Mystery: Solved

Madame Ponynose and I have a lesson this afternoon! I CANNOT WAIT! I don't get lessons very often because I'm not at a training barn, but a super fabulous dressage trainer named Sharon comes by every now and again. The barn owner is an excellent dressage rider and she trains and shows with Sharon, which would be a recommendation in and of itself, but I took a couple lessons from her on Baron and TJ and had a total blast each time. So I'm really looking forward to it and can't wait to post updates!

But I can't wait any longer to share this exciting news: I spoke with her trainer from the track! I have been dying to know why she left the track and wasn't held onto as a broodmare. As I said before, she has superior bloodlines and is a very well put together mare, and you all know that she's a delight to hang out with and ride. I might use her as a broodmare myself someday in the looooooong distant future, after we've had our fun and I can afford [another] baby. So how did this fabulous horse end up in a vet school study, of all places?

I mean, LOOK AT THAT FACE.

I left a message with her trainer, Terry, a couple weeks ago, right after I bought her, and then kind of forgot about it. He called me back yesterday and was a very nice person to talk to. He remembers Lex very well indeed, for reasons that will become clear shortly. It seems to me that he takes really good care of his horses and teaches them to stand for the farrier, handle cross ties, etc. That certainly explains why she's been so good about all of that so far, and I appreciate the work he and his crew put into that!

Terry said the following things about Lex: She "couldn't run" (which is not unusual - that's why most racehorses retire), she's "nice to be around," she was "100% sound," and she "trains beautiful." At this point I still had a big old question mark over my head. And then he said, "She didn't handle the paddock well. By that I mean, she had a meltdown." It turns out that by the time she got to the starting gate in her one and only race, she had three different riders. The first jockey took one look at her being a maniac in the paddock and refused to get on her. The second jockey found himself dumped pretty hard in the tunnel on the way to the track and wouldn't get back on. Then he finally got her regular exercise rider to ride her in the race and she tossed him THREE TIMES in the starting gate. Then she came in dead last.

So, yeah. I can see why her career ended.

Apparently Terry then called her owner/breeder, and he was like, "Yeah, she did that here too!" and hadn't informed Terry. So Terry sent the horse back down, but since she wasn't going to earn her keep, her owner offloaded her on a dealer, which is how she wound up at UF. She is very, very lucky she didn't wind up in a slaughterhouse. Sounds like a close call.

Terry didn't think I'd have any trouble with her at shows or events, but he was relieved that I won't be racing her anymore. I think that whenever we actually get to show, I'll spend some time getting her used to the warmup ring. Maybe I won't even enter for awhile, just take her to some stuff and hack her around. We shall see.

Our lesson is in three hours! Eeeeeeeeeee! I better go polish my boots! (I oiled them earlier and then turned around and saw my yellow lab licking the oil off them! GROSS!)