Oak Hill
“After losing my heart horse, (and the first horse I ever owned when my parents bought him for me as a freshman in high school) in his 30s in October 2021, I began to tentatively search for another horse. I knew I wanted an OTTB (I actually have a retired 18 year old OTTB as well), but having been out of the saddle consistently for the past 5 years, my number one requirement was a great brain.
I looked at a handful of other horses and inquired about a dozen more. When a friend reached out to me about a cute and seemingly sane OTTB that she’d just gotten in to resale, I was pretty much over the whole horse searching process and about to hang it up for the winter, but since her farm was literally just down the road from my house, I agreed to go see him after work one day. I pretty much knew from the moment I first met Odin that he needed to come home with me. So that night we worked out a deal for me to buy him and I showed up the next day with a trailer to get him.
I didn’t even plan on doing the Retired Racehorse Project TB Makeover initially but when I saw Odin was eligible, I thought it would be a good goal and maybe my only chance to participate in such a great event! Odin has been lovely to work with and ride so far despite some normal post-track things that we’re working through in his body with the help of a great chiropractor, vet, and farrier team and we’ve been taking it really slow so far in order to give his body the time it needs.
We’ve recently started stepping up the training a bit and I've started riding with a trainer to help my very rusty self try to remember how to ride and train. I couldn’t have asked for a better horse to get me back into the saddle and he’s really helped to heal my heart after the loss of my old man and has also been a great buddy to my other horse who was grieving after losing his friend.
Odin’s favorite treat, actually the ONLY treat he will eat, are peppermints so naturally I went and bought a 500 count bag since I use them as part of his daily stretches too. He’s just such a cool dude to be around and truly puts a smile on my face every day”.
