From Racetrack to Rangeland: How Wyoming Is Giving OTTBs a Whole New Lease on Life

The original story by Bobbie Jo Lieberman for Paulick Report.

If you want to challenge just about everything people think they know about off-track Thoroughbreds – especially the idea that they’re fragile, foot-sore, and high-strung – head to a windswept ranch on Wyoming’s high plains.

Out there, surrounded by rolling grasslands, arroyos, and big sky, former racehorses are quietly doing something radical: healing themselves.

At the center of it all is Kate Anderson, a classically trained dressage rider who’s spent nearly a decade retraining and rehabilitating OTTBs. What she’s discovered is deceptively simple: when you give these horses freedom, friends, and room to move, their bodies – and especially their hooves – start to fix themselves.

Most Thoroughbreds come off the track after years of stall life, short bursts of intense exercise, high-octane feed, and limited turnout. The result? Sore bodies, compromised feet, and stressed-out minds.

At first, Anderson followed the traditional rehab playbook at her Cheyenne facility: corrective trims, glue-on shoes, stalls with paddock turnout, bodywork, and structured training. Many horses thrived. Others didn’t.

“We started getting horses with more serious issues,” she said. “And we needed a different answer.”

That answer turned out to be a family cattle ranch near Chugwater.

Once turned loose on thousands of acres of uneven terrain, something remarkable happened. Horses that arrived with long toes, weak heels, sore backs, and anxious behavior began to change – without shoes, wraps, or constant handling.

“They just… balanced themselves,” Anderson said.

Perhaps the biggest casualty of this Wyoming experiment is the long-standing belief that Thoroughbreds are born with bad feet.

On the prairie, constant low-level movement over varied footing naturally shortens toes, widens heels, and builds thick, functional frogs. Horses choose where they move – sand, grass, gravel – and instinctively manage soreness while increasing blood flow and healing.

“They’re not hot-house flowers,” Anderson said. “They’re horses.”

That idea is backed up by decades of research from Robert M. Bowker, a longtime Michigan State University anatomy professor who studies how hooves respond to environment and trimming.

“There is nothing genetically wrong with a Thoroughbred’s feet that a good trim won’t solve,” Bowker said. “Especially when you add turnout and time.”

His research shows that long toes – common in racing – actually damage internal hoof structures over time. Shorter toes, frequent trims, and natural movement allow the hoof to remodel internally, restoring strength and soundness.

One of the most surprising lessons from the ranch? Sometimes, the less humans do, the better horses recover.

Anderson tracked horse movement with GPS and found pasture-kept horses moved twice as much as horses kept in large pens. They sprint, play, and even “race” through water daily – all self-directed, stress-free exercise.

In some cases, horses labeled dangerous or unmanageable after surgery or chronic pain simply needed time turned out. A year later, they came back calm, friendly, and rideable.

“That freedom regulates them emotionally,” Anderson said. “They know they’re safe.”

This isn’t a no-care, hands-off free-for-all. Horses with serious abscesses or infections get boots, wraps, casts, antibiotics, and regular vet and farrier visits. The goal, though, is always the same: get them moving comfortably as soon as possible.

Every OTTB on the ranch eventually transitions from racing plates to barefoot.

“Movement is everything,” Anderson said. “We let the feet grow, pull the shoes, and give them time. Sometimes they’re tender. That’s okay. Time and terrain do the heavy lifting.”

Not everyone has 2,500 acres of Wyoming prairie. But the lessons scale down:

• Turnout matters more than almost anything;
• Find a trimmer who understands biomechanics;
• Trim frequently – not every six or eight weeks;
• Let horses move with friends;
• Slow down and give OTTBs time to rebuild.

“This isn’t training time,” Anderson said. “It’s recovery time.”

Today, the Center for Racehorse Retraining focuses less on quick rehoming and more on long-term rehabilitation, retirement, and research. Some horses go on to new riding careers. Others simply get to be horses – maybe for the first time in their lives.

Anderson hopes what’s happening on the Wyoming plains can help rewrite how people think about Thoroughbreds altogether.

“These horses are tougher than we give them credit for,” she said. “If we stop fighting their nature and start supporting it, they’ll show us just how sound they can be.”

For more information, visit wyomingottb.org or email [email protected].