Social media, as well as the new and improved RRP Horse Listings, have enabled potential OTTB owners to review a large number of retiring Thoroughbred racehorse listings at any time. Newcomers to the breed might find it challenging to consider a prospect right off the track and decide if it’s a match for their desired purpose.

In this column veteran Thoroughbred Makeover trainers share their strategies for assessing and selecting prospects based only on conformation photos. We feature trainers from two disciplines in each column.

Our Trainers

Brenda Awad
Third in Show Hunter and fourth in Show Jumper at the 2023 Thoroughbred Makeover with Bell the Cat

Brenda Awad of Charlotesville, VA has been riding since the age of six, dabbling in multiple disciplines and learning through watching others. She rode whatever was available to her in addition to her boarded pony, and spent a lot of time riding the horses no one else wanted to work with. Awad connected her first off-track Thoroughbred when she was 12, and quickly learned how to work with a sensitive ride, developing the horse as an eventer. That partnership launched her lifelong love of Thoroughbreds, and she’s kept one in her barn ever since, focusing on show jumpers and show hunters.

Kiersti Wylie
Third in Freestyle at the 2023 Thoroughbred Makeover with Red King

Kiersti Wylie of Fallbrook, CA comes from a family involved with horses and essentially grew up in the saddle, embarking on a competitive career in eventing at the age of five. With family support and coaching, she developed her first OTTB into an event horse as a child; her father purchased another OTTB from an auction for her to develop into a long format horse who taught her a lot about working with sensitive horses. She got the opportunity to mentor under Howard Zucker on the racetrack, which gave her a deeper appreciation for the Thoroughbred and encouraged her to develop her family’s non-profit Sandia Creek Ranch Auxiliary Foundation and earn CARMA and TAA accreditation.

Choosing a Horse

When shopping for horses, Awad prefers to source horses from individuals who know the horse personally. “I like to get a horse from someone who has really known the horse, understands his personality, and can tell you valuable information about how the horse handles different types of situations,” she describes. “This usually leads me to the owner, trainer, or rider, and sometimes an aftercare service. I get the most information that way, and I feel like the price is usually more reasonable as well.” She’s found horses through scanning ads online or working through her network of professionals.

While having conformation photos available, as well as riding videos or track videos, are helpful to Awad, the most helpful information comes from conversations with these connections. “So much changes when the horse leaves the track and transitions to a second career that photos and videos can be unreliable,” she describes. She relies on the information she gets from the connections to assess if horses are likely to fit into her program, and then follows her gut instinct after that.

“Back in my younger days, I liked the spicy, hotter, sensitive horses,” she describes. “I took great pride in helping them learn a new job. However, over recent years, I’ve found myself radiating towards gentler souls; I have a great affinity towards mares and love their keen minds.” Awad focuses first on the horse’s head and eye, seeking a soft, kind eye with a gentle expression, and horses who appear curious and confident. She also prefers a big sloping shoulder, long neck coming high out of the shoulder, a short back and a sloping croup with hind legs placed well beneath — but also will take a great personality with slightly crooked legs over great conformation with a bad personality.

Wylie, through her accredited program, admits that she doesn’t usually get the opportunity to pick the horses that come to her. “I’m fortunate to get to work with some of the top horses, but we are also known for ‘last chance’ horses, so it can be a wide variety,” she describes. “When it comes to choosing a sport horse, we can conformationally pick what appeals to our eye the most, but we mustn’t overlook why we are truly picking the Thoroughbred — they’ll give you everything, so it’s important that we find what the horse excels in and enjoys.”

While Wylie does try to match conformation to a second career discipline, she also doesn’t let conformation force a horse down a particular track. “When I look at a horse, I think to myself, ‘what is it built to do?’ so that I’m not setting that horse up for failure. But I’m also not going to say, ‘this horse looks like a dressage horse, so it must do dressage.’ Find what the horse likes to do.”

Meet the Prospects

The Secretariat Center was established in 2004 by racing industry leaders who identified a need to care for horses after their racing careers ended. This was a new focus in 2004 and has helped foster a healthier future for Thoroughbreds and the racing industry. Hailed as the Gold Standard for Thoroughbred Reschooling, the Secretariat Center’s mission is to prepare off-track Thoroughbreds for happy, healthy, and successful post-track careers. The organization gives each horse a new foundation of skills and then works with a potential approved adopter to place them into a home best suited to their future career. The Secretariat Center advocates for the Thoroughbred’s versatility and athleticism and works to care for and rehome around 50 horses a year. Each of the organization’s horses is tracked for the entirety of its life to ensure it receives a lifetime of The Gold Standard. Located on 22 beautiful rolling acres of bluegrass, the Secretariat Center is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) located within the Kentucky Horse Park, in Lexington KY.

While these three horses may no longer be available for adoption when this article is published, the Secretariat Center has plenty of prospects available at secretariatcenter.org.

Horse 1: Kalakaua (Elusive Quality – Royalties, by King of Kings [IRE])

Horse 2: Quality West (Quality Road – Cara Marie, by Unbridled’s Song)

Horse 3: Smile Happy (Runhappy – Pleasant Smile, by Pleasant Tap)

Awad’s Picks

Wylie’s Picks

All three horses are lovely in their own ways. It’s hard to compare them for a single discipline as they each offer different strengths, but if I was to say I was looking for an event horse (assuming that they are all the same age and only off the photos provided) my order would be the following: 

Horse 3: This horse has an overall lovely look and great expression. He’s fairly equally balanced and a nice heart girth. His neck ties in a little low, but otherwise it’s a nice neck; he’s a little steeper in the shoulder than the others. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this horse in the hunter ring. 

Horse 1: This is a very compact horse: I bet he’s quite powerful and would make a super jumper. His neck is a bit short and thick so you would have to work at the elasticity but it could be there. He is a little long in the pasterns and higher in the croup if stood up square but overall looks like a nice horse.

Horse 2: Another lovely expression! This one has the nicest neck of the three, but also the least equally balanced proportions overall. His tail is high set and he’s a bit short in his croup. His front half really is an eye catching horse — my guess is he needs some time to grow up still but would still make a quality horse.