Old Friends at Cabin Creek is one of Saratoga County's few thoroughbred retirement farms
Co-owner JoAnn Pepper says, “Having a horse farm has always been my lifelong dream.”
Taylor Rao
Aug. 7, 2022
JoAnn Pepper fell in love with horses just by looking at them. As a young child, she’d marvel out the window while passing horse farms in the car or even by turning the pages in a book.
“I could just feel it,” said Pepper, the co-owner and general manager of Old Friends at Cabin Creek, The Bobby Frankel Division, a thoroughbred retirement farm that provides a safe, nurturing life to racehorses once their career is over. “Having a horse farm has always been my lifelong dream.”
Pepper’s natural passion for the animals grew while in Saratoga Springs when she took a job at the harness track and later became a groom at the Oklahoma Training Track at the Saratoga Race Course. Grooms are a horse’s caretaker, often responsible for tasks such as providing food and water, grooming and bathing, as well as administering basic first aid for cuts or scrapes.
“I learned so much and became so comfortable with horses,” said Pepper, who initially planned to open a foaling farm before being pulled in a different direction emotionally after learning about the lack of places for older horses to go once they could no longer race.
In 2009, Pepper called Michael Blowen, the founder of Old Friends, a 501 c(3) nonprofit in Georgetown, Kentucky, with the exact mission Pepper set out to achieve. Blowen agreed to mentor Pepper and her husband, Mark, and the couple started a satellite farm of the same name, located in Greenfield Center.
“When horses come here right off the track, they need to unwind and figure out this new planet they just arrived on,” said Pepper. “As a working racehorse, they are very pampered and all of their decisions are made for them. Here, they decide what they want to do, they work on their social skills with other horses and also learn to relax.”
While the farm’s purpose is to offer dignified retirement to the horses and raise awareness about their aftercare, there is another mission at work to give volunteers and horse lovers a chance to spend time with horses and take in all their beauty, just the way Pepper did as a kid.
“It’s become a big family,” said Pepper. “The greatest people show up to volunteer, and some have been with us since the beginning.”
The farm is open to the public for tours, with no admission fee required. Donations are encouraged as Old Friends at Cabin Creek is a nonprofit, relying on community support to maintain the quality of care they provide to the horses. The year-round tours are a popular outing for those in town for the summer racing meet, and Pepper says visitors come year after year to catch up with their “old friends.”
As one of Saratoga County's thoroughbred retirement farms, it is also one of the few that take thoroughbred stallions, a high-spirited and energetic horse born to run. Pepper says her biggest accomplishment on the farm to date was her experience with their first stallion, Thunder Rumble, who came to the farm at 20 years old after a long career in racing and breeding.
“I was worried he was too much for me,” said Pepper, describing the dominant, energetic and massive creature that clearly communicated he was the boss moments into his arrival at the farm. “When I put him in his stall that first night, I cried a little.”
The next day after a challenging walk where he pranced, jumped and showed off to the other horses, Thunder Rumble turned loose and ran away. With no way to catch him, Pepper prayed he’d live through the night and return to the farm. Eventually, he came when she called his name, and she brought him back to the stall and spent hours with him there.
“He became my best friend,” Pepper said. “We had six great years together and he taught me so much. I’ll never forget him and I still dream of him.”
In Saratoga Springs, horses have long played a prominent role in the rich history and development of the area. What Pepper does ensures the area’s beloved racehorses, both the known and the unknown, have a protected, positive post-racing future in the very same place.
“All the horses mean the world to me,” she said. “I’m blessed to be able to watch them learn how to relax and just be a horse and have a peaceful life.”
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated that Old Friends at Cabin Creek is Saratoga County's only thoroughbred retirement farms. There is at least one other.