Thoroughbred Logic, Presented by Kentucky Performance Products: Cheers to Thoroughbreds (and Being Less Broke)

“[G]o ride, remember why we choose to swing a leg over a 1200lb prey animal, and embrace the passion that makes all of us horse folks a tiny bit (or a damn lot bit) batty…”

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 goals for 2025.

“Cheers to Thoroughbreds and being less broke” — that was literally the ringing in of the new year last night. A room full of my New York friends clinked glasses after the ball drop to great horses and far less financial mire.

Needles Highway, Louisiana Moon (Wolf) and Koops, staking out the roundbale to ring in the new year. Photo by author.

Here’s hoping 2025 brings everything that can be imagined…and if I could put together some energy for 2025 out into the universe, here’s hoping that…

Your horses stay sound

The alfalfa keeps them fat

The mud stays under control (somehow)

Your riding goals are attainable

There’s help when you and your horses need it

Your trainer toes a good line between honest and kind

The antics you ride make you smile, not regret your purchase decisions

Your horses bring you good friends (and no drama)

Their shoes stay on

There’s enough in the coffers to keep funding this crazy dream

The snow makes everything pretty magical (until you have to hike through it). Photo by author.

If you stop reading here, I hope that your New Year’s Day is filled with equine time in all the ways you hope. They say what we do on the first of the year is what we will do more of throughout the next 365. So go ride, remember why we choose to swing a leg over a 1200lb prey animal, and embrace the passion that makes all of us horse folks a tiny bit (or a damn lot bit) batty…or as one of my friends says, “totally rat traps.”

On my end, my day will be filled with feeding the horses, slogging through the mud to the dry pastures, hoping for a freeze (I never thought I’d say that), riding and attending to a barn of some of my favorite Thoroughbreds yet. Sure, I have to pay bills and make sure the business stays afloat, but there’s never a chance to forget why I do this — mud, snow and all.

So go ride, remember why we choose to swing a leg over a 1200lb prey animal, and embrace the passion that makes all of us horse folks a tiny bit (or a damn lot bit) batty…or as one of my friends says, “totally rat traps.”

Maybe, I’ll even find some time to sit down and think hard(er) about my goals for 2025.

When 2024 kicked off, I committed to more recognized showing and taking a stab at getting back into the upper levels with Rhodie (Western Ridge). Soundness issues and not enough barn help and too many horses kicked that in the knees early on… and then I moved, halting my showing career for the season and then for the rest of the year. The hard left of heading north rerouted so many things, but in ways that I think are really quite good and I am legitimately excited for the year ahead.

Koops is getting pretty fancy and is slowly getting stronger while aiming his 2025 at the Retired Racehorse Project’s Thoroughbred Makeover. Photo by Lily Drew.

Sure I need to figure out how to improve business financials (hence the “be less broke” part), sure I need to free up more time for my own life outside of horses (what even is that?), and sure, I need to get more organized, write more things down, and make my CPA father less annoyed during tax season. But also, hopefully there are quite big things on the horizon that are less chore-like and more exciting.

1) Go back to regular lessons.

I was lucky to train under Werner Geven in Georgia, but up here in New York, I have been both insanely busy getting set up and a bit adrift. I need to make time for the regular rides on my horse (which horse???), the homework, the hard work, and the coach.

Rest up Neil (Lute’s Angel) I think this might be a big year for you. Photo by author.

2) Commit one or two horses to my show string, pull them from the sales roster, and actually take a stab at moving up the levels again.

That goal sounds pretty simple — in fact most people who only have one or two horses are able to do this quite successfully. The challenge when running a sales barn is that you are constantly bombarded with talented horses who might, could, maybe just be the next big thing to go up the levels. But then they are also for sale. The combination has created a non-commitment on my end at least as far as personal competitions go. So the goal is to change that, to focus on one nice horse in the barn that gets to come off the “available” list and start to go up the levels. I’m pretty sure that horse is Neil (Lute’s Angel), but I’ll ride him today just to be sure.

Needles Highway is of course also in the running for that show position. Photo by Allen Graham.

3) Formalize the non-profit side of the farm.

This is super exciting, and I’ll write about getting “Stall 13” going in its own side article soon. In the meantime, I’m extraordinarily excited to have the framework done for an organization that can help the Thoroughbreds who are hard to place, need some special TLC, layup, or redirection. Stay tuned here.

Major Spin will likely be grandfathered into Stall 13… stay tuned for what that means. Photo by author.

4) Finally, submit a book proposal and start to get all this Thoroughbred nonsense collected into one location. I can’t tell if it’s the process of the potential that is daunting, but time to stop kicking rocks around at the base of this thing and jump in and start climbing…er, writing…

Also very excited to get this guy going again. Indy (Star Player) is also in the running for a super productive 2025. Photo by Lily Drew (yes, I messed up the settings on the camera…).

I could go on and on about potential goals (there are always a ton), but these are exciting and yeah yeah yeah, I know…if you’re not doing things that scare the heck out of you, you’re not pushing yourself. So… cheers to 2025… off we go….

Go ride folks. Here’s to a 2025 of growth, learning, new directions, and always more Thoroughbreds.

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