Behind The Photo: Icabad Crane Gets A Third Career – The Chronicle of the Horse
Icabad Crane made headlines in 2014 when he won the Retired Racehorse Project Thoroughbred Makeover’s Most Wanted Thoroughbred title.
The bay gelding (Jump Start—Adorahy, Rahy) had raced 33 times with trainer Graham Motion for owner Earle Mack, and when it came time to retire, Motion suggested he go to Phillip Dutton’s True Prospect Farm in West Grove, Pennsylvania, to try a new career in eventing.
Fans followed the gelding’s eventing career as Dutton took him through the CCI2* level, and then his daughter Olivia Dutton took over the ride.
After suffering a pasture accident in 2018, “Icabad,” now 16, came back to compete in 2019 with Olivia. Most recently, Phillip’s wife Evie was riding him as his competition career wound down.
“He had a pasture accident where he broke a bone in his hindleg, but typical Icabad, he was OK with stall rest and put up with it,” Phillip said. “He was in a sling for a little bit. He’s got the temperament that he went through it and recovered well. Then we got him back in work, and he’s a bit older now and a bit crotchety, so [my wife] Evie started riding him and had a great time and was jumping him. He was in full work with her.”
Icabad has become a member of the Dutton family, but Phillip recognized the gelding was perhaps a bit bored and ready for another job this fall, so he called up Motion, who took him on as a “pony” at the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Maryland, where he trains his Thoroughbreds.
