though. That's we did. That was probably the problem. And like a lot of other things, like taking confirmation photos together. It's shocking that our friendship, is still alive and well, because there are just certain things that really can be frustrating.

Apparently trying to talk to each other in the same room is one of those things, yeah, yeah, so we started off in my small spare room, crammed in with all our new equipment, not really sure how it worked. Trying not to look at each other. And then I think we decided to try to record in separate rooms in the same house, but that didn't really work either because you could my house apparently, I don't know, you can hear everything.

So I was like, I can hear her talking in the other room, but I can also hear her on the screen. It was a mess. Yeah. And then I don't, I think we started the website and the Facebook group a couple of months in, we didn't have those to start because I think we wanted to also just see where it went.

Yeah. And just to give you guys a little bit of information, when we decided to start the podcast, we do make it sound like we were, just willy nilly, let's start a podcast. And while it sounds fun and easy enough to do that, we actually started off by researching what you would need in terms of content to actually be able to follow through with a podcast.

So for us, it was figuring out if we had at least a hundred topics we could talk about. And so together, We wrote down a list of things that we could possibly talk about. And if we could come up with a hundred, then we felt like we could get it started, not realizing that guests and. special series and things like that would take on a life of their own, but I tried to create an Excel document and I was told that Niamhe does not use spreadsheets.

So

I can look at a spreadsheet. Here we are. I just don't want to use one. But no we joke around and I think part of our persona is that we are a bit willy but Niamhe does bring up a good point. We do try our best to thoroughly research anything that we're going to present to an audience and make everything be the best that it possibly can be.

We try to keep it lighthearted and fun, but also have good content and be entertaining at the same time. Yeah. Yeah, definitely.

 Season one was such a huge learning experience. [00:36:00] What has been your favorite part, Emily?

What's interesting. I feel like a few months in, , we first started, we weren't really sure if it was going to take off, if anybody was going to listen. It's a scary thing to put your, We joke around that we're two podcast, but it is scary to go and put your voice out there into a platform in perpetuity.

And it's a very vulnerable position to be in. And also something as I don't want to say controversial, but anybody that knows horses and knows OTTBs and knows some of the personalities that are involved, like a lot of people feel that their way is the best way. If you say something this way, you don't like storm cat.

I love storm cat, you can very easily get into these kind of polarizing. Yeah. And I, yeah, I think that's been a learning curve, but also just say I'm proud of how we've been able to maintain a neutral stance in a lot of things while still keeping that kind of educational content going.

Yeah, I think that's a hard line to, to walk on, and, , off Mike, Emily and I might personally have a slightly stronger opinion than what we say on the podcast, but. But we're trying to be as forthright and as honest and we don't always agree on everything and we, we come from very different backgrounds and things like that.

But we also try to invite guests on that are people that think differently than us and have approached the world of Off the Track Thoroughbreds differently because we want to share all of that. with everybody. I think we're both big believers in that you should Niamher stop learning, especially when it comes to horses.

And having the Facebook group really helped us realize that people wanted something like this as a resource. So we're happy to be one of those people in the world of podcasting. I wanted to take a few minutes here. and talk a little bit about some of our podcast stats or statistics, some of our growth stats.

Because it's actually really cool. I think it says the person who really likes spreadsheets. I don't like spreadsheets at all, but sometimes they are necessary in life and sometimes we have to do things that we don't want to do. We are now at over 14, 000 downloads. And what that means is 14, 000 times, 14, 000 people have listened to our episodes.

And what does that really mean? We were really like, Aiming for the number of a thousand downloads per month. That seemed to be, we hit that I think a few months in and then it subsided a little bit. But in July we had just over a thousand downloads for that entire month.

September we had sixteen hundred. October we had almost nineteen hundred and fifty. And right now we're trending at twenty two hundred for the last thirty days. I also want to say that like our platform does exclude what they count as bot traffic, or if someone starts an episode and doesn't play it for a full minute.

So really the actual numbers might even be higher. And for some perspective on that if your podcast gets more than 30 downloads within seven days of its release per episode, you're in the top 50 percent of podcasts. And more than 115 downloads, you're in top 25. We are trending above that right now.

I think the next tier is 470 in the first seven days. We're not quite there. That would be the, to be in the top 10%, but we've really grown and it's so cool to on launch days. I'm always like, where are we at? Oh my goodness. And then we'll send each other screenshots about where we're at.

So that is a really cool thing. And we're still growing, which is just, Amazing. Because it's also okay, what's your market? What's your reach going to be? Is it going to continue to increase? And it really has. I'm happy to say that we have listeners from 29 countries. Does that so I'm going to put a map of the world showing where all of our listeners are on the webpage that goes with this episode, but United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, Norway, New Zealand, Belgium And way more than that.

So that's insane. Our top performing episode, which is episode number five from the reseller's mouth, how to establish yourself as a response, a reputable buyer with Jessica Redman. That one has closing in on 800 listens just on its own. So that's our top performing episode. But every single episode that we've released has at least 200 listens and they are growing daily.

Which is really just incredible to me. In terms of community, which I know Niamh wants to talk about a little bit next, but we have grown to over 1000 followers on Facebook and our Instagram are also growing quickly as well. And our listeners are very engaged. Our average listener tunes in for over 82 percent of each episode.

And some of our most recent episodes have had 96 to 98%. That's huge, really huge. So thank you. So this all means thank you all, because this really shows that you're not only listening, engaging, but you're listening to the entire thing, which is incredible. And now I'll shut up about all my statistics. And we can get back to Niamhe.

I also just wanted to ask if you had the Facebook reach number. I remember when we looked at that like a couple of months ago, it was something like 23, 000 per month or something like that. It's got to be a lot bigger now. I don't have that off the top of my head, but yeah, it was [00:42:00] something like that.

Downloads versus reach are completely different. So if you say we're looking at 14, 000 downloads the actual reach of the podcast, which means any of our social media outlets gets put into sort of an equation and gets multiplied quite largely. Tens of thousands, which is really cool. 

Talk about the community that we fostered and what it means to you. Outside of the numbers, I think for Emily and I both, it's been so incredible to figure out that we fostered a community of people that. Want to get together and expand the knowledge base of off the track thoroughbreds want to support the industry as a whole from start to finish.

I think there's this been this huge shift in the last five years of all of these components of off the track thoroughbreds from start to finish. working together and not against one another. I feel like when we were doing it, there was a lot of competition amongst resellers and there still is. There was a competition between trainers at the track and the resellers that were buying them, the aftercare initiatives.

And it seems like some of those sharp edges are getting shaved down. And now we're seeing this trend of, Trainers working with aftercare initiatives trainers working with notable resellers and creating good connections. resellers connecting with, different trainers in the area, aftercare initiatives, working with individual trainers to help promote their businesses and things like that.

So , from my point of view, and I think the retired racehorse project could really probably speak to this as well, is that as a whole, the industry is coming together instead of tearing each other apart, which is only going to be good for the Thoroughbred in the long run. And I think that was really been the goal for everybody who's been involved in this industry.

I do think that the RRP has made huge strides there. And as evidenced, I know we mentioned this briefly, but on a previous episode, but the fact that They have their own podcast, the RRP. And when we started this podcast and they found out about it, they invited us to collaborate and to host some of the RRP trainers.

And they really made that a lot easier for us to acquire those trainers, and their attitude was just, the more the merrier and we're here to help improve the lives of off track thoroughbreds. So why not? And it just was very cool. Yeah. And that whole experience, I was so early in, in the history of our podcast and That whole experience was really special to me over the course of the 10 months that we worked with those trainers.

So yeah, I am hoping that we can do more of that. I'm hoping we can, find more ways to connect people and, Absolutely. Maybe we'll find some way to get some people from other countries more involved, too. That's definitely a goal of mine going forward. Yeah, the fact that our reach is not just the United States is really mind blowing to me.

So it would be really cool to get some outside perspectives. We did have Lune, from Belgium. Who early on messaged us and told her about us, about her experiences purchasing an off track thoroughbred in Belgium. That would be really neat to hear about what it's like in other countries, because I don't know.

And I'd love to learn. Yeah, anybody down under want to reach out to us? People are listening, so sure, reach out, let us know. Niamhe has a little fangirl with Monica Spencer. I do, yeah. She's from New Zealand, correct? Yeah. Yes. Anyways, okay. I'm embarrassed now. Okay. Niamhe wants to know Monica Spencer. Will you be on the podcast question?

I would like to know too. All right. So we also asked our audience in the past few weeks, if they had any questions for us to include in this episode. So we have a couple of listener questions to answer. First one, Chelsea O'Brien, our lovely RRP friend, asked, What is your favorite racehorse of all time? Do you have an answer?

I do, but I feel like we might have the same answer. I don't think so. I'm going to tell a different story, so why don't you go first? It was hard to think about this cause I could pick something from childhood or, whatever. But I picked a horse that was in more recent history, but I picked Zenyatta.

Oh, interesting. There's a lot about her that I really loved. I think she won. I just thought she was just doing great things for mares. She just really was so prolific. She won 19 of her 20 starts. She had the weight of the world behind her, which was really cool.

And I think that when you think about racehorse history in America, at one point was as big as baseball was in the United States and people, rallied around racing in a way that was the same as racehorse history. is like baseball was, and people put all their hopes and dreams into this, either an underdog or, it's like the Seabiscuits and, that kind of thing.

So it's always been really cool to see which horses tug at the national heartstrings. Yeah. And I think that Zenyatta really did. And she was, in her own right, so cool because she was so big. Her her owners and trainers were really careful about bringing her along because of her size. And she also knew she was really special.

And she had The signature kind of Spanish walk that she would do on race days, and it would just get the crowd so pumped up and so excited about her because she knew she was special. And to me that's the quintessential part of the thoroughbred, right? [00:48:00] Is like that feeling of I'm. royalty.

Everybody look at me. I'm about to go perform on my stage now. And I just think she just personified that so well. And and also her damn sire is one of my favorites, which is Chris S. So there's that as well. But yeah, so that's my mushy story about her. I think she had the nation's attention for, her career and Just was one of those horses that, got found her way into the hearts of a lot of fans of racing.

I think that's funny because I don't think we've ever even discussed Zenyatta. So I know I was trying to rack my brain around which horses I'd really enjoyed over the years. And she's the one that just really stands out to me. So yeah, definitely a very cool story there.

Mine is very different and it goes back to childhood Emily. And I was always scheming for ways to get some money so that I could, go to a horse show or buy it. I don't know, riding pants or put money towards buying a saddle or whatever it was. And I grew up in the country. So a lemonade stand was not going to work.

Nobody came down our road. And I remember hearing I was probably on the news or in the newspaper. There was a kid who had bet his parents. That he would not watch tv for 30 days for a whole month And they would give him some sort of amount of money. I don't even it was probably 20 bucks. I don't know But I did this I said hey if I don't watch tv for a month Will you give me whatever random sum of cash that was going to go straight into my piggy bank for horses?

And my parents agreed and I believe this would have been 1990 And it must have been may You And I must have also worked into the contract that I'd be allowed to watch the Kentucky Derby. So I was like, not allowed to watch any of the TV until the Derby was just about to come on. And of course, everybody in my family, since I was really the only horsey one, assumed that I was like the horse expert and they wanted to know what horse was going to win.

And so I looked at the screen and I picked out unbridled and I said, unbridled is going to win. And he did. That's your favorite. I don't know if he's my favorite of all time, but it's probably one of my favorite stories and something I still vividly remember to this day, him actually winning and me being like, really?

Okay. I guess I better keep this up. I've completely forgot that your family has that strong Kentucky Derby connection. Yeah. It's weird. I don't know exactly why. Maybe because. , it was a way to connect with me because I liked horses and it was something that was accessible at the time of Maybe we had cable, probably not yet at that point.

So it wasn't like today where you can just put the Olympics on and watch the live stream, the entire equestrian, we, I'd be sitting there with my VCR trying to tape any equestrian highlights that were on TV ever. Didn't matter what. My brother and sister in law hosted Kentucky Derby parties for a very long time.

So that was a big thing for them. But no, and I would go with unbridled. Awesome. All so Heather Morris Creasy asked, what is the one horse that got away? Emily's got a sad face. I do have a sad face on. And it's not sad. He went to a wonderful home. But there is one horse. of the 50 some horses I bought and sold.

There was one that I walked into the barn the next day and I thought, what have you done? Do you know who that was? Okay. It was Liam. It was Liam. Yes. A wonderful liver chestnut. We called him Liam. I think they still call him Liam. His jockey club name is looking around. And he just, I don't know, the moment I saw him, he stepped off the trailer and I was like, Oh my God, I love this horse.

And he was such a character. My first ride on him, I think a client was with us. And I got off of him and handed the reins to Niamhe. And I was like, if she doesn't buy them, I'm keeping them. And then I ended up selling him because that's part of the business. Yeah. It's part of how it is. But yeah, he was a very special horse to me.

And he was I think, and we're going to talk about this in many of our OTTB evaluates episodes. But I think that when we talk about horse types and the types of horses that you look for, and Emily and I look for kind of different types of horses, but he was that one that checked off a lot.

Yes, he was probably, what, 16'3 but very big boned. He was a turf horse, so he had big bone, big feet. He was like a machine watching his races back. Beautiful mover. He was by a stallion named sightseeing out of a mirror limerick who was by a saline called black Minnellucci. I think that's how you pronounce it.

Oh yeah. I haven't seen a lot of, but when I have seen them, I've really liked them. And I've also seen a couple of sightseeing since then and really liked them as well. But yeah, my first ride on him, I was like, I feel like I could go and do a dressage test right now on this horse. He was like on the bit.

He was powerful using his back. It was unbelievable. Yeah. We'll have to post a picture of him.

How about you? Did you have one that got away? I think the one that probably got away from me was a horse that , we called him Floyd. He was his jockey club name was Bridge of Flowers. He was, I thought he was four when I bought him. He was three. But he again was one of those horses that I just got along with this horse and first ride on him, he was going around like you could have just [00:54:00] gone and done a novice test on him.

He was just such a nice horse. Really well broke, came from good connections. Really well bred too. He was by War Chant. Yeah. He was an Adler's Wells mare. Really nicely bred. A fantastic mover. Just a lovely horse to sit on and, at the time that wasn't an option for me to have more than one horse and away he went.

But there's, you always think back about those horses. There were a couple of others that I really connected with that I really would have had some fun with, but he was one that I think he liked me a lot and I think a lot of people don't realize how important it is to like, He did not like me.

He did not like Emily. You can have a horse that will tolerate you all day long. And I'm pretty sure my current horse just tolerates me a lot of the time. Oh, stop that. But it's really cool when you like connect on that level with a horse where it really likes the way that you ride it.

And it just goes in a way that , says a lot about your relationship with it, even if you don't know it very well. So yeah, he was definitely the one that kind of got away from me. Agree. All right. Next question. Katie Schaefer. Hi, Katie. Hi, Katie. Have you ever bought an OTTB that wasn't the right fit and how did you work that out?

You still have yours.

Yeah, you keep them. You keep them forever. Forever. That's a great question. And I think that would be actually a great episode. Yeah. Because it's tricky, something that we talk with Jessica Redman about quite a bit is the risk and the risk that you take. to especially being a reseller is that you've got to be fast.

You've got to have the cash and no one's going to be holding that horse for you to vet it because somebody else is going to scoop it up. So you might end up with something that either has a personality quirk that's not going to work for you. It might have a physical limitation that. Maybe someone knew about maybe someone didn't know about but then you find out about it.

Lucky you so there's a lot of there are a lot of variables there One thing and i'm gonna evade this question But one thing I always Tried to do When I was purchasing horses for resale was to buy a horse that I knew I would personally not mind keeping. Yeah. So luckily I've ridden a lot of different types of horses and generally get along with most of them.

But I would try to stick to ones that I was excited about. And if I ended up keeping them for whatever reason I wouldn't be too upset about that, but now I'm the one rambling. I'm not sure what would you like to say to this? I also think in my experience with that, I have been. bought a horse that wasn't the right fit for me.

 He went on to have an incredibly successful career with a young rider. And I think what you can do in a situation like that is figure out what the horse is really good at and what it really enjoys doing and work hard to market that horse and guide it into a home where it will be suitable.

So no, at the time will say that this horse really needed to be ridden every day. Not for a long time, but it just needed to do something every day. And as a working student, my horse always took, the back burner spot. By circumstance, it probably wasn't the best fit in that situation.

And he went into a series program and wound up on the other side, just, doing incredible. And I think it's just It's okay to recognize that a horse isn't a good fit for you. And sometimes it's not a good fit because of its environment or your particular scenario, whether that's a trainer or it's turnout situation.

But I think you just have to look at the whole picture and figure out. Why it might not be working out correctly, if there's anything you can do to change it, and if not, it's perfectly fine to figure out what the horse really wants to do and try to match it with somebody that has the same goals. I think that makes a lot of sense and something that you and I both tout on about sometimes is I know that I've always wanted horses to have value.

And figure that's part of what I think what you're saying is by figuring out what they are good at and who they would be a good fit for. If you can enhance their value in that way, then it gives you an outlet for them. Yeah. So say that you are dead set on show jumping and the horse would prefer to go as a hunter, that then trying to take that route and find ways and opportunities for it in that arena, even if that's not your dream gig, might be the way to go.

And it's also reaching out for professional training with your horse is generally speaking, Niamher a waste of time or money. Yeah, I do know a lot of people that want to die on the hill of I did all the training myself and that's all well and good if that works out for you, but if your ego gets in the way of the horse making progress, I think that's not necessarily the greatest thing in the whole world.

Or if you get stuck on a certain number that you need to get back out of that horse it's not going to happen. You need to cut your losses sometimes and move on because the more you pile on and the longer you keep it in the hopes that you're going to somehow make a profit on this thing.

It oftentimes is not going to happen. You've got to make the profit on the ones that you can and then cut your losses on certain other ones. Yeah. This is probably how it works out. All right. Niamh Jody Follett wants to know what your favorite moment with an OTTB is.

Or moments.

I think it's hard to pinpoint just one [01:00:00] moment. I think for me, some of the best, most memorable moments I've had are moments where I felt like everything around me felt chaotic. And the horse was just there and was so good. I can remember a time that we were showing horses to a client and we had to hack them two miles to an indoor and there were 45 mile an hour winds.

And we thought we were going to die. Through the forest. Through the forest. And Emily has a picture of me riding this green. as grass horse back from the indoor with the biggest smile on my face. And if that doesn't sum up everything that's amazing about off the track thoroughbreds, I don't know what does because I feel like in a moment of chaos, there's such a grounding force. I think that's probably my favorite thing. Maybe. I don't know. What about you? You've had some really big moments, but yeah, but I would have to say. Some of the most fun I've had is going on a paper chase on a beautiful day And galloping along the countryside with a couple of other friends And, beautiful scenery and the horses are behaving 

and, that's where I feel like it's really awesome. And then your best friend gets run away with on her horse. It's Niamher, Is slow like his son in law, lazy like my son in law. Oh my God. . And I think some of my other favorite moments are I really enjoy working with very green horses and I love the feeling of a thoroughbred trying.

and getting something for the first time. And then when you bring them back out and ask them to do it again, seeing how their minds work and how their bodies learn from what you've taught them, I think that's one of the coolest things. They have such a strong work ethic and I love when you can feel them trying and really figuring out what you're asking them.

And then when you bring them back out again, seeing what, soaked in. Yeah. And when they learn something, they want to show it off. Yeah. I used to always love all of the first, first jump, the first cross country school, the first time going through the water, first time going to a show, all of that stuff was always my favorite.

Yeah. And now I'm like, can someone else please do the first with my non OTTB? This is a good segue, right? Kristen Hansberry, hi Kristen, asked me, how did the OTTB girl end up with a quarter horse? This is actually in an episode that I don't know what episode number it is. Scouting the Way.

I don't think we really talk about your quarter horse, though. I think we just allude to it at the end. I'll try to answer this quickly. But basically I had a really nice thoroughbred who's 17 hands. I had him for five years and I basically, I spent a lot of money getting him trained and get an a record with both a professional and an amateur to make him extremely marketable, was able to sell him for enough money that I could take that money and go horse shopping for the first time in my life for something that was not green.

I had no breed specification when I was horse shopping. I didn't know exactly what I wanted in terms of it's age experience, general Transcribed vibe. And I thought I wrote a really good in search of ad with all of my shortcomings involved in there. And then I did find an off the track thoroughbred that I was obsessed with and wrote it a couple of times, cross country schooled it.

And it unfortunately was not sound at the bedding. And we couldn't get it to the place where I felt comfortable investing that kind of money into a horse that had a bit of a known condition. And was encouraged by one of my very good friends, Nikki Shearer, to come see a little horse in her barn.

Hi Nikki and Rexy. Hi Nikki. And I wouldn't go look at him because I thought he was too nice for me. I didn't know he was a quarter horse. I just saw this flashy, cute, little chestnut thing. Also, why did she say she thinks the horse was too nice for her? Nobody will ever understand that. I finally went to go look at this little horse and it was love at first sit.

 I wasn't somebody who wanted to look at a million horses. I knew exactly what kind of feeling I was looking for and was very realistic about my goals. It wasn't that, And I think, it's really funny. I think that Green Horses were off the table for me.

It was just that I wanted to have my personal horse be something that felt like an old pair of slippers that I just felt like I could get on and go and achieve some of my own goals. And, in the first year and a half that I had him, he exceeded every single goal I set for myself. And now he's just there and he's just such a good boy.

So yeah, that's how I ended up with a quarter horse. That's vaguely related to Secretariat, but he's a very good boy. , but I will Niamher turn down a ride on a green thoroughbred. And luckily I have access to them at all times. So it's good. So Kristen also asked, what is the What were some of the biggest P.

1. T. A. moments when reselling off track thoroughbreds?

You're laughing. I just remember sunshine and rainbows, despite what I said earlier. Now I think that what's tricky. Is and some of the things that we've talked about with Jessica recently pricing and pre purchase exams are tricky, and I really had luck with clients. I had really good clients.

I really can't complain. Everybody that bought horses from me was, I always had really good [01:06:00] experiences. I think that especially now the pre purchase exams are getting, not that the exams are getting, it's not the vet's fault, it's nobody's fault, but now imaging is a lot more advanced.

Diagnostics are more advanced, finding out about certain things that may or may not be issues. Legality, that sort of thing. Maybe one of the funniest moments while reselling an OTTB was when my horse got a wedgie while I was showing it from his tail and he started bucking. And he had Niamher, ever bucked before.

So that was pretty funny. It was the, he's Niamher done that conversation with the buyer. But but yeah, I think that would be probably number one would be just vettings and dealing with pricing and prices going up, but the expectation on the purchasers and not to have prices increase and how do you make any sort of money.

When you're getting squeezed in the middle there. Yeah. I think I think that managing the expectations and we go back if you go back and listen to the episode that we did with Jessica, the early episode about establishing yourself as a reputable buyer, we go into this in depth, but I think that Managing your expectations when you're horse shopping is really important and it's really important to the reseller who is carving out time in their very busy schedule for you.

It just is good for everybody if everybody is really honest and open about, Their abilities, their expectations and maybe some things that are deal breakers for them. You're not going to upset a reseller if you just say this is a deal breaker. They might have feelings about it, but they'd rather you not waste their time.

And I think that Jessica talked a little bit about this in her episode where she's if you get on the horse and you just don't like the way it feels, Just hand me the reins and say, this isn't the one for me. We're not going to be upset at you. We don't want you wasting time, so I think it was some stuff like that, where it was just being mindful of the other side of the equation and realizing that you've got somebody who has made sure that this horse is like sound fit and ready for you to come see it.

And so it's just stuff like being on time, being communicative and. And trying to empathize with the reseller as much as managing your own expectations as a buyer, I think. Yeah. I think I got, did get some requests that were like, Can you free jump it as high as it will possibly jump? And it's what does that even mean?

Am I supposed to set up like a six foot jump and see what it does? No, thank you. I'm not breaking the horse. There are always those unreasonable sort of expectations whereby you and I can look at a horse and know if it's going to be able to jump or not. But having that imagination in the buyer is another thing.

It's tough. Yeah. And we definitely had a couple of people that while they were good riders and had a lot of experience, they would say things like can you put 30 days training on it? And I'll come back and look at it in a month. And you do say, first of all, this horse is hopefully not going to be here in a month, but also then the price is going to go way up.

 I'm not going to hold the, price here and then put 30 days of training on it. , that's for you to invest in. That's tricky, dr. Dylewski Yeah. And I think too sometimes trainers and sometimes veterinarians that are not as used to dealing with off track thoroughbreds have, they come from a different kind of, frame of reference.

So there is that factor too. There are definitely vets that you're like, , they Niamher pass a horse. Because there is no such thing as a pass or fail, but they're going to make it sound as bad as they possibly can. And then there's the vets that are going to take the client aside and be like, here are the positives.

Here are the negatives. Here's all the information and you can make an educated decision rather than foreshadowing with a lot of negativity. All right, last one. Favorite riding memories with each other. Something that I think that Niamhe has done. I remember one time. While it was probably one of the days that we were hauling water up the hill and the snow uphill both ways, but Niamhe is we have to go riding in the snow.

And I was like, what are you talking about? Why do you want to ride in the snow? It was like four feet of snow. It was like four feet of snow. And she's I've always wanted to ride in the snow. We have to ride in the snow. And that's something that probably would Niamher occur to me because now I'm an old stodgy grownup.

But the kid in you always is there wanting to do like the fun things that otherwise sometimes get forgotten about. So I remember riding in the snow in my wellies. And we have really cute pictures from that day. We do have really cute pictures from that day. And I think also the paper chase that we went on where I convinced you had to buy Riley.

That was a good one. That was pretty memorable. Yeah. Yeah. And then I think also just being able to share with you, the ability to get on some of these horses that I think In the beginning, you wouldn't have necessarily thought you had the skill set to ride. Yeah, no you that you could ride them.

Yeah. No, that's a big one. I very much appreciate you saying the thing about the kid in me because I just posted something on our Oh goodness, you need to start signing these people are gonna think it's me it's a picture of me riding the scout airbag and a rope halter. Yeah, I saw just alluding to that.

And , I think, because I couldn't afford it as a kid and I Niamher really had my own horse until I was in my thirties, there's just a part of me that still finds all of it pretty magical. And I still always want to do stuff that makes me rekindle that feeling. But yeah, I would say that some of my favorite riding memories with you definitely I'm somebody that definitely doesn't really believe in myself that much and it's been really special to have somebody who could [01:12:00] guide you and make you not only have the skill set, but also make you believe that you had the ability to do something and to do it well.

So it's, that's been really cool over the years to, and now for you to see me riding something green. And you show up to the bar and you're like, Oh, you rode that horse today. And I'm like, I still got it. I still got it. So yeah, no, it's cool. I remember when you took one of your thoroughbreds, I think we went to St.

Augustine. And I was like, riding every jump with you. And I was pretty sure he was going to stop going into the woods, but he didn't. And I was so proud. I was like, Oh, she did it. She got him over it. Big girl pants. Big girl pants. Brave pants. Yes, I think in the future, we're going to include an Ask Us Patreon when it launches.

And speaking of Emily, what can our listeners look forward to in season two of OTTP on tap? Let's see season two We have been wanting to take some time to personally dive into certain OTTB retraining tips. We'd love to do a series about specific retraining problems and issues and ways that you can get around them and things that you can learn.

OTTB hacks, if you will. We also have our OTTB underdog series. We have a growing list of incredible stories and if you're on that list, please be patient. We will get to you. We want to hear all of the stories. Thank you. We really love them and they get great feedback from the community.

We want to highlight some more of the amazing Off Track TheraBread aftercare organizations and some more resellers. Of course, we'd love to have Jessica back on. And her episodes always do really well. She's so knowledgeable and just I think really fun to have on. So more resellers, more from around the OTTB community.

Yeah. I've just recently reached out to Claire and Tom Mansman who run an off the track reselling business and they're going to be on in a hopefully near future episode. We've just started contact with them, but they tend to keep their horses a little bit longer in their program. And I think it'll be really cool to get the perspective of.

That style of program versus a shorter truncated reselling program. So we also have nutrition and there's a, we have a bunch of things that we want that we're getting to. And of course we're still going to have the segments like OTTB evaluates, which is actually going to become a Patreon exclusive series here in a couple months.

Listener Q& A's, special guests, and fun surprises. And speaking of our Patreon, you can look for that launching just in time for Christmas. Once that launches, you will have access to two regular episodes on the regular feed and two episodes exclusive to Patreon. And if you're still listening, thank you for tuning in and supporting OTTB on Tap.

Whether you're a long time listener or you've just discovered the show, we are so thrilled to have you with us for this journey. Thanks and every Thanks again We almost made it! Thanks again, everyone. You made our first season so much fun, and I can't wait to see what the future holds for us. 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 please reach out to us on our website, OTTBONTAP. com. We'd love to hear interview candidates, topic suggestions, feedback, and more. As we said, we do love hearing from you. Thank you.