Meet Captain Hawks and Nikki
‘Bugsy’ retired from racing in September 2017 after only a few starts when he didn’t show too much interest or talent in being a race horse.
Nikki used to ride Bugsy trackwork at Wyong Race Club when she was riding for Kristen Buchanan. His compact type and good movement suggested he would make a nice eventer and show jumper when finished with racing, but his sometimes explosive nature also suggests you want to be able to sit the occasional buck! Being as compact, athletic and sharp as he is, he’s pretty good at it too! He was always rather cheeky and Nikki knew retraining him wouldn’t be a walk in the park, but she was up for the challenge anyway. Even though Bugsy is cheeky, he is by all means not nasty.
Nikki took him after his last start in September 2017 and the last 6 years have been anything but straightforward!
To start with, as expected Bugsy was tricky and once going the next challenge was to get him to behave himself between other horses away from home. They did end up competing successfully in show jumping classes up to 105cm and eventing in EvA95 classes.
Unfortunately a while ago Bugsy started to be slightly unsound and after many xrays, scans and eventually sending him into scintigraphy, the diagnosis was damage to both hind suspensories, a low risk surgery with a high success rate was suggested. The surgery went extremely well and after months of recovery and rehab Nikki was finally able to start riding him again. Not long after getting Bugsy back into work he managed to break one of his hind pedal bones in the paddock, what required time off yet again. Luckily he made a full recovery once more!
The photos were taken a couple of weeks ago during a jumping lesson with Nikki’s regular instructor Andrew Barnett at the Stonewall Equestrian. Bugsy has been happy, sound and in full work for a while now and is finally starting to get fit and ready to compete again, I’m sure will will see them in some thoroughbred classes soon.
Captain Hawkes *2013 (Arlington x Ajawaan) retired in 2017 with 6 stars for no wins or placings and a total of $2,100 in prize money, trained by Kristen Buchanan at Wyong.
#lovethehorse #thoroughbred #lifeafterracing #offthetrackhorses #kristenbuchananracing
