Ya know how you try to plan things out very deliberately and life is like lols surprise? And sometimes its a bad surprise but sometimes it a good surprise? Or maybe sometimes an opportunity comes up and your gut is just like “maybe this is for you, be bold and see what happens”? I made it one of my personal missions this year to have a little more… audacity. To put myself out there more, to ask for things, to offer things to people, to make my presence more known. To kinda live more by the “the worst thing they can say is no” or the “but what if it goes right” mottos. I swear having a little bit of audacity goes a long way. It doesn’t come naturally to me, but I’m making attempts to cultivate it.

Anyway, that’s how this whole thing started, really. A little bit of audacity and a whole lot of luck. Or maybe fate, if you believe in that kind of thing.

See, what had happened was (I’d love to know how many of my posts over the last 10 years have this phrase in it).

One of the OTTB sellers that I follow in facebook (everybody follows these pages right? for like… science… or whatever.) posted a horse last week that just really grabbed me. Ten years old, raced a whopping 100 times, won 23% of them and placed in 59%, and won almost $940k. He was still owned by his breeder, and was very well-known and well-loved on the Pennsylvania racing circuit. Like, there were youtube videos about him and everything.

His ad also felt like it was targeting me specifically. The connections were being very selective about who he went to. They wanted him to have his own social media (since he comes with a built-in fan club already), they wanted lots and lots of updates, required references, someone with OTTB experience, and had a preference for RRP approved people. I mean for real. Did you write the ad for me? I read it, read it again, and had to chuckle to myself a bit.

Of course I was most certainly not looking to buy and even if I was he was a bit over budget before you even got to the fact that he was over 1000 miles away, so I kept scrolling down my feed. Then I was like “ya know what… I’m just gonna use a little bit of audacity, leave a comment, and put my interest out there in the universe. What’s the worst that can happen?”. Normally I wouldn’t even comment, but for whatever reason I felt the need. So I just left a comment about how I felt targeted and I wished he was closer to Ocala, and that whoever got him was going to get a super cool horse. All true.

The horse, named Ruby Bleu, was absolutely dreamy. Henny colored and so elegant and classy and well put together, with lovely clean legs. Ruby Bleu was, to be quite frank, exactly what I had been dreaming about last fall when I started looking for an RRP horse, but couldn’t find. He’s an older war horse, he comes from great connections that really care about him and want to keep up with him, he’s a great sporthorse type, and he’s got a cool story behind him. I kinda feel like, if I’m gonna have one, I want one that’s really an ambassador for how cool OTTBs really are. He’s exactly that.

Anyway, I left my comment, drooled a bit, stalked his previous races and drooled some more, and then moved on, figuring that was the beginning and end of it. A couple people liked my comment and friend requested me, which I didn’t really think much of…. I didn’t go look them up or anything. Just hit accept and moved along with whatever I was doing.

The person that ran the facebook page sent me a message and asked me to send her a little “about me” that she could pass along to the connections, as well as my budget, so I wrote her some bullet points and gave her some info. There was no response, and a few days went by, so I figured he must have sold and was honestly a little bit disappointed but not surprised. A lot of people had commented on him and showed interest, so I just assumed someone else had seemed like a more interesting prospect than me, and/or had a better budget. Then randomly on Sunday morning I got a message from one of the people who had friended me from the comment. Turns out it was Ruby Bleu’s trainer, and she asked if she could call me.

The person that ran the facebook page had sent her my info, and the trainer had spent some time scoping me out. We ended up spending an hour and a half chatting about all kinds of things. Horses, racing, Ocala vs PA, Ruby Bleu, the cost of hay, (and hence) ramen recipes, philosophies on horse keeping… we had quite a chat. She was getting a feel for me, kinda like an interview basically, but it was easy conversation. As we wrapped up our chat she said “I think we’ve found a great match, we’d love to offer Ruby Bleu to you”.

Knock me the eff over with an effin feather, y’all. I was not expecting that.

We talked budget (mine was low) and she said they were more concerned with the right home than with getting as much money as they could, so they could work with it. She then said she had a hauler friend who was headed back down to Ocala from PA the NEXT DAY and she could chat to him about sponsoring Ruby Bleu’s “freedom ride”. Like what. What what what. What is happening.

Things moved really quickly from there. I called Ruby Bleu’s owner and chatted with him (super super nice guy, and small world he owns Freya’s sire), sent him the venmo, his trainer set up the hauler, and holy shit. I… had another horse? Not just another horse, but RUBY BLEU. This horse gives me heart eyes in such a big way, something about him just speaks to me. Clearly the universe agreed, because how the hell does a horse purchase ever go down like that. What a weird Sunday morning.

But, um… that did leave me with a little bit of a problem. Mostly that I really can’t afford to keep, do the proper aftercare for, and bring two OTTB’s up at the same time and through RRP. I sat there for quite a while trying to make the math actually math, and it just DIDN’T. Sad truth, if I wanted to be able to do it right, I was gonna have to sell Lottie. I love her, she’s a super sweet girl and going to make a super nice horse, but she doesn’t make me tingly the way Ruby Bleu does.

So I went ahead and listed her on a couple OTTB groups on Sunday night, figuring it might take a while to find her person. The middle of the summer is never the best time to sell a not-yet-restarted OTTB. I wanted to make sure it was a good match, because I do quite care about her and I freakin hate selling horses. It makes me feel sick. But lo and behold, the universe once again showed it’s approval for the proceedings, because she sold literally the very next morning, 12 hours later, to the absolute PERFECT person. Lottie looks almost identical to the gelding she just lost (they have similar breeding) and she’s just so excited about having another one like him. Seriously, couldn’t have hand-picked a better match. I’m delighted for her and will get to watch her progress on social media. And it ended up being a financial wash, so truly a win-win.

And in the meantime, Ruby Bleu boarded a trailer out of Erie, PA on Monday afternoon and arrived in Ocala on Tuesday afternoon. And man… he’s even better looking than his ad pics made him look. His legs are pristine, I would never in a million years guess that horse had raced 100 times. He’s in amazing condition with a big beautiful athletic walk and a shoulder and neck to die for. This horse, he is an ATHLETE. I’m just wowed by him. I see you, universe. Good looking out.

So… yeah. Uhhh. That’s the story of how I bought one horse and sold another all within 24 hours, without having any prior intention to do so. Talk about Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.

I guess the moral of this story is… leave the comment? Even if it seems like the most unlikely or impossible thing, you never know what could come of it. I continue to believe in the power of putting things out into the universe. I feel so honored that they picked me, and I hope I can do him justice.

More to come about Ruby Bleu (he does already have his own facebook page, if you want some sneak peeks) and his background and pedigree. The great thing about him still being owned by his breeder after all those years is that I know A LOT about him, and he’s got a really cool story. I even have a baby pic! Stay tuned.

Welcome home, Ruby Bleu, aka Rubert aka Sir Rubert the Bleu aka Bloobert aka RubyDoobyDoo. Yeah he’s got lots of nicknames already.