When Kelly Felicijan’s barn burned in February, tragically killing five of her horses, the young trainer and her family were devastated. 

Not only did she lose her long-time partner, preliminary-level event horse Cocoa Vino, but her dreams of taking her off-the-track Thoroughbred Heza Royal One to the Retired Racehorse Project 2015 Thoroughbred Makeover at the Kentucky Horse Park in October went up in the smoke as well, since Astro was lost.

But thanks to her good friend Danielle Struna and Mahoning Valley racehorse trainer Rodney Fulkner, Felicijan, 30, has another chance to compete in the international, multi-discipline event.

A few days after the Feb. 19 fire Struna, who works with a veterinarian at the track, told Felicijan about a grey gelding that Fulkner was hoping to re-home. Felicijan had taken two OTTBs from him before to retrain for new careers, Struna said. 

“If he notices a racehorse isn’t doing well he tries to find them a home before they run down,” she said. “That’s what matters to Rodney—finding the horses good homes.”

When she started eventing five years ago, Struna met Felicijan, who was always willing to help her with her riding skills at the Felicijans’ Morgan Valley Sport Horses farm near Jefferson, Ohio. “She said ‘Stick around—I always have horses to ride,’” Struna recalled, and a friendship was born. “She let me ride Vino and he taught me a ton.”

Struna lost her own OTTB mare to a sudden illness on Feb. 8 and Felicijan had helped her through that terrible loss. So a week after the fire, Struna took Felicijan to meet the 5-year-old grey gelding at the Youngstown track.

“It was the least I could do to help Kelly keep moving forward,” she said.

Without a barn and without tack or a blanket or a truck to pull her trailer, Felicijan agreed to take Mr. GLB. Felicijan didn’t even have a chance to ride him since no one can ride a horse at the track without a license.

What she had was faith in Fulkner, who assured her Mr. GLB was quiet and calm, and Struna’s experience with the gelding. “He’s so sweet, so nice. He comes right up to the gate,” she said.

Felicijan, who has been eventing since she was 8, formed an opinion quickly. “He’s cute and he looked real sound when he was trotting around,” she said. The fact that he qualifies as a replacement for Astro for the Thoroughbred Makeover this year clinched the deal. 

In the middle of the worst Ohio winter since 1976, she borrowed a truck and trailer, collected Mr. GLB, gave him the show name Sweet Temptation (they’re calling him Tempi in the barn) and hauled him 50 miles north to Cathy Bennett’s barn west of Jefferson.

Between working full-time as a nurse and continuing to train two other horses she has at an indoor arena in Jefferson, Felicijan didn’t have a chance to saddle Tempi up for almost a week.

That Friday, to her delight, he was a perfect gentleman. Despite losing a shoe while exercising in the indoor arena, Tempi walked and trotted both directions calmly and displayed the same wonderful temperament at a canter a few days later.

Felicijan’s family, all of whom miss having horses at the farm, has plans to put temporary stalls in the hay barn and bring Tempi home for a few weeks of rest and recuperation before the snow melts and she can put him to work.

Looking forward to the RRP’s Thoroughbred Makeover, Felicijan knows she is a little behind many other OTTB owners who were allowed to begin training their competition horses Jan. 15, but two months are the least of her worries. Giving Tempi the best chance he has of finding a good home—with her or another event rider—is her priority.

Keeping him is a possibility, Felicijan said, since she lost four event or potential event horses in the fire.

“Usually, my Thoroughbreds are all for sale. It’s different, now,” she said. “There’s something special about all of them,” Kelly said. “We’ll see what’s special about Tempi.”