A champion on the race track, Arden Rooney is flourishing in retirement in the care of liberty trainer Steve Cox, who spoke with HRV HERO manager Tanya McDermott for the Trots Media's podcast channel.
The man behind Steve Cox Equine Entertainment, who presents horses for live audiences, the big screen and photography shoots, heaped prize on Kerryn Mannng's famed Hunter and New Zealand cups winner in episode two of the HRV HERO podcast.
"He's taking it on board and he's having fun with it," Cox said of Arden Rooney's transition from racehorse to show horse.
"It's opened up his mind now and I can see in the month that we've had him he's a lot brighter in the eye and I can just go and catch him and just whistle him and he runs to me across the paddock. I can just hold his lead to go up to the indoor arena and I never feel any pressure on the lead. I never have to go and catch him. The first day I did - it took me half an hour to catch him the first day - but now he thinks 'this is an easy life'."
Cox said Arden Rooney, the million-dollar winning pacer who was retired in March last year after succumbing to a tendon injury, had quickly proven to be one of the best horses he had worked with.
"When we go to that show I know he will do good. I reckon I've trained up to 100 liberty horses and in the top 10 that I have trained - smartest and best liberty horses - one has been a trotter, a 20-year-old mare, and one's been Rooney. Out of the top 100 horses that I've done, two of them have come out of harness racing. It's bloody good, they're smart."
CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN TO EPISODE TWO OF THE HRV HERO PODCAST: