The Tenacious Thoroughbred! Throughout the month of May, we are featuring Thoroughbreds and Thoroughbred crosses.
Did you know… Dressage riders who compete with a member of this speedy breed are eligible for special awards through the Adequan®/USDF All-Breeds Awards program, as The Jockey Club is a participating organization!
A Region 1 rider shares her journey with Fin, a track-fit Thoroughbred filly turned bona fide dressage queen, despite her conformation acting against her!
By Leigh Beamer
I was on a 20-hour round-trip car ride, scrolling through my Facebook feed, when I stumbled upon Hot Gurl Summer’s ad. She was a striking three-year-old chestnut filly, with the cutest face I had ever seen, and a video that made her look a little wild. Was I searching for another horse? Not really. But in looking at her cute face, I knew it was game over.
I sent the listing agent $1,600 on Venmo, scheduled her shipping, and then told my husband I had purchased a new horse who would be arriving the day after we got home from our trip. She was coming from Belterra Park in Cincinnati, where she had been in race training, and as an avid Jimmy Buffett fan, the line from his song “Fins” kept running through my head… “She came down from Cincinnati.” So, I decided to call her Fin.
When Fin arrived at my farm, I was a little unsure if we would ever get on with each other. It had been several years since I had had a mare, and I quickly learned that she had a big personality, and even bigger opinions about how her life should be. Honestly, it took about six solid months for her to open up to me, but after that, we quickly became thick as thieves.
When I read Fin’s ad, I noticed that she was eligible for the Retired Racehorse Project (RRP) Thoroughbred Makeover. I had heard about this retraining competition before, and it sounded like it would be something fun to aim for, but growing up in southwest Virginia, I had never done any showing beyond my local barn’s summer fun shows. I had been taking dressage lessons with my trainer, Katherine Abrams, for a while, and knew that I wanted to continue that journey with Fin. So, I submitted my application and held my breath until trainer acceptance day, when the “accepted” email popped up in my inbox.
We worked hard for ten months to get Fin ready for the Makeover: lessons at Katherine’s, schooling shows, etc., and when October finally arrived, I was so excited. Overall, the Makeover was an amazing experience for us. Fin handled the large environment so well, and while nowhere near the top of the pack in our scores, we truly had the best time – traveling, hanging out, and showing with Fin was so fun, that I knew I wanted to keep it up after the Makeover.
For the first year after the Makeover, Fin and I continued our lessons with Katherine and her assistant trainer, Jayna Lee. We went to a few nearby schooling shows and competed in the Thoroughbred Incentive Program (TIP) Championships that fall. While that was fun, I knew I wanted to try my hand at a few recognized shows with Fin… What started out as me telling Katherine that Fin and I would only go to one or two shows that season, turned into us going to practically every single one. I was living out my little girl dream with Fin.
Our first season out, Fin and I earned the First Level scores towards my USDF Bronze Medal; this past season, we finished up the Second Level scores, and earned a score to do a First Level Freestyle! This was not without a lot of hard work, though. In typical Fin style and at both First and Second Level, we received one of our scores the first time out at the level and the second score after many more attempts, and always the last ride of the season.
Training and riding Fin has been the challenge of a lifetime, but it makes these accomplishments so much sweeter. She is incredibly smart and talented, full of confidence, always several steps ahead of me, and has an iron will. As you can imagine, this is a fun combination – in and out of the show ring – and has built a lot of character for me, as well as taught me so much as a horsewoman. Due to her strong-willed nature, we very lovingly call Fin a “tough nut to crack.” The exciting part is that we are finally starting to crack that nut, and what I see and feel from her makes me incredibly excited for the future.
Our story has not been one without bumps in the road, though. One thing that I did not even consider when buying Fin purely based on her cuteness, was that she might have some conformation issues that would add some difficulty to our journey. When you only look at a cute face, it turns out you might miss some quite serious issues. Pretty quickly after her arrival, it became clear that her front feet came from the spare parts department. When my vet took radiographs of her feet so we could see what she looked like on the inside, we were both surprised that Fin was sound at all.
I received some very well-meaning opinions that Fin’s soundness for the future was really questionable, and this scared me. For a while, we tried to have her traditionally shod, but with her paper-thin hoof walls, she was pulling shoes what felt like every day. Eventually, the farrier we were using told me quite honestly that there wasn’t much more he could do for Fin, and suggested I take her to Virginia Tech’s vet school and farrier department for them to evaluate her feet.
I was extremely nervous the first time I took Fin to have her feet done at Virginia Tech, as I was expecting to hear the worst. Travis Burns, the head farrier at the time, evaluated her X-rays and feet, and suggested we leave her barefoot, if she was comfortable with that. Turns out, she was, and we had an almost three-year run of her being barefoot – much to everyone’s surprise!
This past winter, though, she developed a nasty, deep abscess that had to be opened and drained at the vet school. To protect her feet while the sole regrew, we decided to try some glue-on shoes. It turns out that she loves these shoes, and our current farrier, Jamie Secoura, even matches the glue to Fin’s hoof color! She feels so confident wearing the glue shoes that I decided to keep her in them since she was so happy and went so well.
Dealing with her feet has been quite a stressful challenge, but taking her to Virginia Tech has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made for her. If I am asking for so much from Fin, it is only right that I do whatever it takes to make her happiest and most comfortable.
I am an adult amateur, but I have been Fin’s primary trainer since the beginning, minus a month or two at Katherine’s every year for what we call “boot camp.” In my opinion, when you train a horse from day one, it is often too easy to lose sight of just how far you’ve made it.
As I am writing this, we are coming off a wonderful weekend of clinic rides with Jessica Jo Tate. The first time we rode with JJ, Fin was a very feral and fresh five-year-old who loved to run around like a giraffe, with no concept of steering. This weekend, she was happily cruising around in self-carriage and doing upper-level lateral work – somewhere I honestly did not ever think we would reach. Thinking back about our first ride with JJ – when Fin was still extremely green – versus this weekend, with her being such an adult girl, really brings our progress into perspective.
Five years in, and Fin is still the best impulse purchase I have ever made. We have had so many fun experiences together, and Fin has become my ride-or-die girl and best friend. She is funny, smart, and such a great partner. With her terrible conformation, I never expected her to make it as far as she has, and every day she continues to prove all the disbelievers wrong (me included).
It has been a lot of work to figure out her feet, but there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for my girl who gives me everything. Fin has made me a much better rider, an extremely patient person, and has made so many of my dreams come true. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for us.
