Highboy and Dewey Return to the Alma Mater

Today was the Heritage Ride for the Colorado Horse Council.   Arapahoe Park, the racetrack here in Colorado, hosted the ride.  It began with some opening remarks near the registration tent, then we headed out to the actual track for a lap around, then to the adjacent park for a short trail ride.

Bit of Honey went to this activity to support and represent CANTER Colorado with some of our excellent retired racehorses.  Dewey was a CANTER owned horse in their aftercare program for a while before he came to Bit of Honey Training for the 2015 Equine Comeback Challenge, and Highboy was in the CANTER Colorado trainer listings where I found him back in 2013 as a four year old.

This morning was very exciting for several of the horses in attendance, since they had trained and raced at this track and they clearly remembered their old alma mater.  Highboy took one look at the starting gate, and even though we didn't go through it of course, he was pretty sure his job today was to RUN!  I was able to keep a lid on him though, and he and I went for a nice trot/walk around the track with some of the other horses.

Dewey also trained at Arapahoe Park.  Though he was too slow and quiet tempered to ever make it to his first race, he also recognized his old stomping grounds and was a bit "up" as we toured the race track.  We jokingly declared that Dewey set a Personal Record today, he finished his first "race" around the track with a time of approximately 35 minutes!

After our lap around I attempted to snap a shot of our group on the track, and while Highboy was kind of a camera hog I did get a shot of us.

Then we headed out with the very large group of horses to the neighboring fairgrounds for the remainder of the trail ride.  Highboy ended up leading most of the way.  Despite coming in last in both of his races when he was actually running, he did seem to remember the importance of being in front.  He was the tallest horse on the ride, and had the longest legs and stride.  Therefore my view for most of the morning was empty trail and green fields.

At the end of the ride we found the executive director of CANTER Colorado, Jamie, and we got a photo with her.  It is always a fun reunion when we get Dewey and Jamie together, since she saw him as a squirrelly youngster just fresh from the track.  That was before he became the ambassador to debunk all the myths about high strung OTTBS by making himself the favorite quiet temperament in the Bit of Honey barn.

There were some interesting episodes on the ride, but I didn't fall off of Highboy, so as with previous rides we're calling it a great success.  It definitely counts as experience for all the horses, and CANTER Colorado gave us some great Thoroughbred themed t-shirts as thanks for coming and representing.  My favorite parts of the day were seeing Baby Dewey be so brave both on and off the track, seeing Kim H. ride so incredibly well on a very challenging trail, and watching Darby stride out comfortably after a month of careful reconditioning.  

But the best part for me was riding my retired racehorse on the racetrack where he ran years ago.