From the Retired Racehorse Project to Grand Prix

By Jenny Spain; Tara Jelenic photos

Riding horses to the FEI levels is a difficult road, to say the least. You have to be fortunate enough to have a horse with the right body and brain, and also have the good luck that it all holds together for the long haul. Tony was the first off-track Thoroughbred (OTTB) I brought up through the levels.

I had previously ridden jumpers, only recently dipping my toes in this dressage thing, but Tony was amazing. He allowed me to learn how to ride all kinds of movements that I (and he) had never ridden before. We didn’t do it perfectly, but together, we earned all of the scores for my USDF Silver Medal. Over the years we even rode a few Grand Prix tests. We got close, but never broke the 60% we needed for my USDF Gold Medal.

In 2016, I decided to get a young OTTB to start bringing along, as Tony was getting to the top of his career. My ambitious goal was to get another OTTB that I would take to the Retired Racehorse Project (RRP) Thoroughbred Makeover in Kentucky, and then continue to train up the levels, hopefully getting to Grand Prix. Why not dream big?? 

After scouring the internet looking at OTTBs, I finally found a three-year-old mare that caught my eye. Her hind end movement and kind eye are what drew me in. We made the trip to Pennsylvania to see her, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Annie was so named by my daughter because of her bright red chestnut coat. Luckily, she does not have the red-headed temperament! Once at home, we started on lots of groundwork. We took months to just bond on the ground, learning about lunging, long-lining, and life. By the time I got on her in early 2017, Annie was easy to ride. Through weekly lessons with my trainer, Patrick Tigchelaar, she started to learn how to be a dressage horse. We also went to an obstacle training clinic and rode out on the trails as much as possible.

The RRP Makeover is held in October each year, and you basically have from December to October to go from off-the-track to ready-to-show. Though there are multiple divisions you can enter, I stuck with dressage, since that was the plan for my horse. We went to several schooling shows at Training Level, and, all in all, things went well. Annie’s only issue early on was her fear of cantering towards other horses who were also cantering. There were a few exciting moments, but she caught on quickly and realized that this was a normal part of a non-racing life! 

When October 2017 rolled around, four-year-old Annie and I made our way to the Kentucky Horse Park. I had never been there, and it was exciting just to be on the grounds. Annie schooled well, and then she was impressively in first place at the end of the dressage division – out of 80 riders! This qualified us to come back the next day for the finals. Unfortunately, Annie did find the jumbotron in the coliseum a bit overwhelming. We still finished in an impressive fourth place overall and as the highest-ranked amateur in dressage.

The real fun started in the years after the RRP. We began to move up the levels and go to a few shows. And then, COVID hit. Not one to sit back and wait, we entered online shows. This is how we competed at Third and Fourth Levels. By the time we could get back out again, we were ready to play at Prix St. Georges (PSG). 

But then, we found out Annie had an entrapped epiglottis. It was an incidental finding but surgery was recommended to free the epiglottis. As with most things in life, it did not go as planned. We took multiple trips to the surgeon to free the epiglottis, which was subsequently left slightly irregular because of the thickened scar tissue. So, back to the surgeon we went for a tie-forward procedure. We were given a 50/50 chance that it would keep her soft palate in place so that she could continue at upper-level work.

I had nothing to lose, so we got back to work, and I held my breath to see how she would do. Fortunately, she was able to continue training with very few issues along the way. The only question now was, could I train her to do the work that Grand Prix necessitates? It is a bloody hard test that requires you to do all the hardest movements, one right after the other, for about eight minutes. 

Still, in May 2024, we gave it a go and rode our first Grand Prix. Even sweeter, we earned the first score toward my USDF Gold Medal! It took us a couple more tries, but then, in August, we got our second and final score needed for our Gold Medal!!! It had been a long, ten-year process between Tony and Annie, but we got it done. Who knew that plans made with horses sometimes can work out?

I couldn’t be prouder of my OTTBs. We may not be the fanciest movers out there, but they try their hearts out and forgive me when I make mistakes. Now that we have achieved this goal, I am working hard to do it all better. I want to learn how to ride more correctly; how to get my horse more expressive, have more sit, more through, and be more consistent. With the help of my amazing team, I think I will… if I still have enough luck left in my basket, that is!