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Gameday News, retired at Old Friends for two years, is moving to New Vocations to be trained for a second career.

Old Friends partners with New Vocations

Old Friends, a retirement sanctuary for horses who will never be ridden again, and New Vocations, a re-training and re-homing organization geared to find racehorses second jobs, will work together to ensure that horses in their care get on the right path, according to directors of both horse charities. By sharing responsibilities, the two organizations have enhanced their capacity to offer a retiring horse more options. If a horse admitted to New Vocations for re-training as a sport horse proves to be better suited for sanctuary retirement, that same horse, under the auspices of the new partnership, would now have […]

Ziggy's Berry Boy and Rachel Jurgens met when her competitive mare got injured, and someone loaned her the horse who would go on to become her four-star mount. Photo by Allie Conrad

A twist of fate, a loaned horse led to Rolex

It was happenstance that led Rolex competitor Rachel Jurgens to her four-star mount, Ziggy’s Berry Boy. “I had moved from Oregon to North Carolina to train with Jimmy Wofford and during our ride out there, my little mare broke her coffin bone,” says Jurgens during a telephone interview en route to the Rolex Kentucky Three Day. “Jimmy suggested I go gallop horses on the Middleburg Training Track since I didn’t have a horse, and I met Michelle Truffant, who had been Ziggy’s jockey, and took him in. She let me use Ziggy so I could continue my lessons with Jimmy.” […]