Third Annual Days End Horse Farm Rescue Trainer's Challenge

Unvanted Treasure, aka "Polly"

Hello and welcome to the blog! It is my pleasure to announce my upcoming participation in a sixty day trainer's challenge in cooperation with Days End Horse Farm Rescue in Woodbine, Maryland. As part of my work with the Equine Welfare Society, we thought that working with another rescue operation to promote the success of rescued or "unwanted" horses would be a wonderful way to spend our summer, and a great challenge for me personally. I have always wanted to be involved in a short term trainer's challenge, and this is my chance to show off my skills as I work with a horse to build a relationship and a partnership.

The DEHFR Trainer's Challenge is a wonderful program that promotes rescue horses much in the way that the OTTB movement has been working for thoroughbreds. Many people, when searching for their next partner in crime, forget that there are lovely horses available at local rescues who are just as capable as show horses that are more obviously on the market. The challenge is sixty days for professionals, and ninety days for amateurs, at the end of which time period we all gather for a day of showing off our skills in both a freestyle and trail class. Horses must prove that they have learned a set of defined skills for the trail class, and then are judged on the freestyle aspect, as well as the general bond between the trainer and the horse. I won't tell you what I have in mind for the freestyle yet....but I've got something good!

After applying to become one of the trainers chosen for the program, I was accepted and EWS director Erica Stevens and I travelled to Maryland to meet with the DEHFR folks. Based upon my experience training horses and my sport preferences, they matched me with Unvanted Treasure (what a great name for this!), aka, "Polly". Polly is a 2004 thoroughbred mare who raced once, at the age of five, and was wildly unsuccessful. Not much is known of her life after that, and she was just recently rescued by DEHFR in April of this year, so she is just beginning her journey to recovery.

Polly and I during our first meeting

We looked her up on Equibase, and while Polly epitomizes the "plain brown wrapper" horse with no particular breeding or even markings to set her apart, I was pleased with her attitude during the fifteen minutes that I was able to interact with her during our meeting. She has a calm attitude, and a willing heart. She made a significant effort to connect with me, and while she did not understand everything that I was asking as I attempted to lunge her, she clearly wanted to find the correct answer. That, and she quickly figured out that when she came near me, I scratched her face and let her rest, and was then very motivated to continue hanging out with me!

The plan is to head up to Maryland this Sunday, the 13th of July, and pick her up. DEHFR kindly allowed me a little more than sixty days (the challenge culminates with their Fall Festival on September 20th) to allow for the fact that I will be out of town twice during that time period for competitions with my own horses. Polly will be coming back to my farm in Free Union, so that every day, I am the first face that she sees, and I am the one that feeds her, grooms her, and turns her out. This way, our bond will be faster to form than if she only saw me for an hour a day for training purposes.

So, here is to our journey beginning! I will be sure to post an update on Monday at the latest, including her "before" picture and maybe a little video. Stay tuned!