Lilly’s Story from Birth to Me

(Posted on Wednesday, April 8, 2015)

Upon purchasing Lilly in March 2014, I set about trying to find out a little about her history. When a Thoroughbred changes hands, the registered Jockey Club paperwork comes with them. Theoretically, the transfer of ownership is recorded on the back of the horse’s Certificate of Foal Registration. Unfortunately, Lilly’s records were not complete. This is what I do know. She was born February 14, 2006. Her sire is Well Noted, and her dam is Kuma Bear. Her breeder was located in New York. Lilly was auctioned at the January 2007 Keeneland Horses of All Ages Sale. Her hip number was 2256, and if you pull up this link of the Keeneland results for January 2007 you can see all the details about her pedigree and the related racing results. I’ve attached a copy to this article. Pretty interesting stuff! Lilly Hip 2256 Lilly sold for $1,000 to a Samual Hunt of Paris, Ky. The next entry in her log is a transfer on December 27, 2009, from Mr. Hunt to someone else – who is not listed. So what happened to Lilly in the span of four years between December 2009 and March 2014? I reached out to Nancy, the woman from whom I’d purchased Lilly and who had owned her for about one year. Nancy posted a picture of Lilly on her Facebook page, and it turned out an acquaintance had been the person who bought Lilly from Mr. Hunt! Here’s what that previous owner said: “I cannot say enough good things about Lilly when I had her. I don’t know how much you know about her. I bought her as an almost four-year-old from a lady in Kentucky who had bought her at a yearling sale. She’s a New York bred. She went to the track but never even got her gate card or lip-tattoo. She was THE quietest TB I had ever been around from the very beginning. I bought her to be my upper-level prospect, but it didn’t take long to figure out she physically just wasn’t going to do it any time soon. I owned her for 10 months and in this time she never reared, bucked, or ran off with me. I took her to a combined test, did some XC schooling with her, and got her out and about quite a bit. She was incredibly sweet and quiet and easy.” Since Lilly couldn’t do what this rider wanted her to do, she was sold to another family. She continued: “I would not have sold her to [name omitted] had I not thought she was plenty quiet for her. From there, I can’t tell you what happened. A year after I sold her, they [the new owners] had me come down and ride her. At this point, she was a completely different horse. She was spooky and had a nasty buck/rear. They [the new owners] gave her several months off after this and treated her for EPM [an equine disease]. “I hope that she has a happy home with you and that over time she’ll be her old self again. She was as uncomplicated as they came and very sweet.” Well, I can tell you that Nancy spent a lot of time working Lilly through her bad behavior. I connected with her via Facebook again a few months ago and we spent some time on the phone. Nancy noted that Lilly had come a long way with her and was back to being a loving and honest horse. She was used on many occasions for the IEA program (Interscholastic Equestrian Association), which introduces middle and high school students to equestrian sports, both hunt seat and western. From day one that I have owned Lilly, she has been a wonderful horse to work around, both from on the ground grooming her and in the show ring. The one area she still exhibits some of her old habits is in the pasture, where she tends to not be very nice to her pasture-mates. For a while she was turned out by herself, but I am happy to say, she now has her own little friend in the pasture. He doesn’t put up with her shenanigans.

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