Special Guest June Hillman shares the legacy of Castle Rock Farm, her partnership with Thoroughbred aftercare organization Turning for Home, and so much more in this episode!
June is no stranger to Thoroughbreds - she is part of their entire lifecycle, from conception to foal, racehorse to OTTB restart. She has been the manager of Castle Rock Farm in West Chester, PA since 1995 and has handled TB stallions such as Patton, Harry the Hat, Partner's Hero, Power by Far, Awad, Alyten, and Rimrod, The farm breeds and raises about 10-15 baby racehorses each year nowadays, and June handles them from the moment they are born, helping to shape them into what she affectionately calls "Good Citizens." This is especially helpful when they return after their racing careers and June transitions them into their new homes as sporthorses.
She is also partnered with Turning for Home, a racehorse retirement program based out of Pennsylvania's Parx Racetrack. Through TFH, June rehabilitates, retrains, and rehomes many OTTBs each year. She prides herself in taking the time to learn about each horse as an individual, and carefully place them in appropriate homes.
In this episode, we also talk about how no horse is perfect, and often those with blemishes, old injuries, or the need for a little maintenance gets them passed over by potential new homes. We highlight a current OTTB that June is retraining, "Angel" or Angeli Blu, a 2019 bay TB gelding by Air Force Blue (War Front/Danzig) out of the Irish TB Cabin (Galileo/Sadler's Wells). Angel is the type of horse that you just want to ride every day!
June can be contacted through her Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/june.hillman where she also posts her horses for sale. You can find about Angel in his ad here. (Shameless plug by host Emily, who adores this horse!)
#turningforhome #ottb #offtrackthoroughbred #underdog #ottbreseller #ottbforsale
