Developing Horses for Resale - Part I

A while back I started taking on development horses in partnership with Katrina Natwick, as well as on my own.

One of the things that separates amateurs and professionals is that pros have a string of horses to ride and train - whether their own, someone else’s, or a combination.

My logic was that I could take on a development horse, restart/retrain it, gain all that amazing experience, and then find the horse a great new home and recoup my investment into the horse. Rinse and repeat.

I should have known when I brought home an OTTB (Off the Track Thoroughbred) whose Jockey Club (race) name is literally “My Forever Friend,” that the universe had other plans for us.

Barn name: Adelaide (a.k.a. “Sweet Adelaide,” a.k.a. “Addie”) - 1st week after bringing her home

The first day I brought Addie home, she had trouble unloading from the trailer. She was only experienced with ramps, and mine is a step-up/step-down. She didn’t know how to negotiate the step down and got stuck for a while. I asked my husband to come out and keep me company while I waited with her and got her comfortable to try and take the step. When he walked up into the trailer to greet her, she laid her head on his chest and just rested there. He told me later that he felt like she was saying, “You’ll take care of me, won’t you?”

So approximately 10 hours into bringing this horse home, I’m already thinking, “How am I ever going to sell her?”

In the early weeks and months with Addie, we went through:

• Three minor, but scary colic episodes as she adjusted to the Texas summer heat (she came to us from Maryland)

• Tender feet as she transitioned from four steel shoes to barefoot in the back and race toes to eventer toes

• A minor popped splint as she learned to manage herself in 24/7 mixed-herd turnout

• Gaining about 200 lbs to make the transition from racing to eventing

I fed her three times per day to help her gain weight. I thoughtfully researched her supplements to improve her feet, support her joints, skin, coat, gut. She had a blank check to see the vet whenever she needed something. I sat with her and doted on her when she was on stall rest for her splint.

Two months after bringing Addie home.

And in the midst of all of this, we started training. I found I had brought home a horse who:

• Is so eager and happy to connect that she often softly canters up to me in the pasture - to borrow a phrase, “like a joyous, raven-haired Golden Retriever” (Ted Lasso, anyone?)
• Is the most straightforward, people-pleasing horse I have ever trained
• Has taken to liberty, groundwork, jumping, and cross-country with level-headedness and enthusiasm
• Forgives rider mistakes, even while she’s also learning and despite having just turned five

How could I not fall in love with her?

A little more than a year after buying her, Addie:

• Has lovely ground manners
• Loves to play at liberty
• Walk/trot/canters on a loose rein whether you’re in an arena or a giant field
• Jumps most anything you point her at (assuming suitability for her age and experience)

And so much more.

But every time I consider selling her, it feels like trying to sell a friend. When you bond with an animal through hundreds of hours of caring for them, laughing and playing with them, teaching them, leading them - a check clearing is not enough to send them away to an unknown future.

On the flip side, as I have watched Addie flourish under a working student (a talented junior rider) and pack around beginner/intermediate cross country riders - I remember that once, someone sold me Lucy. And I imagine that Addie might become another person’s center of gravity, their reason to rise, the image painted on the backs of their eyelids.

So someday, if we find that person, I may sell her. And though she’s worth quite a bit based on her training, natural talent, and looks - I expect to make no profit after all that I have invested in her. Selling horses isn’t really a good way to make money - most people who do it are lucky if they break even.

But I don’t care. I’ll only let her go if she finds a better Forever Friend than me.