Watch The Clock never made it to the starting gate in the afternoon and arrived at Oklahoma Thoroughbred Retirement Program as a 2-year-old. The son of Early Flyer didn’t meet his adopter until 2017, at age 7.
Kristin Banks first saw Watch The Clock on the TAA-accredited organization‘s website and couldn’t shake the feeling that he was the one, despite trying many other horses.
“I had looked at several other horses and couldn’t commit to one because my mind was stuck on (Watch The Clock),” Banks said. “I’m not sure exactly what it was. I never got to ride him before I brought him home–I just had a feeling he was the horse for me.”
Watch The Clock, now “Tick Tock,” was the first horse Banks ever trained by herself, and each had a lot to learn from the other.
“We are doing great now,” Banks said. “The retraining process was a long learning process for him and me because he was the first horse I trained entirely on my own. Now he is fully retrained for the hunter ring and just pleasure riding in general. We are still working on being comfortable out in the trails and open fields. He gets excited and quite spooky.”
Banks made it her priority to pour love and patience into the Oklahoma-bred, and in return they developed a special bond.
“Our goals have always been to have fun, keep learning, and most importantly-just enjoy the time we spend together,” she said. “I still can’t believe I adopted a mostly untrained Thoroughbred without the opportunity to ride him or even see him up close, however, I’d absolutely do it again in a heartbeat. He was 100 percent the right horse, and I hope we have a long future together.”
