KTTC @ Colonial Downs 2003 By Robin Tan and Katee Whitesell

Interns: Jackie Mitchell, Katee Whitesell, Robin Tan, Anna Sitzler, Brandon Benson

Working with horses is not an easy task. The KTTC interns certainly learned that this summer. To work with horses you not only need to have the love for the animals, but toughness and passion that will get you out of bed in the morning before the sun is even up every single day. You work day in and day out, and you don't get any days off when working with horses. The KTTC interns got a taste of this reality during there experience at Colonial Downs. Under the unbearable heat of the sun, the KTTC interns worked until they could work no more – and then some.

A Normal Day

They greeted the morning at 5:00, each and every day, and would arrive at the track around 5:45. They first worked for Danette Nanez for the first 2 or 3 days, helping hotwalk horses and also doing barn chores such as washing bandages and cleaning tack. The days after working for Danette were spent working with Jess Rich, who is Billy Turner's stepdaughter and assistant trainer. They hotwalked Jess's horses as well as helped take them to the track and bathe them. Robin worked mainly for Jess. Katee worked for Chuck Lawrence for two days where she grazed and hotwalked, then started working for Ricky Hendrick's assistant trainer, Booth. The responsibilities that awaited her there were mucking out stalls, bathing horses, cleaning and filling up water buckets, hotwalking, and raking up the shedrow after all the horses had worked out. After Katee left, Anna filled in at Booth's and picked up the responsibilities. She built up enough trust that the trainer let her shedrow a horse. Jackie and Brandon worked at Ferris Allen's barn hotwalking and did other various chores around the barn. After a long morning's work, the KTTC interns would retire to their office in the VHBPA trailer.

            On racing days (Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays), interns were accountable for going to the track kitchen and putting out lunches and drinks in three different locations for backside workers. The rest of the afternoon was usually comprised with watching races, helping the paddock judge with the Best Turned Out award for each race, looking at barns for the Best Kept Barn Award, picking up pinnies for trainers, helping unload horses, taking overnights to the VHBPA trailer, keeping track of race results through Equibase and presented awards in the winner's circle for all the stakes races. The interns also did other small jobs such as finding assessors for the GEP (see below) test and counting the number of stalls with mesh. They also had many special privileges, such as going to the Colonial Downs press box and being able to stand at the gate for one of the races.

            On dark days (Tuesdays, Wednesdays) interns assisted with the Groom Elite Program, which ran from 12 to 4. The interns brought lunches and drinks to the VHBPA trailer for participants of the GEP and helped set up for the classes. The classes involved a classroom instruction where students learned using a high-tech Power Point presentation with an assortment of visual aids. Information learned included horse behaviors, what to feed a horse, bone structure, conformation, and much, much more. After the classroom instruction, the class would go outside for a hands-on demonstration with the "practice ponies” the interns had gathered. Through the hands-on demonstrations, GEP students learned how to tongue tie a horse, take a horse's temperature, measure and weigh a horse, identify various body parts of a horse, put on bandages and polo's and properly tack up a racehorse.

Final Thoughts

            This internship was the experience of a lifetime for these interns. Not only were they entrusted with working with horses, they were entrusted with many other responsibilities and duties as well. Even though the workload was heavy, everyone seemed to rise to the occasion. While working, new friendships were formed and old friendships were renewed. In the end, everyone went home with many, many more miles traveled in their shoes – in more than just one sense.

"Life at the track can be tough: it's a lot of long hours, and there aren't any days off. But there is no feeling I could describe as the feeling you get when a horse you spent all your time with crosses the wire win or lose. This trip was the turning point in my life, where I knew that my heart and soul belong at the track. My thanks go out to everyone who made this a wonderful experience." ‚ Katee Whitesell

"I came into the internship questioning myself if the horse racing industry for truly the business for me. After spending hours upon hours at the racetrack everyday for weeks, the answer became very clear-cut. While you have to work hard to survive at the racetrack, I can't imagine calling anything but the racetrack my home. Living and breathing racehorses was an absolute paradise for me. I am so grateful to have had this experience and I cannot express my gratitude in words to those who made it possible!" ‚ Robin Tan

"At the racetrack, working with the horses causes you to learn something more about yourself.  Horses don't care your age, race, or gender.  They depend on you to be caring to them, and be someone that they can look to when something unexpected comes their way.  I've learned that a lot of people I know, including myself, need to take a lesson or two from the Thoroughbreds." ‚ Jackie Mitchell

"Colonial made me realize that I didn't want to be a jockey. I had to be a jockey. The immense amount of support from everyone from grooms to jockeys was a huge confidence booster. The entire experience made me look at how much I really, really wanted to ride, and shedrowing made me feel ten feet tall. The special bond I shared with a horse that didn't like many...so many emotions and feelings. When you listen to what the horses teach you, you can't ever go wrong." ‚ Anna Sitzler