Ryck-O-Shay ("Rycky") is my Off the Track Thoroughbred (OTTB) who turns 15 this March.   We have lived in Rolling Hills for 3 years. 

     I had been following a gal named Sarah who had an organization called Equine Racers, which is a non-profit that re-homes race horses. I saw a photo of a beautiful big Bay Irish 

Thoroughbred.

     When I got Rycky from Los Alamitos race track, he was 8 and had raced earlier that year. He had been put on the "Do not race list" for a second or 3rd time in a row. 8 is really old to still be racing. When I went to meet him at the track he was skin and bones. Not the fit Thoroughbred I saw in the photo. 

     I asked the owner about him and he had acquired him earlier that year and was using him as a Pony horse for the quarter horses. He told me he had a great reputation and that Rycky did the whole Southern California race circuit including Hollywood Park and Del Mar and eventually wound up at Los Alamitos.   

     When you go to the track to meet a horse, you can't ride the horse.  So I hung out with him for about 30 mins touching him all over and I felt he really deserved a forever home. I definitely didn't know what I was doing, but decided we would figure it out!  And we did.  

     Although I rode regularly before, I did not know what to do with a horse right off the track who had never been privately owned and kept outside of a racetrack. But I paid the owner of a local barn to meet me at the track and we loaded Rycky into his trailer and that was it!   He was mine and life off the track began for him. We got a trainer and rode the trails and neighborhood 5 days a week.  It was super fun and I got thrown into owning a horse and all the fun and hard things that came along with it. 

      When we moved to Rolling Hills 3 years ago, I knew Rycky would love to explore the trails!  And he does. We are so lucky to call Rolling Hills our home. The horse community is phenomenal! 

 

Fun facts.  Rycky was born in Ireland. His won his first race in Italy and then it seems he was sold to someone or brought to the USA to Hollywood Park. He raced 35 races according to Equibase.    (this last paragraph could be a side bar, if room and if it looks good)