Last Saturday we went to the Poplar Place schooling show. Vilas County was awesome.

As soon as I had him tacked up and we went down to the warm up arena he immediately knew that he had been there before. He was totally relaxed, calm and the easiest horse ever.

He went his first round clear and placed 2nd in the 2′6″ jumper class. Sadly he had one rail down in the 2′11″ class. But anyway he was my superstar. I’m so proud of him. He handled everything so easy and was absolutely well mannered. We had lots of fun!

For June I’m planning on taking him to Lexington, Virginia. I know it’s quite a drive but there’s going to be a Hunter/Jumper show held at the Virginia Horse Park – only for tattooed off-the-track Thoroughbred’s. Here is a link to the entry form and the class description. Maybe you can post this on your web page and there might be some more OTTB owners and fans willing to go there. It seems like a lot of fun and should be a great experience for young horses which are just starting their show careers.

Hopefully I’m able to take some pictures from Vilas County soon. He looks so good. The weather here has been more than rainy and wet, so that’s making it tough to take nice pictures.

Hope at your place everyone is doing fine and all is well.

Best,
Katharina and Vilas County

My long-term plan is to show him in the jumpers. I think he’s to good to “waste” him for the Eventing. And also since I’m more a show jumper than an Eventer, I would love to go back to the Show jumper circuit. So, I’m putting a lot of hopes into him…and hopefully it will work out…

He has gotten so mature over the last few months…I definitely have to send you some new pictures. He also finally gained some weight around his rips and hips…he just looks fantastic. Everywhere I go, the people tell me how nice he looks and how they admire him. Which makes me really proud.

In the meantime he became the leader of my little herd (my other two horses - even so he is the youngest). He has such a strong personality – it’s unbelievable. He has to be the first to get in from the pasture. If he isn’t the first one who gets fed – he really get’s mad. But I also think that this is still a leftover from the racetrack. Every time I feed my horses he’s bouncing his feet against the stall door and is running circles in the stall. It got better over the time, but still isn’t gone completely.

He is testing me still almost everyday…there’s always a new idea from him that keeps us busy and laughing…but as soon as you sit on him…he is the most well behaved horse. Vilas is a horse where any kind of pressure is in the wrong spot…He can’t stand it…Everything has to happen with him agreeing to it…either on the ground or in the saddle…which is sometimes not that easy, but I think we are on our way…so here are really asked horse-whispering techniques…I think once I have him on my side completely it will be a great partnership…even so it is already a little bit.we bonded so much over the last few months.

The other day I was out on a trail ride with him and suddenly it started pouring down and a real thunderstorm came over. So I decided to gallop him home, around 2.5 miles.  He stayed with me…stride by stride…there was not even a try from him to run away or escape. He was listening to every word from me, which made me feel so secure and I think him too.

I was holding the reins with just one hand as I used my other hand to protect my chest – I think there was even some hail coming down – it was hurting so bad. Despite us being wet to our skin and Vilas shaking his head because of the heavy rain, we had a blast and a real feeling of FREEDOM. It was so cool…and I had so much fun with him…my little-big ex-racehorse.

Other than that I have some more great news: Klaus and I are expecting a baby in December. Yeahh!! The family is growing…

Because of this I decided to downsize and to sell one of my horses: Bismarck. He’s a 6-year-old TB/Cross (Anglo-Arabian) and is a great and very athletic Eventer. I know you have so many horses that need good homes, but if you know of anyone, who’s looking for a gorgeous, well behaved horse, which is ready to go and show, I would really appreciate if you could forward our contact info or webpage.

Thank you so much and I will keep you updated!!

Katharina & Vilas County

He was awesome, he jumped everything right away and it seemed to really make him fun.

He understood directly what the game was about and as more we jumped as more he wanted to do. At the end he was really paying attention to see where the next jump is. I had great control over him and he never wanted to rush before or after the jumps. We jumped most jumps out of trot as this gives him more confidence right now.

I had a great time and I’m so proud of him…I’m so anxious about seeing him going his way!

Please watch the video and let me know what you think!

Best,
Katharina and Vilas County

I know he loves water as he starts to splash even in the tiniest puddle or even in the wash rack. He even puts his legs in the water bucket on the pasture. So I hope you doesn’t want to lay down in the water complex.

He makes me laugh almost every day. He really is a special boy and a real character. His stall doors open to both sides and they are secured with a latch (we don’t have bars so he’s able to reach over with his head and I actually like it better for the horses to communicate). But the other day I forgot to lock the front door two hours later one of my dogs started to bark and didn’t want to stop. I went outside to see what was going on and who was greeting me? Vilas! He exactly knows how to open his door and this was not the first time that this happened. He also opened my other horses stall door one time – not so funny anymore!

Then last week I came home after work, driving down the drive way and who was coming cantering towards me? Vilas! We have a xc-jump included in our pasture fence line and all the time we haven’t had any problems, but just till last week. So he decided that the grass was definitely greener on the other side and just jumped over it. We have it now secured also. He is really so smart. Luckily he just gets out and is grazing and not acting silly…what a horse!

Katharina and Vilas County

Vilas County is by a stallion named Jump Start . . . I guess he lives up to his pedigree. See Vilas County’s photo gallery.

That was around 3 weeks ago. We made quite some miles in the last few weeks. From my last email till now he improved a lot and I decided to give it a try and entered in the Poplar Place schooling show last weekend. And I can tell you he was great…I had entered us in a 2′ jumper class and the Intro A Dressage Test.

When we arrived at the show and I got Vilas County off the trailer, you could really tell that he was the MOST excited and nervous guy around there. I think that he guessed we are going to race – even so I took him to other places three times before – he was still very nervous. He didn’t want to hold and stand still, but somehow I was able to get him tacked up and ready for the class.

Mounting up wasn’t also the easiest thing since he was ready to go – too ready. But just after 10 minutes of walking in the warm up arena of the show jumping (I always talk a lot to my horses) he instantly calmed down and I was able to work with him. He now understood that nothing bad is going to happen to him. I warmed him up and he was getting better from minute to minute. Finally our number was called and we entered the ring.

Can you imagine this: He acted like a pro! He wasn’t even looky or spooky…nothing seemed to bother him…but of course he was curious and anxious what were doing there…the bell rang..and there we went…1st jump….2nd jump….and so on….he was awesome. He cleared the course with no jumping and time penalties…Sadly we didn’t get placed since we were to slow ( I was riding a lot of jumps out of trot…since I have the feeling he right now can handle the jumps easier out of trot), but in the end everything that counted, was that we had fun and we went clear.

I’m pretty much sure that this was very easy for him and there’s still a lot of jumping height left in him, but it prooved that we are on the right way and I’m so proud of him.

The Intro Test was ok, but nothing that we can be proud of. He went through so pretty calmly, but was very tense. The flowers that were placed on the letters were so interesting and kind a spooky.