Storm Factor

“Storm is a Pennsylvania bred Thoroughbred by The Factor. He retired from racing in October 2021 after 20 starts mostly on the turf, and earnings of a little over $123,000. He was trained by Kathleen DeMasi of Pewter Stables.

Storm is a very willing and easy going guy which has made transitioning him into his new career an absolute pleasure. We have focused our training on building a flatwork foundation and getting him strong and balanced. He loves hacking around the farm and trails as well. His confident and willing demeanor inspired me to start training Competitive Trail obstacles. It’s been fun mixing things up in our training and exposing him to new things. Most recently, we have been getting Storm out on different off-property schooling adventures to lessons, horse shows, and trail rides. He recently attended his first Dressage show and had a great outing!

Storm lives at home on a farm I own with my husband where he has become a member of the family. Being responsible for his daily care has given me the opportunity to get to know him very well and build a close relationship with him, which I believe has helped us in our training.

Storm takes his “Grey Horse Duty” to never pass up an opportunity to roll in mud very seriously, and we go through lots of purple shampoo. Fortunately, he is also one of the few Thoroughbreds I’ve met who enjoys being curried and groomed. He also very much enjoys his MagnaWave, massage, and chiro/acupuncture sessions. His treat of choice is bananas, with carrots being a close second.

My main goal is to develop Storm into a confident and happy horse in his second career. Long term, I hope to make him into an “all around horse” who can do a little bit of everything. Leading up to the Makeover, we plan to attend more horse shows and also plan to get out on some trail rides and to school trail obstacles.

My advice to future Makeover participants is to enjoy the process. I also echo the advice of others to focus on staying in your lane as there will always be people who appear ahead of you. While the timeline can be pressure inducing, I think it’s important to honor your horse’s individual timeline and not rush the training process”.