{"id":337113,"date":"2025-08-12T00:49:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T00:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/337113\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T00:49:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T00:49:11","slug":"carma-graduates-exceeding-expectations-en-route-to-thoroughbred-makeover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/337113\/","title":{"rendered":"CARMA Graduates Exceeding Expectations En Route To Thoroughbred Makeover"},"content":{"rendered":"

CARMA Graduates Exceeding Expectations En Route To Thoroughbred Makeover<\/a> originally appeared on Paulick Report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ex-racehorses Big Rainbow and La Peer had relatively undistinguished careers on the track, but both are finding their way in successful second acts as event horses, with the Retired Racehorse Project\u2019s Thoroughbred Makeover this fall squarely in their sights.<\/p>\n

The fillies are set to compete against one another in show jumping at the Thoroughbred Makeover, which is held every year in Lexington, Ky., this year from Oct. 8-11. And depending on how they progress over the next two months, additional disciplines could be added.<\/p>\n

Big Rainbow \u201cdefinitely will compete in show jumping, with the potential for hunters too,\u201d said Nathan Williams-Bonner, who rides Big Rainbow and is based in Temecula, Calif.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s been awesome,\u201d he said. \u201cVery brave at everything since I received her. No issues with obstacles or anything that comes up. Even though she had come off the racetrack, she went right into show mode. She has definitely exceeded expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n

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La Peer \u201cis coming along great,\u201d said Chanel Minnifield, who rides La Peer and is the co-founder of ZenHeart, which is based in the Sunland area at the northeast end of the San Fernando Valley. \u201cShe\u2019s really chill. She has a really good mind, very well balanced, very rhythmic, doesn\u2019t get out of her skin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minnifield said La Peer could compete in both show jumping and hunters at Thoroughbred Makeover.<\/p>\n

Both horses were adopted this spring out of CARMA programs by ZenHeart, which provides opportunities to an underserved area of the equine world, riders from BIPOC \u2013 Black, indigenous, and people of color \u2013 communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have an all Black show-jumping team,\u201d Minnifield said. \u201cWe\u2019re pushing an agenda of increasing diversity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The agenda with Big Rainbow and La Peer, Minnifield said, was simple and direct.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went to pick out horses at Heart Bar Farms in Valley Center,\u201d Minnifield said. \u201cWe were looking for horses we thought we could take to RRP, and win with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other than being a year apart, both Big Rainbow, sired by Mr. Big, and La Peer, by Girvin, have eerily similar backgrounds. They both raced nine times, exclusively in Southern California, before being retired, and both earned exactly $56,480 during their racing careers. Big Rainbow, 4, won once, at Santa Anita. Le Peer, 5, retired winless. Both were acquired by ZenHeart earlier this year, with the Thoroughbred Makeover the main goal for 2025.<\/p>\n

Donations to CARMA \u2013 the California Retirement Management Account — help move horses like Big Rainbow and La Peer to these rewarding second acts.<\/p>\n

CARMA\u2019s annual fund-raiser, CARMAthon<\/a>, is coming up on Saturday, Aug. 16. The event is based out of Del Mar, and hosted by FanDuel TV,<\/a> formerly TVG.<\/p>\n

Donations \u2013 all tax-deductible — can be made then, but CARMA accepts donations year-round through its website, carma4horses.org<\/a>. In addition, CARMA last year published a children\u2019s book, \u201cWhat Horses Do After Racing: The Story of Good Carma<\/a>,\u201d which explains the many post-race careers available to racehorses; all proceeds from the book\u2019s sales go directly to CARMA.<\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Paulick Report<\/a> on Aug 11, 2025, where it first appeared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CARMA Graduates Exceeding Expectations En Route To Thoroughbred Makeover originally appeared on Paulick Report. Ex-racehorses Big Rainbow and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[120511,120512,1071,113088,118424,120510,79,90546,118423,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-337113","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-chanel-minnifield","9":"tag-la-peer","10":"tag-racing","11":"tag-rainbow","12":"tag-retired-racehorse-project","13":"tag-show-jumping","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-thoroughbred","16":"tag-thoroughbred-makeover","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115013049740656204","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}