Read the Success Stories for these former Bits & Bytes Farm horses.

 

The newest Success Stories have been moved to their own site: www.OTTBSuccessStories.com

 

* Horses with asterisk in front of their name were purchased as Prospect Horses directly from the track.

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OTTB - Baileysontherocks at the In Unison Hunter Pace - March 1, 2008.

Baileysontherocks at the In Unison Hunter Pace - March 1, 2008.

Baileysontherocks with Nikki Surrusco - his second owner since being at Bits & Bytes Farm.

Baileysontherocks with Nikki Surrusco - his second owner since being at Bits & Bytes Farm.

Baileysontherocks and Josh

Baileysontherocks and his first owner Josh. - September 2004

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baileysontherocks and Josh.

Baileysontherocks and Josh.

 

 

Baileyontherocks - October 2003

Baileyontherocks when he first arrived at Bits & Bytes Farm. - October 2003

 

Baileyontherocks and his  new dad Josh.

Baileyontherocks and his new dad Josh. - September 2004

Bits & Bytes Farm success stories

Our Horses > success stories > Baileysontherocks

Baileysontherocks

Baileysontherocks at the In Unison Hunter Pace - March 1, 2008.

March 1, 2008 - We see Baileysontherocks at the Hunter Pace!!!

What a great pleasure it was to finally meet Nikki Surrusco - Baileysontherocks new mom! "Bailey" looks fantatastic and what's more important - HE IS WELL LOVED! We want nothing more than the horses we find homes for to be loved and enjoyed. Nikki had a great day with "Bailey" at the hunter pace. It is obvious from her smile that she loves our boy Baileysontherocks.

Baileysonetherocks, Elizabeth and Nikki Surrusco.

September 12, 2007

Baileysontherocks with Nikki Surrusco - his second owner since being at Bits & Bytes Farm.

Dear Elizabeth,

I recently found your website online, and I wanted to give you an update on how one of your horses is doing. Last year, I adopted Baileysontherocks from the Schuyler family, and I just can’t begin to tell you how much I love this little horse!

I had never really worked with Thoroughbreds previous to acquiring Bailey, but although I’ve often found him challenging, he’s been a very rewarding project. Over the last year, we’ve spent a lot of time developing a relationship and building a solid foundation of dressage skills. I do a lot of groundwork (a good deal of it along the natural horsemanship line) and it’s really helped to build trust and confidence between Bailey and I. For his part, he’s such a clown that he likes learning tricks and showing them off! He has developed excellent brakes and is learning his flatwork lessons well. The more he stretches and bends and builds up his topline, the more beautifully he moves. And he is beginning to carry his skills into the jumping arena; now when we land off of a three-foot oxer, he half-halts politely and asks where I’d like to go next!

Baileysontherocks is very much the resident stud muffin in our small herd of ten horses.

He is very much the resident stud muffin in our small herd of ten horses. All the mares are his, without question. He has learned how to bow and loves to give hugs. He is very smart and has somehow figured out how to dismantle his stall wall, board by board. (Since then, he’s acquired a pet rubber currycomb to keep him busy!) During summer camp this year, he was the Official Ground Lesson Gelding and assisted patiently with horse safety, grooming, haltering, tying, and leading lessons, even if it meant wearing masking tape or having an eight-year-old put his halter on upside down and backwards.

OTTB Baileysontherocks and his new family.

Bailey and I have a lot of fun together – he enjoys blazing trails through the woods, running around barrels, and playing bareback in the ring; we’ve also begun choreographing a musical freestyle to showcase his improved gaits! Recently, I’ve begun taking Bailey out to school and trail ride off the farm, in preparation for his fall debut in the show ring. It’s always been my dream to train a horse to event, and Bailey seems to enjoy the cross-country as much as I do. After a jumper class and a cross-country school this October, we plan to start hitting some of the schooling horse trials. With any luck he’ll be a solid Beginner Novice horse by the end of 2008!

I will be sure to keep you posted on how he progresses, and in the meantime, I have an album of pictures online that you might enjoy – you are welcome to use any of them on your website if you wish!

Your website is very well-done and inspiring! Perhaps we’ll see your or other Bits & Bytes riders at a horse trial in the near future!

~ Nikki Surrusco
Eagle Mountain Stables

"The horse is truth and he mirrors our inadequacies in large, living color! So we begin the journey of humility, of discovering ourselves... our mental, emotional, physical and philosophical selves . . . our limits, our focus, our level of committment."
~ Buck Brannaman

May 2005

Hey Elizabeth,

Bailey and Josh are progressing. We didn't compete in Pony Club this year, because we are still working on Baileys cross country efforts. He is still nervous out in the open.

We have seen remarkable improvement in his balance on the flat. We have been working with Erika when we can get our schedules to work out. Baileys feet look great!

Baileysontherocks and Joshua.

The slight stiffness to the right that he used experience when he started working is gone. He is also much more balanced at all his gaits to the right, although we are still working on his topline improvement. We also have a student working with Bailey over fences and with some of the more difficult flatwork.

Josh and Bailey still hug on each other.

Bailey has about twenty nicknames, including Cassanova because he is a real ladies man. When tacking up he has to see Chili my mare or he gets cranky. Bailey has gone so far as to try to challenge the newly gelded TWH stallion at our barn. He cracks me up you would think from his personality that he is 18 hands tall and king of the hill. Hopefully I will send you some pictures of Bailey working with Josh and Kelsey.

We are still very pleased with his unique personality.

Love to all. We will be in touch ASAP.....this is the last week of school.

Kelli (Josh's mom)

Baileysontherocks and Joshua.
Baileysontherocks and Josh. - September 2004

November 2004

Hi Elizabeth,

I just wanted to give you some more news about Bailey. Today we took Bailey out on a short trail ride with Josh from our new barn. HE DID FANTASTIC!!!. You would think he was an old cow horse. It was funny because our green horse Chili took the lead with Bailey behind her and Caddy and Dawson at the rear. Bailey went through puddles, water and past one Arab mare of another rider who was actively working on dumping her rider on the ground AGAIN. Bailey and Josh went by like they had been riding trail for years. We aren’t ready to turn them loose on the long trails yet, but I wanted to let you know how much we love this horse’s attitude.

What is really funny that as Josh was heading back to the barn we passed some folks on foot. I was walking near them and heard them say: “see that little boy and the little red horse; he’s an off the track race horse.” One of the bystanders said “registered race horse?!” . The cowboy type said “well I guess there are some out there you can find….not many but some who are calm.” I went right over and told them there are more like Bailey then you think. He has a better mind about things than half the quarter horses and TWH at the barn.

Bailey is well liked around the barn, but has earned the name Casanova, because of his stoic infatuation with mares. He seems to like to just bask in the glory of all things female. We had to move his stall because if given the choice of eating or standing around mooning after the next door mare……he chooses to moon.

This spring maybe we could meet you guys up at Jake or Bull mountain with Bailey and show you how well yet another off-the-track horse is doing. I admire what you are doing even more now that I have gotten to know the lovely temperament of Bailey. These horses truly deserve another chance on life….this time with someone to love them one on one….I am glad there are people like you taking the time to educate the public about what race horses are really like.

Have a great week
Kelli Schuyler (Josh's mom)

October 2004

Baileysontherocks was a little confused by the commotion of his first show. He was jigging and looking around. Ten year old Josh made a tough decision and decided not to show him but to take the time to school him and get him used to the show grounds. Here is what his mom had to say about her very mature son along with some photos from his schooling at the show grounds:

Baileysontherocks and Joshua

We are so proud of Josh! He made a really tough decision in favor of the future, instead of immediate gratification or to save face in front of his peer group……let me tell you it was tough for him to keep hearing about the other students ribbons and answer why he didn’t show Bailey. In the end he understood maybe even better than we did . . .

Josh said, “Mom it would be easy to show on the school ponies, but not everyone could ride my Bailey.

We are VERY pleased with Bailey, even though he Bailey was a little confused by the commotion of his first show, in the end Josh had him stretching and walking on the buckle, but it took patience and time. We figure we have plenty of time to let these two grow and develop together.

Baileysontherocks and Joshua
Baileysontherocks and Joshua

I told Josh he may not have earned an actual blue ribbon, but he earned something even better, the respect and trust of his horse. Sometimes the big wins are not the ones you walk out of the ring with, but rather what you walk away with in your heart. We will keep you posted and send you photo journal updates.
-- Kelli

 

Baileysontherocks was a Horse For Sale in 2004

Read the story of buying Baileysontherocks and his brother Sir Cahill. Read the story of buying Baileysontherocks and his brother Sir Cahill.


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