Robin

Back in early October I wrote a blog about a chestnut thoroughbred mare named Robin (And They’re Off!). You will be pleased to know that I am as attached to Robin as ever and she has really come a long way. Although we are still far from the finish line, we are taking strides every day. It won’t be long now until we are in the final turn and heading for home! (Ok, I’m done with the racetrack references for now! I couldn’t help it!).

Horses racing at Arlington Park

I have found that Robin does really well with routine. For example, if I ride her in the morning instead of in the evening it kind of rattles her a bit. I try to keep things really steady, but will occasionally try something new to see how she handles it. Generally, she has been really good with new things (like riding outside), but I think she will handle new things better when she has full confidence in me. The more she trusts me and looks to me for reassurance, the better she will handle new situations. We are not there yet, but she is definitely more friendly towards me and seems to genuinely like my attention now – rather than just putting up with me!

She may have to put up with me, but I have to put up with her too!

Robin has also had her teeth floated by a veterinarian so that they are nice and straight with no pointy edges. In the beginning, Robin was very sensitive about her face and really fought me when I tried to put the bit in her mouth. Now that her teeth are better they are no longer causing her pain and she now has no problem with the bit or me touching her face.

So we can walk and trot pretty well now – we can even do changes of directions and circles! Wahoo! I have also been focusing on getting her to trot straight lines off the rail or arena wall (so she has to balance better) and am adding in leg yields just to see how well she is listening. Before this, all she knew was go and whoa and some basic steering, now I am introducing things like going sideways, circles, and generally asking her for more control of her feet and where she is going. I can tell that sometimes she will get frustrated or confused with something, like the leg yield, but I just kept asking her gently and rewarded her for the tiniest effort.

Look! I really can ride her!

 Overall, she is turning into a nice mare. Occasionally still she will just stop dead all of a sudden or refuse to turn a certain way, but hey, at least we have made some progress. We have even cantered a few times! The transition into the canter is very ugly, but once she is in stride, it is actually kind of nice! She seems a to be weaker and less balanced to the right, but this makes sense because all U.S. racetracks run to the left. Her main problem is that if I leave the arena door open, she fixates on the open door so much that she stops listening to me. Her only focus when the door is open is to try to leave the arena. Hopefully with more time she will grow out of that little quirk as well. At this point, however, I shudder to think of what she would do in a dressage ring! At least having a goal in mind will help keep us focused!

This picture shows her crazy side

But this picture shows my crazy side

I also did some digging and found a bunch of Robin’s race records! I knew that her race name was Trix of Trade, so I searched her name on Equibase.com and found it really easily! All thoroughbreds on the track also get a tattoo number on the inside of their upper lip that you can use to look up records as well, in case you have a thoroughbred ex-racehorse and don’t know its race name.

Robin Before - On the Track

Robin After - In the Arena

Most racehorses can have a pretty tough life, but Robin seemed to actually have it pretty good. She was born in Illinois on May 21, 2004. Instead of starting her at two years old like many owners/trainers do, they waited until Robin was 3 years old to run her first race. I was able to watch a video of her first race at Hawthorne Racetrack – and it was hilarious! She was definitely not made to be a racehorse. When the starting bell goes off and the gates open, Robin flies out of the gate and bumps into several horses next to her. Once she settles in somewhere in the middle of the pack, she drifts to the outside. Robin runs with her head straight up in the air – something that a nervous horse will tend to do because they are worried about their surroundings and the other horses and are keeping their heads high to try to see everything. A horse that is running with purpose and focus often runs with his head lower. Running around the final turn for home, you can see Robin start to drift really hard towards the outside rail – you can even see the jockey waving the whip near her face to try to get her to go back towards the other horses and stop drifting so far! She finally gets the hint and straightens out for the homestretch and actually picks up some speed. Passing first one then two horses, Robin suddenly finds herself out in front! She is quite shocked that she is now leading the pack and quickly slows down so the other horses can catch up – you can almost literally see her backpedaling! In the end, Robin got 6^th place and her owners/trainers gave her the rest of the year off. Clearly, they didn’t think she was ready either!

Robin’s Career Statistics:

Starts: 12

Wins: 2

Seconds: 1

Thirds: 2

Earnings: $21,025

*$21,025 may seem like a lot, but if you factor in the costs for feed, farrier, dental, stabling, trailering, riding gear, stablehand pay, and entry fees for just her time spent on the track, I’m sure the owners did not even break even – probably not even close.

Equibase also assigns horses a speed figure that tells you how fast a horse has been running in its past races with a single number. Equibase says “Its sophisticated algorithms are based on the horse’s actual time in combination with other factors, such as the condition of the track.” Basically, this speed figure is a way to compare a horses’ speed to another – no matter what the track location, type, or condition. They also said that a typical horse running in a stakes race (highest level) will rate around 110, while horses running in claiming races (lowest level) may rate around 80. Robin’s highest Equibase speed figure was a 77…. So racing really wasn’t the career for her.

Year	Starts	Firsts	Seconds	Thirds	Earnings
2010	7	0	1	2	$4,705
2009	4	2	0	0	$16,320
2007	1	0	0	0	$0

Robin didn’t race again at Hawthorne until she was 5 years old. She had her first and only two wins during this season and then came back next year for a few dismal starts before she was retired from the racetrack. Robin had the speed to become a racehorse, but I don’t think she had the mind or the will. It seems like she had a pretty good life on the racetrack – she was owned and trained by the same people her entire career and she even had mostly the same jockey for every race. They didn’t over race her and seemed to give her plenty of time to mature. The video records of her races don’t show the horses loading into the starting gates (they only show once all the horses are in), so Robin may have put up trouble loading into the gate, but once she was in, she stood pretty calmly before the gates opened.

It is hard to tell why Robin is the way she is today – perhaps her trainer or jockey was rough on her while riding or perhaps her teeth and feet were sore so it was painful for her to be ridden (and maybe also why we have to sedate her for both vet and farrier to this day). Maybe it wasn’t the racetrack at all – who knows where she was during that year off or after she was retired. We will probably never know. Robin is a very smart horse and I have a feeling that she will never stop testing me or trying new things, but maybe we can get to a point one day where she will trust that she is in a good place.