How I sold Brooklyn and got him back the next day...

Those of you who are on Facebook already know the bad news.

But I'll pick up where I left off.

Angela, my awesome endurance friend who was the bright spot in my 2015 season, messaged me to ask if Brooklyn was for sale. She has been getting into jumping a lot this year, and even entered (and won!) her first cross country event a few weeks ago. She rides Skip's horses and it wasn't long before Skip was messaging me to ask about Brooklyn as well. Skip was looking for an endurance horse that Angela could jump and event on the side. Apparently, he had already looked at a handful of TB's (he's partial to them) and hadn't been impressed. I was flattered that he thought my horse was nice enough to warrant taking a look at. Skip and Angela scheduled a visit for Sunday afternoon, and I was excited to see Angela, even if the horse ended up not being a good fit.

On Saturday, I had a very fun ride with Brooklyn. There was a lot going on at the farm and I decided to have a low key ride in the indoor.

When I went out to the barn, Brooklyn and Slang were laying down in their paddock, napping together. I snuggled Brooklyn, and he actually snuggled me back. Adorable.

Becky and I ended up tacking up together and heading to the indoor, where it was much warmer than it was outside. A new boarder was working with her Clydesdale cross, Dusty. I was thrilled with how chill Brooklyn was being. He was totally ignoring the others horse's antics, even when he pitched a fit on the lunge line. At one point, I even got down and worked with Dusty a bit, and Brooklyn made for a great demo horse as I explained some concepts to Dusty's owner. She was really impressed with Brooklyn's willingness, and asked me whether he'd raced and how long I'd had him. When I told her that he'd only been with me for ten weeks, she was blown away. He certainly wasn't acting like your stereotypical racehorse.

Becky and I went on to have a hilarious, relaxed, and goofy ride. We took turns playing follow the leader, hopped over a cavaletti a few times, and even made a ridiculous attempt at Pas de Deux with Brooklyn and Gambit. Here was my little OTTB, who got Squirrels for Brains when I tried to ride him with other horses six weeks ago, trotting quietly within touching distance of a big, loud standardbred.

In fact, Brooklyn was being so good that I had Cara get on him! She even trotted him, which is a big deal if you know Cara.

The  next day, Angela had a lesson on Messi at 10am. Following the lesson, Skip loaded Messi and his mare, Seri, into trailer and the four of them made the 3+ hour drive to NJ to meet Brooklyn. I was mostly excited to see Angela and curious to hear what Skip would think of my horse. It's so refreshing to have a horse for sale and not feel jitters every time I show him to a buyer. It's part of what makes me know I've landed in a good situation.

The weather cleared just as Skip and Angela were on their way, and Brooklyn was out in his paddock when they arrived. He came right over when I called him and Skip spent a few minutes studying his conformation and running his hands over his legs.

Not surprisingly, Skip got right on Brooklyn without any ado or warm up from me. I think it's the first time Brooklyn has been ridden by a man who is not a jockey, but he likes men and seemed to shrug and say, "That's cool."

What followed was probably the most to-the-point ride I've ever seen. There was no BS and Skip quickly put Brooklyn through all his paces. Walk, trot, canter, change direction, whoa, back up, leg yield both ways, pat pat, get off the horse, take his pulse.

I had to laugh.
"Skip, I've never seen you ride like that! The only time I see you in the saddle is when you're galloping at me head on on the trail because you're so many miles ahead of me!"
"And how do you think you get a horse that good?" he laughed back.
Amen.

Angela wanted to see me ride so Skip handed me the reins and I got on board. I basically repeated what Skip had done, plus some extra leg yielding and turns on the haunches, then hopped down and had Angela get on board.

Skip is a man of few words, and when we were all done taking our turns, I finally asked him, "Well, what do you think?"
"I like him."

A few minutes later, we agreed on a price that made everyone happy, Skip wrote me a check, and Messi and Seri loaded back into the trailer.

"I assume you'll want to vet him," I chimed in.
"I'll just take him home and vet him at Charlestown this week."

A few formalities later, Brooklyn loaded up for the long trailer ride back to Maryland. I was stoked! Having Skip like my horse, let alone buy him, felt surreal and amazing. What a compliment!

It wasn't long before Angela sent me photos of Brooklyn hanging out in his new digs.

I was on pins and needles on Monday, but figured that no news was good news. Angela let me know that afternoon that Brooklyn's PPE was scheduled for Tuesday at 1pm. On Tuesday, when I didn't hear anything by 2pm, I started to worry that something had gone wrong. By the time Skip's number came up on my phone twenty minutes later, I had the sinking feeling that it wasn't good news.

"Hi, Dom. It's Skip. How are you?"
"I'm good, I think... how's it going?"
"Well," he took a deep breath, "It's not."
"Oh no!"
"Yes. He bombed the pre-purchased. He has a fracture in his right knee."
"WHAT?!?!"

We went through the painful details. When the vet examined Brooklyn, he found that he didn't have as much range of motion in his right knee as his left one. That prompted knee x-rays, which revealed an old, healed slab fracture of the third carpal bone. I was appalled. This horse hasn't taken a lame step in the ten weeks I've had him, and I ride him pretty hard five days a week.

Skip's vet said it was definitely a racing injury and that there would have been lameness, heat, and a lot of swelling. There's no way his race trainer didn't know about. One thing was for certain: Brooklyn was not going to make it as an endurance horse.

"Did he say anything about jumping?"
"I asked about that too, since I know Angela wants to jump and I could keep him for her even if he didn't do endurance. The vet says he can't be anything more than a trail horse."

I was devastated. I was upset that the breeder might have lied to us about something so serious. I felt guilty that Skip had spent so much time and money only to have to make a return trip to NJ. I felt sorry for myself. I felt sorry for Cara because I know she was counting on this check. I felt sorry for Brooklyn because he's such a nice horse and he enjoys having a job and it didn't seem fair that he would just go sit in a field somewhere.

I called Mike, then Cara, then Skip again.

We arranged to have Brooklyn come back that very night.

Of course, everyone has had an opinion on this. People wanted to know if we'd be sending Brooklyn back. Others asked if that was the last time I'd get a horse from those breeders. Still others questioned if this meant I'd be doing PPE's on future sale projects myself. My answer across the board was, "I'm not making any major decisions until I get all my facts, sleep on it, and talk to my own vet."

Brooklyn arrived safely later that evening. He seemed glad to be home and unloaded quietly, greeting me with a look that said, "I've just had the weirdest two days!"

Skip was taking everything much better than I was. He got out of his truck, hugged me, and said, "Don't beat yourself up about this. This isn't anyone's fault and there are no hard feelings."

Skip was kind enough to give me the x-rays, and I pulled them out of the envelope in the viewing lounge after he left. Sure enough, there was clear evidence of a slab fracture. (I'm hoping to get the x-rays up here at some point, but they're not digital and I don't have a scanner at the house.)

We turned Brooklyn loose in the arena and he seemed happy to be home. He ran around the ring, sniffing and flagging his tail, looking pleased with himself and also very sound.

I did do a flex test of my own that night. Sure enough, Brooklyn couldn't bend the right knee quite as far as the left one. After about 30 seconds of a hard flex, he started to protest holding his bad leg in that direction. When I let him go, Mike trotted him off for me. He was definitely lame for the first several steps, but by the time Mike got to the end of the ring and turned around, he had worked out of it.

That night, I also had a long sit down meeting with Cara about how we would proceed. She was taking it a lot better than I had anticipated, and we both decided not to dwell on it. We'd consult with my vet before making any big decisions. Brooklyn is very well loved at the barn already, and nobody really wants to send him out to pasture, even though it is technically an option.

Yesterday, my wonderful vet met me while I was at the clinic and went over the x-rays with me. He said a lot of what I was already thinking, and I am so grateful for his opinion, honesty, and objectiveness. I am going to be SOL if/when he decides to retire.

My vet's conclusion was that the break is definitely old and healed. Brooklyn hasn't raced since 2012, so the injury is at least three years old. My vet kindly reminded me that scar tissue is often stronger than the original bone. The good news is that the break is in the sliding part of the joint, not the 'hinge' part. The bad news is that there are some arthritic changes, and that they will likely get worse with time. There is no way of predicting how the arthritis will progress.

Basically, my vet said to let the horse be the judge of how much work he can hold up to. He may need maintenance down the line, but not yet. He may never have a problem. Of course, he could rebreak the knee later on, but even if he does, it's not likely to be a catastrophic injury. Basically, the fact that he's been sound thus far and that he healed without surgery in the first place are both really good indicators that there are no real limitations on him at this time. I will be easing up on the jumping for my own peace of mind, but my vet did not say not to jump him.

With all that in mind, Cara and I have made some decisions. We are definitely holding on to Brooklyn. Cara did offer to let me walk away without losing any more time, but we all know I'm too stubborn for that. We will continue to list him for sale, though I'm not really sure how to price him now. Of course, the injury and the x-rays will be disclosed to any and all potential buyers. I had someone suggest that I should just try to sell him again and hope the next person doesn't x-ray his knees, but that seems super shady to me and is not my style. I do this as a side project, not as a main source of income.

The type of home we're seeking has been downgraded, and we're prepared to take less money for him to ensure a good future. We are prepared for it to take a lot longer to sell him now (and I told Cara we would have had to buy lottery tickets if we managed to sell two horses in ten weeks!)

In the mean time, we'd be open to a lease on him.

In a way, this takes a lot of pressure off of training Brooklyn. We can do a lot more leisurely trail riding, and a lot more focusing on just being super reliable. I'm not really concerned about his jumping at all at this point.

In that spirit, I played around with Brooklyn again on Wednesday night. I decided to put him in Becky's western saddle and hackamore. Actually, Brooklyn seemed to love being bitless and I might bring Ozzy's old s-hack to the barn to try this week. Brooklyn picked up on neck reining in about 90 seconds flat, and I was cracking up as I rode him around on the buckle, one-handed at the walk, trot, and canter. In fact, it was probably the best canter we've had yet!

Becky couldn't resist the urge to try the canter for herself, so she had a go too. I'm secretly hoping she'll fall in love with him and buy him for herself (I offered her a killer discount, hahaha) but she already has a horse to do what she wants to do with. Still, Becky loved Brooklyn's canter and was giggling like a mad woman by the time she was done.

And that left one more person...

 That's right... Mike got on Brooklyn and took him for a spin! Maybe I should just let Mike trail ride him and sell him as a husband horse! (Just kidding. Mike rides better than the average husband and Brooklyn still has some racehorse moments...)

This has been quite a twist in our journey together, but all of us on Team Brooklyn believe that these things happen for a reason, and I'm patiently waiting to see where this chapter leads next...