Meet my new mare River (Road to Tevis #102)

As soon as Jazz was on his way back to Auburn I started looking for a replacement. Once again, I posted on Facebook on endurance pages and my profile. That’s how I had found Jazz. Within hours, I was inundated with offers of great horses. This time, there were more horses offered. In fact, it was raining horses. Why? Possibly because Jazz had come so far in the short time I had him. (You can find out all about Jazz here: Saying good-bye to Jazz.) Or maybe because thanks to Fantazia and Jazz, I had nearly 1000 endurance miles.

As far as that goes, let me tell you a secret: luck had a lot to do with it. Both Fantazia and Jazz are very talented horses. I was just smart enough to guide them to a place where I could stay out of their way.

Perhaps that’s the main thing we should do with any horse. That will certainly be my goal with River.

So how did I sort my new mare River out of the rain of horses?

I actually reached out to her trainer, Nicole Ruggeri of Ruggeri Stables, on the advice of Nina Bomar. Nicole has a lot of nice horses, most out of my price range. I really wanted to fly to Texas to try some horses… but that would have been a Bad Idea. First, I didn’t have time. Second, I might have been too tempted to buy something I couldn’t afford. Nicole offered me RB Rich Rath as something she had that I could afford. I put her within my top three options.

Why?

I’ve been wanting an off-track Arabian for a long time. During my time at the track in Madrid, I rode many horses that would have been great endurance mounts. Most of these were Thoroughbreds, but I also rode many Arabians. The track at Madrid had decided to offer Arabian racing. Most of the horses that ended up racing were show horses. Some turned out to be surprisingly fast.

Above: Ironically, the only pictures I can find from that time of me riding the Arabians are these. I was riding a tiny little chestnut stallion named “Genial.” He was the favorite in that race, because we had done some very fast workouts. Unfortunately he had colicked two days earlier. I wouldn’t have raced him. But his trainer insisted, and we were 6th. I–a female amateur with limited experience–was only riding him because he had bucked off so many people. The big jockeys wouldn’t touch him.

Genial bucked me off too! He is one of only three horses in my entire life that have actually put their heads down and bucked like crazy until I was catapulted off. More horses have tried to buck me off. And I have fallen off many many more. But those were falls. The horses didn’t intend for me to come off, I just wasn’t good enough to stick a spook or jump or swerve. Or the horse fell. But Genial bucked me off good. I hopped on in his stall, and rode out with the reins loose (to tie them). I’d done that many ties before, but that day he put his head down and bucked. After a few bucks, I flew off and down a drop off to land on the roof of a car.

Genial was Spanish show-horse bred. He was very fast, and won his next race out (with a jockey… they had seen that Genial didn’t kill me in his first race). Another chestnut Spanish-bred stallion, Maktoum, also raced well.

Arabian racing in Spain and my friend Karin

The Arabians that most consistently won, however, were trained by Karin van den Bos from the Netherlands. Karin had been racing Arabs successfully in northern Europe. I don’t remember exactly how it all transpired, but Karin was brought to Spain to prepare Arabians for the night races. She started out in the country, near Cienfuegos, I believe. Eventually she came to the track and I met her. Some or all of the Spanish horses she’d started were distributed to Spanish trainers. But she still had the horses she’d brought from the Netherlands.

At this time, I had my amateur licenses to train and race horses in Spain. My boyfriend and I had our own horses. I also galloped for different trainers. Somehow I ended up riding a couple of sets with Karin every morning. I learned a lot from riding her horses, about training in general and about Arabian race horses in particular. Karin and I became friends. At some point she moved into our spare bedroom. We had a lot of fun together.

Karin was very successful racing in Spain. Her horses cleaned up… not surprisingly, as she was the only one with experience racing Arabians. Eventually, Karin left Spain and returned to the Netherlands. She left her car with me, a little Fiat. Eventually I put the Fiat on a train headed to Amsterdam.

Karin has enjoyed world-wide success as an Arabian racing trainer. We’ve kept in contact. She invited me to gallop horses for her during the St. Moritz winter racing. Not going is one of my greatest regrets!

I reached out to Karin several years ago…

I had lost my mare Lady (read about her case of Sweeney Shoulder), and I wanted an off-track Arabian. This was in 2019; I knew I would be moving to California in summer 2020. She recommended I contact Garrett Ford, who was breeding and racing Arabians in Colorado. As it turned out, I ended up with Fantazia, Lady’s full sister. I set aside my goals for a racing bred horse until I lost Jazz.

and again when Nicole offered me River.

Karin hadn’t been active in the US Arabian racing scene for a while, but she would certainly know more about bloodlines than I do! She looked at River’s pedigree, and said she was well-bred. Karin particularly liked TH Richie as a broodmare sire. She also thought River looked good in her pictures. She thought the price was fair.

Pedigree of my new mare river (RB Rich Rath)

What could I know about my new mare River without seeing her?

Besides a decent pedigree… She was the right color–chestnut! And the right size, about 14.3 based on a picture of her being sticked. Nicole said she was closer to 15hh, but when I got her home she was definitely 14.3. She’s decidely smaller than Fantazia who is just under 15hh. Generally I like to ride taller horses, but endurance can mean getting in and out of the saddle many times in the course of 50 miles. Shorter is better.

She looked fairly calm, based on this video. It was in an advertisement for her on Facebook. I hope they don’t take it down!

She also looked sound in the video. Not entirely comfortable, but not at all lame. Of course, I would have a pre-purchase exam (PPE) done.

I poured over her race record

River has 17 starts. She won once, placed twice, and showed four times, earning a total of $17,579. She raced three times as a three-year-old, 13 times at four, and once at five. River won her penultimate race, 6.5 furlongs in 1:30.10 at Lone Star Park. Yes, that’s slow, but it was a good win, driving, by a neck. A head to third place… At that moment, River had heart. You can see the chart below.

Lone-Star-Park-win Download

She won on December 16, 2021. In her next race, Claiming, nearly a year later on October 8, 2022, River was last. I cannot find the video I watched before I bought her, but she was simply not interested in racing. Winning time was 1:30.57, 2/5 slower than her winning time.

Two things about this disturbed me. First, she had ten months off after winning. Why? It was a good win, and if I’d been training her, and she was sound, I’d have followed that up with another race in 2-3 weeks. Unless of course she had peaked in that race. Entirely possible, as even when she won, she was Not Fast. Second, if she had raced as she had before, she would have won.

Above: A video from Associated Press of the night races in Madrid. They show segments of a much longer video with me, and some footage of me racing one of the Thoroughbred fillies I leased. “Beverly Hills” was too slow to be useful as a racehorse, but she would have made an excellent endurance mount.

Of course, as long as she was sound, none of this mattered for endurance

The ideal off-track horse is one that was too slow to injure itself. The good ones break so much more easily, because they give their all. That’s not to say River wasn’t giving her all… she might have been. But I doubt it. I doubted it after watching many race replays, and I really doubt it now after riding her. (more on that later).

Something was clearly going on with RB Rich Rath. Maybe she was off balance and sore (Karin told me she has her first ribs out). Maybe she was a bleeder (exercised induced pulmonary hemorrhage). Perhaps the last trainer simply couldn’t figure her out. It didn’t really matter as long as she didn’t have any major hard or soft tissue injuries. I could fix soreness and imbalance. Bleeding is unlikely to be an issue in endurance (although it could certainly happen on a steep uphill climb).

Click on this link to a Facebook video to see River racing in Sam Houston Park on July 1, 2021, Maiden 5.5 furlong race. River was favorite. She broke first, faded fast, was moved (too soon) in the curve, never a threat, finished 6th, many lengths. Winning time was 1:15.

Alternatives to River

I considered various other horses. If I had found the ideal horse to lease, I would have taken it rather than River. I was offered some great horses. Some were simply too far away. Others were too green (I didn’t want to start at zero). A few were stallions.

River’s runner up was a very nice 10-year-old stallion. His owner didn’t object to me turning him out with Fantazia. (Free breeding!) He had been ridden but was very green, however. That, combined with the fuss of having a stallion, decided me against him. I’ve worked with many stallions, and part of me really wants to campaign a stallion in endurance. Someday I probably will. But right now I don’t have the facilities to house stallion easily. He would have to be out on the 30 acres. The neighbors up the street have at least one mare. I don’t mind Fantazia being bred but I don’t know what they would think of a foal.

To be honest, I am also wary of leases right now. When it’s clear that the owner wants someone to campaign her horse, it’s a win-win. When it looks like the owner wants me to do all the training and conditioning rather than pay a trainer, I’m not so convinced.

So River it was.

The process of purchasing my new mare River

I sent Nicole a deposit and looked for a vet to do the PPE. I wanted to send a vet to Ruggeri Stables, and I wanted a vet that was not their regular vet. This proved to be impossible, even with the help of old friends at the Oswood Stallion Station. (Palestine, TX is even more in the middle of nowhere than I am!) The Oswoods did recommend Athens Equine, so despite that being the Ruggeri’s regular clinic, I felt I could trust them.

River passed her very comprehensive and correspondingly expensive PPE with flying colors. I had 32 images of knees, stifles, hocks, feet, and spine. The only slightly dubious thing was two vertebrae that were a bit closer than one would like. Dr. Grimes did not think it would be a problem. I did not think I would have known anything about it had he not advised spinal radiographs. This could also reflect the need for a good chiropracter. I decided to buy her. (I also had a reproductive exam done–she was fine.)

Above: Images of River’s spine. Top right (or second image) shows the close vertebrae.

As a side note, I also trusted Nicole. She had an exellent reputation. Many people had recommended her. When I spoke with her, I liked her. These things matter.

Getting River from Texas to California

I wanted to get River to me ASAP. Mainly, this was because the semester started soon and I wanted to have time to work with her. Unfortunately, I also wanted a shipper I could trust. I arranged to have a person pick her up just a fwe days after I bought her, but I got bad vibes when they started to ask for pre-payment, so I cancelled. My normal resource–Morgan people–couldn’t pick up till the ned of August. The person Nicole recommended couldn’t do it till September 1st. Gail Murphy from Bonsall, CA., said they could pick her up a week earlier. Gail was also highly recommended by several of my endurance friends and acquaintances.

I decided to go with Gail… and then ended up waiting longer than I would have with my Morgan contacts or Nicole’s shipper because of the hurricane in Florida.

Hurrying almost always guarantees delay….

In the end I didn’t get my new mare River until last Saturday, September 9th, almost a month after I decided to buy her. She arrived in Bonsall (north of San Diego) on Tuesday, but I couldn’t meet the hauler till Thursday… and she couldn’t make the drive right away anyway.

Above: River was well-cared for at Gail’s place in Bonsall while she waited for a ride to Bakersfield.

I had agreed to meet Gail’s hauler Sherri (a wonderful person) in Bakersfield on Friday. I had a meeting Friday morning. and I would normally have stayed in Bakersfield (I teach at Bakersfield College Monday through Thursday). But I went home to pick up my truck and trailer. Not till nearly 5pm on Friday did Gail tell me Sherri couldn’t make it.

Not their fault–another client had held things up. But I was still upset at having wasted diesel, waited in Bakersfield all day, and not having my horse!

Fortunately it worked out the next day. We’d agreed to meet in a parking lot at Bakersfield College. River was very good about getting out of one trailer and hopping into another! I couldn’t wait to get her home.

I picked up my new mare River in a parking lot in Bakersfield College, where I met the hauler.

Bringing River home

I got home around 2:30pm on Saturday, September 9th. River would not back out of the trailer (something to work on), but she had traveled well. The first thing she did was put her head down to eat.

Above: River right after unloading at her new home. The first thing she did was try the grass!

Next up: Getting to know River, slowly.

Meet my new mare River (Road to Tevis #102)

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