Andrea Baxter and Indy 500. Photo by Abby Powell.
Some very sad news this week as Andrea Baxter has announced the passing of her longtime 4* and 5* partner, Indy 500 at the age of 19 due to ongoing complications from a recent foaling.
With six CCI5* completions to their names, Andrea and “Indy” represented West Coast eventing in true style; highlights from their 5* career include as 12th place finish at Burghley in 2019, and top-20 finishes at both Kentucky and Maryland.
Despite her smaller stature and unconventional conformation, Indy 500 defied all odds. Initially put on the radar after Andrea saw a flyer in a tack store advertising the then-two-year-old Thoroughbred mare, it’s true Andrea didn’t exactly pin her 5* aspirations on right away.
Andrea and Indy 500 at Woodside. Photo by MGO Photography.
“She looked nice in the photo, but when I went to see her, she was as downhill as a wheelbarrow with legs the size of toothpicks,” Andrea told me a few years ago. “I passed, and when Indy was four, her owner called and asked if she could send her to me for training to be sold. I would always go down to the barn and ride her first. And she was really trainable. I got her, unbroken, in May and by July, she was winning the four-year-old Young Event Horse divisions.”
It was a true story of a horse that just kept answering the questions, stepping up to the plate as if with a proverbial chip on her shoulder, knowing that she hadn’t been picked out a 5* prospect. “Hold my beer,” the feisty mare seemed to say, stepping up the levels and, in the end, becoming an upper-level horse for Andrea (and her first 5* horse) with an international career spanning over a decade.
The happy faces of Andrea Baxter, Indy 500 and Lexie Thacker. Photo by JJ Sillman Photography.
“She’s so quick, and she’s so smart cross-country, and she loves show jumping too; she’s a really good show jumper,” Andrea told The Chronicle of the Horse in 2018. “And in the dressage she’s gotten to the point where she’s really rideable. She’s not gifted necessarily in her physical attributes, but she really does try hard.”
Indy 500 has two babies, one, Laguna Seca, who went Advanced with Andrea, and another, Cha-Ching 500, who was to be her final foal, born earlier this year.
Andrea Baxter and Indy 500. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.
“Little did I know at the time, you would become the greatest unicorn that ever blessed me,” Andrea wrote on social media after Indy’s passing. “We learned so much together and taught each other to never give up and always keep fighting. What a crazy life story we lived through the past 15 years.”
“We always did everything together,” Andrea continued. “The time we spent together traveling the world can never be replaced or forgotten. You were truly my horse of a lifetime and I’m lost without you. Baby Cha Ching 500 has big shoes to fill. I hope he’s just like you!”
Andrea Baxter and Indy 500. Photo by Leslie Threlkeld.
Indy 500 was buried overlooking the cross country course where she grew up and learned how to event at Andrea’s home base, Twin Rivers Ranch in Paso Robles, CA. “We buried you overlooking the [cross country] course so you can watch us hack around and heckle the [cross country] schoolers. Godspeed my queen.”
Godspeed indeed, Indy. You will be sorely missed.
