Happy 1 year Retirement Yosh!

A year ago this kid was doing this (well not actually this picture, he didn't win his last race and the win pictures are all I could find): 

Now he is out there doing this: 

Yoshi's last race was October 24, 2020 at Gulfstream Park West in Miami, Florida where he finished dead last. He retired after a 47 race career with a total of 3 wins. He had starts almost every month after his first race in April of 2017 as a 3 year old. He did earn $67,930 over his 47 races with the majority of that won in 2018. He was acquired by the woman I bought him from in November of 2020 and then started his second career. I bought him at the end of February 2021 after a month long trial. He then had March and April off due to his feet and we started back to light work in May. Going back through his race schedule just now makes me realize that his 60 days off was probably one of the best things I could have done for him. Kid really did not get a let down period after a pretty long, intense, race career. 

We started back to real work in June, and since then Yoshi has taken EVERYTHING thrown at him in stride. Long solo trail rides away from home? No prob. Cross country schooling? Yep, got it. Big horse show environment with and without friends? No drama here. Cow runs at the pasture fence as we walk by on a dirt road? Turn around, try to canter off. Not allowed? Okay, got it, we can walk past it. 

This horse has the best mind. He is so quick to learn things and tries SO HARD to do what he is asked. He has already established the point and shoot mentality. He's learning how to do it athletically still, but no matter what angle we come at a jump from he goes to the other side. JT's "over, under, or through" for baby horses hardly even needed to be applied to him, he took that to heart from about a month into his summer work. On the flat he is getting better and better 

I may do the Thoroughbred Showcase at FHP in December. It is the weekend of a Majestic Oaks schooling show that I was eyeing, but I really do want to share how awesome OTTBs are. 

I can't wait to see where Year 2 of "retirement" takes us!