Impossible Rittle, ‘Rittle,’ is a beautiful 4 year old mare.  Of all our horses she has currently been with us the longest through no fault of her own.  In a nutshell, she is 15.0 hands, barefoot with great feet, sound, sweet, great under saddle, and a talented potential jumper.  She is currently doing walk/trot along with ground poles and has been free jumped over small obstacles and shown great form.  Take a look at her page to see video of her movement and her jumping.

(click on the photo to go through her album)

The only reason she is still with us is because of our full-disclosure policy on known injuries.  Rittle does have two screws in one ankle (that she raced on without problem) and she had an apical sesamoid fracture which retired her from racing, but that no longer inhibits her performance.  Rittle is first and foremost sound, and barefoot to boot.  She has passed a flexion test and examination.

Though she has been approved to go on without limitation, we’d love to see her go to a lower-level home as she has a terrific temperament to be a child’s or amateur hunter or a confidence building horse for someone wanting to do elementary or beginner novice eventing. Likewise, she would make an equally excellent trail horse or pleasure horse.  She may not have high level dreams, but we don’t believe all horses must to be adoptable.

We want whoever adopts her to know everything about her history and want her regardless as we want her to have a long-term home. So there it is, all out on the table.  If you think you could give this intelligent, sweet, athletic little mare a chance and a home, please contact us today.  She’s ready to go and deserves a home as much as any of them.

Derwin’s Wildcat, a horse we’ve had in our program here at After the Races for just 5 weeks, recently underwent a minor surgery to remove a growth from her upper eyelid. This sort of growth is rare in a dark colored horse without any white hair or pink skin around the eye. She had it when she arrived, and after 4 weeks it had not decreased in size, so Dr. Donaldson advised us to have it removed.

On Friday, April 26, 2013, Dr. Ricardo Loinas, Dr. Molly Kopec, and one of Unionville’s externs came out to perform the procedure here at the farm. We are happy to announce that Derwin recovered quickly and easily and her eye looks great! She is living a normal life, minus the presence of the growth on her eye. Tissue from the growth has been sent to New Bolton Center for a biopsy and we hope it comes back clean.

In the meantime, Derwin should be started into work soon and we can’t wait to see how she progresses with her training now that she’s enjoyed the last 5 weeks to put on some weight and settle into herd life here at After the Races.

Thank you again, Dr. Loinas and the staff of Unionville Equine!

We wanted to write to thank again all those who helped contribute to the fund for supporting Jersey Brother throughout his treatment for his Grade 4 ulcers. For those unaware, Jersey Brother who has been in our care now for 9 weeks now, was diagnosed a couple weeks ago with Grade 4 ulcers. Upon his arrival we designed a diet that should have helped him put on weight. Despite eating every bite, the weight was never put on and we decided to take him to the Unionville Equine Associates clinic for a gastroscopy (stomach exam).

The gastroscopy showed that he not only had ulcers but Grade 4 ulcers (worst on the grading scale). Dr. Donaldson advised us on management changes we could make to help him recover, but also encouraged us to invest in the best treatment for his ulcers possible, which was GastroGard or UlcerGard (same drug, different label). These drugs usually sell for $34.00 a tube (and one tube is only one day’s treatment for a horse who needs at least 30), so you can see how the cost of his treatment was going to be significant.

Through the help of those who assisted with funding through the GoFundMe website, as well as of Turning for Home who helped acquire UlcerGard at the lowest possible price, we were able to get 40 doses of UlcerGard for Jersey Brother, which is enough to put him on a full month of treatment. After 30 days of treatment, Dr. Donaldson has offered to take another look at his stomach to see what progress has been made. At that point, if necessary, we will continue the treatment for up to another 10 days at least. Hopefully, we will see a much healthier stomach on the second look.

In the meantime, Jersey Brother has more alfalfa hay in front of him than he can eat when he’s inside, and is outside on a wonderful pasture with his best friend Terminal Velocity during the day. He is not currently being worked as we are hoping to provide a stress-free day to day schedule for him as he heals. We will certainly keep everyone posted on his progress.

Thank you again for all the support!

Even though it doesn’t always feel like it, Spring has arrived and with it a slew of horses that are getting back into work here at After the Races after having much of the winter off. We are excited to have more than ten sound horses looking for homes.  Here are a few to look out for…

Some Show Prospects (upper level capabilities):
Syllogism
Sally’s Contender
Bushwacker Joe
Jersey Brother
South Fleet

All-Around Pleasure Horses (Jumping okay!):
Towzee
Terminal Velocity
Impossible Rittle
Mishievous Maybry
JaimieGoesToOxford

Trail Prospects (little to no jumping, but sound!):
Inscrutable
Musical Definition
Derwin’s Wildcat

Hope this helps you in your search!

It may not be the Year of the Horse, but we hope we will make it another year for the horses here at After the Races.  2012 is now behind us and with it we had 47 horses join adopters in new homes where most are already thriving and doing quite well in their new occupations.

Unlike last year, we’ve had to spend a lot of time battling frozen ground and unsavory riding conditions that make starting our able horses back into work.  Not only is it hard on riding, but it is hard on freshly retired Thoroughbred hooves that are not used to such hard and uneven surfaces.  We cannot be more thankful for our farrier Tony who has been helping us ensure each horse is comfortable an on track to better hoof health.

We have several horses in our barn right now that have arrived after suffering injuries, but most are well on their way to recovery if not near the end.  Musical Definition has truly bounced back after her knee surgery and is now going out with one of our small herds, enjoying every moment of her newly discovered freedom and she should be ready to consider adoption soon.

We also have several horses in our program that are sound and ready to find new homes.  Each one is unique and perhaps suited for different disciplines, but we hope you will take the time to consider each one.  As we require applications submitted prior to visiting, we hope we can take the information you provide and help match you with a suitable horse.

As we are unable to do a lot of riding right now due to the weather, this is the time of year for professionals and experienced riders and handlers to look through our barn for their next young project until we can resume our regular training schedule.  Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions.

We are looking forward to working with you!

While things are normally beginning to slow down come December as we head into the new year, we have gone on to have our best month yet of 2012 with SEVEN horses adopted into new homes! We could not be more excited with the quality of the adopters and the homes they continue to provide our horses. We have had several this month going on as eventing prospects, a few as pleasure horses, and one as a fox hunter.

Long-term After the Races residents Burning Calories and Big Push both went on to their new homes recently. Burning Calories had arrived at our farm in the summer with a non-displaced condylar fracture, and Big Push arrived also in the summer with a bowed tendon and a septic jugular vein. With the help of our vet and terrific staff, we were able to rehab both horses successfully and adopt them out into terrific homes with families that will love them and spoil them for a lifetime to come. Both horses came around to be beautifully sound and terrific workers and we could not be more happy for them.

It has been a magnificent year here in Nottingham for After the Races and we are hoping that with your continued support and shared love for the Thoroughbred horse we will have many more successful years to come.

Thank you, and Happy Holidays!

Wanted to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who came out to meet us on December 1st at the Second Nature Farm Tack Sale.  We had a great time meeting everyone and getting a chance to promote the wonderful horse that is the off track Thoroughbred.

We have had several horses pending and several horses adopted in the past month. In November we parted with Spit, Slumber Smarty, Grogan, and Puhsy, all of which went to terrific homes.  Marley and Belushi are pending, as is Puck, and we hope they get to venture off to their new homes and careers soon.

We have had a few new arrivals to consider, Belle’s Notion and Sweet Dispute being the first of them, but two more have come in which we hope to add to the website soon: Channingstown and Impossible Rittle.  Channingstown is a 16+ hand gelding that is 6 years old, and Rittle is a small ~15.0 hand filly at 3 years old.

So stay tuned for more photos and more horses!

This Saturday, December 1st, 2012, we will be attending Second Nature Farm’s annual used tack sale. Inside their indoor arena, many local horsemen and vendors will be offering tack for sale at great prices.

After the Races will be represented by both staff and volunteers at our table which will be a great place to meet us and ask questions about the horses in our program. We will also be selling some odds and ends, and all proceeds will of course go directly back into the program to help support these great horses.

You can visit Second Nature Farm’s website for more information and directions. The address is: 420 Catamount Rd, Oxford, PA 19363.

We hope to see you there!

It often feels like winter as arrived early as we trek out to the barn in sub-freezing temperatures, but we’re able to forget about the cold once greeted by our horses and getting those able into work each morning. We have also been blessed with the opportunity to meet many wonderful potential adopters this month, several of which have either taken horses home or made plans to.

Slumber Smarty was the first to go, moving on with Brittany and her student Nora who hope to train her as an eventer. Second came Paul, who came to us looking for two horses for himself and his wife to enjoy as trail and pleasure mounts. He is planning on taking Marley and Belushi home with him shortly. Soon after Paul, we met Barbara from Virginia who quickly snatched up Grogan to take home as an eventing prospect. Other of our horses are pending and their adoption will be announced as soon as they are finalized!

We wanted to thank everyone who shares our dedication to these amazing animals, those who have shared their photos with friends on Facebook or even mentioned us to their trainer or co-worker. Word of mouth is an amazing tool for helping these horses find homes, and we fully appreciate the help!

Let’s work together to find homes for a few more!

We wanted to again apologize to all those who were unable to access our Website for a few days.  We are starting to get the site pieced back together.  All of our current horses are now once again viewable along with their photo galleries and videos for those who have them.

With the need for reconstruction, we are also in the process of looking for a webdesigner who will volunteer their services to help us redesign the website. We have had a few inquiries already but if you would like to be considered, e-mail us your information and samples of your work to [email protected]

Thank you for your patience as we get the site back on track.  We hope to have everything back in working order shortly.

-Bonnie Hutton