Help a Racing Warrior Begin His Second Act →
Our junior interns will be posting regularly on the LOPE blog. Below is the first post in the series (by Eliza Jones). Eliza is committed to good horsemanship. She has ridden in multiple clinics with Buck Brannaman. Her horse (Jammer) has benefited greatly from Eliza’s dedication, patience and skill as a rider and steward. Welcome, [...]
On February 18-19, JD Badertscher of J3 Performance Horses held a Colt Starting Clinic to benefit LOPE. All proceeds went to the care of Flavor, a special racing warrior who recently arrived at LOPE. Alex Myers is a LOPE intern and a young professional horse trainer. She is working with LOPE as a Horsemanship Scholar. [...]
In the past, I’ve had a conflicted relationship with Buck Brannaman clinics. On the one hand, I love the caliber of horsemanship and elegance that Buck presents. I can watch Buck ride all day (no mean feat for someone as physically restless and bleacher seat intolerant as me). The camaraderie of the riders and auditors [...]
A generous sponsor donated a spot for LOPE in Peter Campbell’s clinic earlier this month. I signed up for the Colt Starting class and brought a horse that had been returned to LOPE by his adopters (due to unexpected changes in their situation). By their account, the horse had been in professional training earlier and [...]
The “Colt” Witt’s Midway was adopted from LOPE in the fall of 2013. We had ridden him a few times before he was adopted. Witt impressed us with his confident, friendly personality. He was uncomplicated to ride and a pleasure to have at our ranch. To no one’s surprise here, an experienced and caring horse [...]
When I rode Witt way back in 2013, he was a happy-go-lucky, friendly horse. He showed no signs of aggression and handled his first post-track rides easily. The word that comes to mind is “uncomplicated” — and that is exactly the opposite of what I saw at the first day of the clinic. The people [...]
I had the privilege of auditing Peter Campbell’s clinic this year. The experience left me feeling excited and inspired to work to improve myself as a rider and a horseman. At the end of each day, I felt I was overflowing with information to process. These are some of the highlights of what I learned [...]
Oro Rush retired sound from the track — he just wasn’t interested in running fast. He is a cute, flashy horse with a hunter-like look to him. We were really looking forward to working with Oro — but then a complication developed. Oro came in from the pasture one day with an irritated right eye. [...]
Onahotstreak (nicknamed Little Filly) came to LOPE very underweight. She had intensely disliked the track environment and had been anxious there. Her race trainer adored her, but knew that she would never thrive at the track. So she donated her to LOPE. Little Filly has steadily gained weight and was given extra turnout time to [...]
Levi has had a full letdown from the track (lots of pasture turnout time to “just be a horse”). He has a mild, well-healed bowed tendon. Earlier in November, our vets (Austin Equine Hospital) examined him and approved him to begin work. His tendon has been sound since he arrived at LOPE and has been [...]
50% off sale!Retraining Racehorses: Back to the Basics with Tom Curtin. Tom works with ex-racehorses and demonstrates key horsemanship principles.
