Bounty (racing name Mutin) was very moderately performed on the racetrack, but loves being an EAL horse.

© HEROES for Humans

Bountiful Thoroughbred turns hoof to Equine Assisted Learning

He might not have delivered on perceived potential during his racing days, however Bounty the off-the-track Thoroughbred is now exceeding expectations in his new career as an Equine Assisted Learning practitioner.

Tanya McDermott has long been an advocate for providing horses with a life after racing. The former manager of Harness Racing Victoria’s HERO (Harness Education & Rehoming Opportunities) program, she spent six years successfully working on developing post-racing pathways for Standardbreds – and when she moved on from that role last year, she knew her new career path would follow a similar vein.

Tanya’s newly created ‘HEROES for Humans’ offers Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) to clients of all ages, helping them to overcome life’s challenges through interactions with horses. Naturally, the equine practitioners are all off-the-trackers. Due to Tanya’s background and the fact that her husband is a harness racing trainer, most of the horses involved in the program are Standardbreds – however, just recently an off-the-track Thoroughbred (OTT) has entered the picture.

“Bounty (racing name Mutin, by Sepoy out of a Zabeel mare) was very moderately performed on the racetrack,” explains Tanya. “He perhaps had the ability but didn’t really have the inclination; everybody who worked with him would tell you that he just wasn’t interested in doing anything fast!”

Bounty started his racing career at Lindsey Park with the Hayes family and showed early promise with a metropolitan win and some placings. He was then purchased by a syndicate whom Tanya was a part of, training under Darren Weir and later Neil Dyer. He went on to have another win, a photo of which Tanya proudly hangs on her office wall. In total he had 47 starts for two wins and 19 placings for $90,368 in prizemoney.

“He ran some really good races and he was one of those horses that dangled the carrot and you thought he might do something and be relatively successful, but he just didn’t deliver,” she muses. Last year, Bounty left the track and joined Tanya’s team to commence his second career as an EAL horse.

“Everyone had said he was a pretty cruisy, laid-back character, but I’d not had that much to do with him. Being a Standardbred girl, I wondered what I was getting into… but he’s just a doll and he’s settled into life here so easily. You can see why he didn’t do any good as a racehorse, because he really is the most laid-back creature you would ever meet. He’s utterly driven by his stomach. The day he walked into our paddock, he went ‘Round bales, how good is this? You can stand here all day and not move and just eat!’”

Bounty (racing name Mutin) with Tanya.

Tanya explains that to look at, the eight-year-old gelding is nothing special and is in fact very plain and parrot-mouthed. However, she says he more than makes up for it by having the most exquisite temperament. “I’ve also done a little bit of basic dressage training with him and we will probably have a play around with that down the track as he shows quite a lot of potential there, which I was quite surprised about!”

However, for now Tanya is very happy for Bounty to develop in his role as an EAL horse: “He’s just so good with the clients. He’s a horse that wants you to love him and he’ll do whatever you want. He’s the ultimate laid-back professional and he’s been such a lovely addition to the team. I’ll be honest, he opened my eyes to what an OTT can be and their potential for this type of work. I’m definitely excited about potentially doing some more work with OTTs down the track.

“It’s just lovely to be able to give these horses a life after racing – whether they are Thoroughbreds or Standardbreds – and just demonstrate that the racing industry is working really hard to give them the opportunities they deserve.”

This article was written in conjunction with Racing Victoria. You can find out more about RV’s Off The Track program here.

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