This year, America’s Best Racing and the Retired Racehorse Project will be sharing diaries from several trainers preparing for the 2023 Thoroughbred Makeover competition, scheduled for Oct. 11-14 at the Kentucky Horse Park. Meet adult amateur rider Julianne Pangal and her RRP hopeful, Funnee, as they gear up for their maiden voyage to the Thoroughbred Makeover.

Summer is almost here! And that means equine events in the Northeast are really ramping up, allowing myself and Funnee to get out and attend more horse shows in our area.

Courtesy of Julianne Pangal

This month, we attended our first “real” horse show, an off-property schooling show held at Lofty Heart Stables in Burt, N.Y., roughly an hour away. We competed in a few flat classes, strung together two cross rail courses and even earned our first blue ribbon.

We also attended our first two cross country schoolings, giving us the opportunity to hang out in a big field, experience other horses galloping fences, and we tried hopping over some logs and solid jumps. Because of Funnee’s age, I have limited our jumping to small logs, baby banks, and tiny ditches.

Despite all this recent “success” I couldn’t help but feel a little discouraged on the cross-country course. Funnee and I have not yet selected what divisions we will compete in at the Thoroughbred Makeover. Looking at the beginner novice and novice fences, I kept thinking to myself “there’s no way this baby horse will work up to jumping 2 feet, 7 inches by the end of the summer – I don’t even want to jump the ‘larger’ intro/starter fences with her yet.”

Coming off the course that day, I had to remind myself that we DID have a positive experience. We accomplished small, bite-sized goals:

• Funnee was relaxed and stood quietly while horses buzzed passed her and galloped other fences.
• She never said no or questioned jumping any of the small obstacles/logs.
• She tackled her first little baby bank, marched through water and took the ditch like an old pro.
• She left our schooling buddy and worked by herself.
• I was able to video a few of my friend’s jumps with her horse (one hand on the reins).

Despite my internal pep talk, I still had concerns about our plan for the summer. I began thinking about how I could apply a few principles in my corporate life to my RRP journey. It was time to take a step back and reset a few of our goals.

Creating an RRP Trello Board

Funnee’s Trello board. (Courtesy of Julianne Pangal)

Many people who work in a project-management type role have likely heard of Trello. Trello is a collaboration and organization tool that allows users to organize shared tasks into “boards.” Users can set their goals, create timelines, and move around all the pieces to various projects. The system is essentially a virtual whiteboard.

I created a Trello board for Funnee and my training through the rest of the year. I listed out all of the events and field trips we planned to attend, leading up to our Kentucky trip. I set goals for each month, and wanted to ensure that whatever horse shows we headed to supported our larger goals. I also color-coded each event to coincide with a division at the Thoroughbred Makeover (i.e.: field hunters, show hunters, eventing, dressage, etc.). This way, I could take a quick visual glance at where most of our efforts were focused. Is this overkill? Maybe, but going through this process helped me to clear my head and fine-tune a plan.

Creation of new SMART goals

I ask my team members at work to create “SMART” goals all the time. SMART goals are simply specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and within a specific timeline.

While our overall goal may be “make it to the Thoroughbred Makeover” the reality is that there are many small events that need to happen in order for us to successfully trot down the centerline or gallop out of the start box once we get to Kentucky.

A few of our SMART goals include examples like:

• Attending a specific, local intro-level event and achieving a dressage score in the low 30s.
• Bringing Funnee out hound-jogging on three specific dates, with the goal of staying out with the hunt field for the entirety of the morning (typically an hour).

These goals are specific, happen on a particular date/time, are achievable given Funnee’s current knowledge and training, can be measured, and are relevant to our bigger training objectives.

As with all things horses, you can plan, plan, plan and the unexpected is inevitable! I also know that I have goals with Funnee that extend well beyond the Thoroughbred Makeover in Kentucky, we have many years ahead of us! All that said, I feel like we have a clearer strategy in place and I am excited for our summer of fun.

If you are feeling discouraged, or maybe behind, work on setting small goals for yourself and think about how far you’ve already come! Whether you have just brought home your RRP hopeful, have determined what discipline you are going to focus on, or have attended your first shows – you are making progress. It’s OK to take a step back, reset and reassess as you go.

The Jockey Club supports many aftercare initiatives including the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance, the only accrediting body in aftercare, and Thoroughbred Incentive Program (T.I.P.), which encourages the retraining of Thoroughbreds into other disciplines upon completion of careers. View all of the initiatives supported by The Jockey Club.