Thoroughbred Logic, by Kentucky Performance Products: Demystifying ‘Spooky’ Season
“The wind, weather, and absurd Halloween tchotch (I’m looking at you you blow up dragons and 20-foot tall skeletons) do not create a spooky horse out of one who is usually brave. Rather, a consistent horse is one whose reactions are predictable …”
Welcome to the next installment of Thoroughbred Logic. In this weekly series, Anthropologist and trainer Aubrey Graham, of Kivu Sport Horses, offers insight and training experience when it comes to working with Thoroughbreds (although much will apply to all breeds). This week ride along as Aubrey shares her logic on spooky season and riding Thoroughbreds.
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to hop on a podcast with my friends at Ride IQ and discuss all things Thoroughbreds. It was a ton of fun, their program is great, and you should check it out here. But perhaps my favorite part of the chat was a question that popped up early — something along the lines of “what do you think are common misconceptions about Thoroughbreds?” Apparently, I have a lot to say about that question. My responses ranged from their expected ribbyness (no need for ribby TBs, of course) to their need to be immediately tossed out in a field sans shoes (doesn’t work for all of them), to a response that is apt for the season: their (lack of) spookiness.
While some specific Thoroughbreds will upend my argument and one-hundred percent prove me wrong, nine times out of 10, I would rather be on a Thoroughbred than almost any other breed when the wind starts blowing, temps drop, and decorations are waving about. These fresh-off-track horses might be young, but they have seen so much in their racing career that they’re surprisingly steadier than often given credit.
This week saw lower temps here in New York, followed by gorgeous fall days like this on a young Thoroughbred. I’ll take it. Photo by author.
Perhaps it is better put this way: I find Thoroughbreds to be exceptionally consistent, largely brave creatures. The wind, weather, and absurd Halloween tchotch (I’m looking at you you blow up dragons and 20-foot tall skeletons) do not create a spooky horse out of one who is usually brave. Rather, a consistent horse is one whose reactions are predictable — huge looming skeletons or not.
I like nothing less than riding a horse who I can’t trust. I don’t need to trust them to be “good” or “safe,” but I do need to trust that they will be predictably themselves. If their go-to when caught off guard is to pound the ground and skitter sideways (ahem, Rhodie , aka Western Ridge), all good — I figure we’ll do that when approached by a horse clad in Halloween garb in a show warm up at this time of year. So sit up and stay gently grounded in the saddle. If their response is to slow down and need to look, OK, that’s the game plan. Rear and bolt… meh, maybe Hudson (Primetime Spy) stays in the stall through this season of ridiculous warmup arenas and road hacks.
Out on a wet trail ride last fall with Rhodie (Western Ridge), who is both consistently brave and consistently skittery. At least he is consistent. Photo by author.
But the big thing here is that changes in the environment around these horses does not make them spooky. And if suddenly it does, perhaps one needs to put an eye on the rider and see what has changed. Are they clamping, pitching forward? Are they looking for the concerning excuses? In any way, is the antic-expectant rider piloting differently because they believe they will have a winged-dragon and not their usual steady eddy?
This has been my first fall in decades, and it could not have been any prettier (featuring the impeccable Ithaca Equestrian Center). Now to ride through the descent into the New York winter. Photo by author.
I think I’m probably just old and grumpy, but from now through the holidays, the “nope, not riding today” posts on social media drive me a little batty. Sometimes it seems that it gets as trendy as the very term “spooky season” — which cropped up a few years ago and seems to be sticking around. Don’t get me wrong — there is nothing wrong with knowing your horse and knowing what days are good days to fight the good fight and which ones are better to enjoy ground work or a hearty lunge session. But the online and in person building of the expectation that horses will spook only means we’re more likely to see confirmation biases when we ride expecting the antics and — low and behold — a singular foot got put out of line.
Wolf (Louisiana Moon) got to play substitute for young rider, Ella Anderson, at my Eventing Workshop at the Ithaca Equestrian Center this past weekend. He was his standard weirdo self – and pretty darn foot perfect. Photo by author.
On a blustery fall day that would have had my childhood pony lawn darting me to the ground, give me a Thoroughbred who has seen the track. As I have mentioned a bunch in these articles, the backside is all organized chaos, noise, other horses, rigs, equipment and the like — and then quiet in the afternoons. The public-facing side of the track has the race paddock and the grand stands with the bright silks, loud speakers, flags, banners, trucks, and movement of all colors, shapes, and sizes. If they have been through it a time or two… or 62 times (Wolf, aka Louisiana Moon), they have seen a ton and probably figured out how to hold it together.
Sunrise at the Thoroughbred Training Center in Lexington, Kentucky, featuring Kelsey Wallace jogging one of Michael Ann Ewing’s racing string while dogs and a sizable goat mill about, and horses gallop on the tracks in the background. Photo by author.
Take a good track horse into the second career “wild” and they’ll make you think you can ride into the apocalypse and make it out the other side. Hell, back in 2019, I said exactly that about Ranger, aka Cowboy Night. He came to me as a project horse from Kelly Lupton, who had put a couple initial post-track rides on him. I finished up teaching at a neighboring barn and the cliché situation happened — Georgia suddenly experienced fall. The 70-degree temperatures plummeted towards the 40s, while a storm front blew in, whipping what few colorful leaves we had from the trees. I went home excited to ride the new guy, weather be damned. I swung a leg over then-four year old Ranger and executed a standard ride: Walk, trot, canter, lead change all quietly under the lights in my outdoor.
He didn’t care. He didn’t care about the weather or the season, the lights or the shadows, or the steadily more-blown horizontal trees. For Ranger, the worst thing around is other horses running up on him from behind. There weren’t any of those, so the kiddo was foot perfect. I hopped back to the ground after that ride with the knowledge that he could be stellar amateur horse — which, true to his consistency, he absolutely is.
Ranger (Cowboy Night) dressaging with his owner Amanda Woomer at the Big Cheese Eventing Halloween Horse Trial last October. Photo by author.
Another fantastic example is my friend and former intern’s mounted police ride: Gambit (Souper True). This kiddo gets to patrol Atlanta streets this time of year, taking in all the ridiculousness that is the decorations and the traffic. Does Gambit care? Nope.
Gambit (Souper True), piloted by ATlanta Mounted Patrol trainer, Kelly Robison checks out Halloween decorations in Atlanta’s Grant Park neighborhood. Photo by Kelly Robison.
But a horse does not need to be exceptionally brave and bombproofed to be able to survive this season. They just need to be confident enough and have a confident enough rider to be allowed to be consistently, predictably themselves. And so, as I enter my first real autumn in literally decades, I’m excited to get to test my theory daily. I’m pretty certain horses like Ramen (Plamen), Wolf, Needles Highway, Koops, Neil (Lute’s Angel), Major Spin, Indy (Star Player) and new arrivals like CC (Coragescontender) won’t give a damn about the blustery lakeside descent into winter. In all likelihood, I’ll be complaining more about needing a better winter riding coat than about misbehaving ponies.
The nights may be getting (quite a bit) colder, but man is it beautiful here. Photo by author.
So enjoy the chilly, spooky season folks. But count on your Thoroughbred to be smart enough to be exactly who they are, regardless of the weather.
About Kentucky Performance Products, LLC:
Support Normal Insulin Regulation
Metabolic dysregulation is characterized by weight gain and unhealthy insulin levels that can lead to
unsoundness. Maintaining normal metabolic function and sustaining healthy weight through dietary
supplementation will support normal insulin levels and healthy laminae structure in the foot.
- Maintains healthy insulin regulation and normal body weight.
- Supports a decreased risk of laminitis.
- Formulated with a research-proven blend of polyphenols and amino acids.*
* Manfredi JM, Stapley ED, Nash D. Effects of a dietary supplement on insulin and adipokine
concentrations in equine metabolic syndrome/insulin dysregulation. In J Equine Vet Sci 2020:88:102930.
The horse that matters to you matters to us®. KPPVet.com
