Tomorrow will mark 8 MONTHS since my boy, Sure Prize, last ran a race. Can you believe it?! Almost 8 months have passed and it still feels like he just walked off the trailer yesterday.

Between setbacks, scares, and great successes, it has been a ton of work but it’s come with an even bigger reward. I’ve learned so much in such a little amount of time… and so has he. To watch my very own retired racehorse go from racing fit to a (mostly) willing partner is really something else. There’s nothing quite like it.

So to celebrate how far we’ve come over the last few months I put together this little video, including just a few of the things that we’ve tackled so far.

This week we focused a lot on collection and getting Indy to engage his core, lift his back, and move with impulsion… all while keeping my hands steady and quiet while driving him with my legs onto the bit.

The most difficult aspect of all of this is knowing that I need to improve in order to make him better. It’s true with any kind of horse, not just an off track thoroughbred. You want to set them up for the maximum amount of success and while they always have the ability to perform hidden somewhere inside them, it’s up to us to unlock that potential.

The only way to do that is to better ourselves.

“He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.”
– Friedrich Nietzche

We’re all a work in progress… but we’re getting there! Here’s to the next 8 months together.