Bargain buy is paying off for Billy and Bianca Lim

He’s the former harness racing horse that was bought for $500 off Gumtree, who is now thriving in his post-racing life.

My Dad Angus (Angus Hall) had 22 starts at Albion Park and Redcliffe between June 2017 and January 2019, but never really found his groove on the track.

Now the standardbred, who is referred to as Billy these days, is competing with some of the best showjumpers around the state thanks to retrainer Bianca Lim.

The 25-year-old started riding and retraining standardbreds when she worked at Slickers Horse Riding in Petrie, before deciding she wanted to bring her own horse on board in early 2020.

“When I first started looking for a horse, I was looking everywhere on Horse Deals, Gumtree, everything – and then I found Billy,” Lim explains.

“We went to the lady’s house at Caboolture to check him out and by that point he had passed through three different homes after the trainer had sold him.

“It took a very long time to train him up and ride him properly.

“The reason they stopped racing him was because he kept galloping at the start – he didn’t want to trot so instead of keeping him as a racehorse they retired him.”

The Redbank Plains-based horsewoman admits it was a steep learning curve at first when she first brought the then six-year-old home.

“He’s my first horse that I’ve owned myself so it was a huge learning opportunity for me and also for him, he’s taught me so much,” Lim said.

“I had to learn how to get him to lunge in a circle, how to get him to listen to voice cues and then all the basics to be able to start riding him properly.

“Once I started riding him in the saddle, he was going great – I took him to all the agricultural shows, took him to led classes, show classes, we did showjumping competitions and everything.”

Lim was able to utilize the Queensland Off-The-Track Subsidised Lessons Program to help her transition Billy to post-racing life.

The program provides free lessons and enables new owners of retired standardbred and thoroughbred horses to receive tailored support across a range of areas including feeding and nutrition, general care, groundwork, behaviour and ridden components.

Lim paid homage to Subsidised Lessons QOTT Approved Coach Kadi Eykamp for her tutelage.

“She helped us a lot…we were getting stuck a lot with collection and rhythm and all that sort of stuff,” Lim said

“It was really helpful to have those lessons with a really highly educated coach to walk you through how to do it properly.

“I sort of knew what I was doing but when you talk to a coach you’re thinking, maybe I don’t know what I’m doing!

“The lessons gave me a chance to find a coach I could really gel with and then once I found Kadi, I continued with her even after the free lessons ran out so it was a good opportunity for me and Billy to figure each other out a lot more.”

Billy was forced to have a year off in 2022 due to surgery on suspensory ligaments in both of his hind legs.

But after 12 months of rehabilitation, the 10-year-old has rebounded and started competing again.

He has been crowned Supreme Champion at the Ipswich Show the past two years, placed second in a Samford Summer Classic showjumping competition and was part of the led and ridden breed classes at this month’s Ekka.

Lim also has Lenny (racing name Royal Glenferrie) in her care and is keen to one day add more standardbreds to her retraining community.

“They’ve worked so hard for their trainers and they’ve worked so hard on the track – to be able to give a horse a second chance of a new life, and train them in something that they’re not bred to do, especially a standardbred, is a great feeling,” Lim said.

“It’s so heartfelt that I can give both Billy and Lenny, and any off-the-track horse, a second chance.

“Just because their racing career is done, doesn’t mean that they can’t do what they’re bred to do anymore.

“Any horse can do what they want as long as they’re in the right hands and they can be shown how to do it the right way.”

Click here to learn more about the QOTT Subsidised Lessons Program.

by Andrew Smith, for Racing Queensland