Dream Makers Colt Starting

Dream Makers Colt Starting professionally starts young racehorses and prepares them for the track from a 100-plus-acre training farm in central Kentucky, just twenty minutes from Keeneland. Owners Toby and Heather Richard offer colt starting for two-year-olds, legging up for horses returning from injury, official racetrack training and gate work at Keeneland, restarting and fixing horses with issues, and lay-ups and turnout. If you have a young Thoroughbred who needs a calm, confident foundation before the racetrack, or an experienced horse who needs a reset, this is where that work gets done.

What Does Dream Makers Colt Starting Offer?

Dream Makers builds the foundation a racehorse carries for the rest of its career. The starting program for race horses runs a minimum of ninety days and develops confidence, control, and conditioning so a two-year-old is ready to enter track training. Legging up rehabilitates and rebuilds muscle for horses coming back from injury before they return to the racetrack. Racetrack training at Keeneland, offered April through July and again in October, delivers official works, gate cards, and real track experience.

For horses that have learned the wrong lessons, Dream Makers restarts and fixes problem horses on a weekly or monthly basis, beginning with a consultation and a trial evaluation. Lay-ups and turnout round out the services, with multiple paddock sizes and stall access on the property. The facility includes twelve-by-fourteen matted stalls, a riding arena, a round pen, a turf gallop, a walking wheel, and trail access across the farm.

Who Is Behind Dream Makers?

Dream Makers Colt Starting is owned and run by Toby and Heather Richard. Before launching their own operation, the couple worked at WinStar Farm, where Toby rode the stallions and worked extensively at the racetrack as an exercise rider. There he introduced yearlings to the saddle and bridle, including the colt who would become Justify, the 2018 Triple Crown winner. Today the Richards bring that same hands-on horsemanship to every horse that comes through their Kentucky farm.

How Does the Colt Starting Program Work?

Toby and Heather believe the better a young horse is prepared, the better he will be as a racehorse, and in any second career he attempts after his racing days. They explain the fundamental aids clearly and quickly, so a colt understands what is being asked and gains confidence in himself, his environment, and his new riders rather than learning through fear. Starting a horse, in their words, is an art form, and a happy horse is one that will give its all.

The work moves at the horse's pace. A colt is gentled, backed, and ridden through its first steps, then built up over the minimum ninety-day program until it is fit, level-headed, and ready to hand off to a track trainer. Owners can choose starting for race horses, legging up, restarting a horse with issues, or full racetrack training and gate preparation at Keeneland, with day rates that match the level of work the horse needs.