Harness Racing Victoria's (HRV) HERO program is such a special one to the industry and SEN Track listeners got to go behind the scenes during an intriguing edition of Trots Life this week.

Newly-appointed HERO Operations Manager Tara van der Minne was in studio with host Toby McKinnon, opening up about her own journey with horses and her passion for the new role.

Van der Minne, who replaced the long-standing Tanya McDermott in the job, stayed for the entire two-hour show and chatted with re-trainers Nikki Cook, Jackie Barker and Susan and Heather Paix.

"Being in animal welfare previously in the stewards' area, it gave me a really good insight into the harness racing industry," van der Minne said.

"And now moving into the HERO role, it's good to have that background there as well to know how the harness industry all works and what they're looking for when they move their horse on into the HERO program."

Van der Minne said it was important to continue to change the stigma around standardbred horses and show how versatile the breed could be away from racing.

"That's where a lot of our ambassadors are coming on board and are a really good avenue for that... to show that the ‘standie’ really can do so many different things," van der Minne said.

CATCH UP ON TARA VAN DER MINNE’S INTERVIEW:

Nikki Cook from Shory Park is one of HERO’s many valued re-trainers, who has only recently decided to take on standardbreds.

"We're loving the standardbred journey. We've got five at any time here at Shory Park in work," she said.

"They all do a bit of everything and hopefully we can find them a new life."

Cook spoke about the process of retraining, including key goals such as desensitising the animal.

"The thing about the ‘standies’ is that we want them really quiet because that is the target market," she said.

CATCH UP ON NIKKI COOK’S INTERVIEW:

Jackie Barker is a well-known reinswoman in Victoria and her family assists in the retraining of horses at Monivae Park Standardbreds.

"It's very much a team, family type thing that we do. And I couldn't do it without them because I'm so busy driving horses and trying to work them,” Barker said.

"It's something that we enjoy doing as a family as well because our riding lifestyle came from Mum's side of the family and our grandmother. She was a really good show rider.

"She still rides with us now. When we get the quieter ones, she'll come for a ride with us. And she takes us to everything, so she's a huge part of what we do.

"Stacey (sister) is unbelievable. She takes them to pony club, to competitions, gets them out and about and puts all that extra effort in to make sure that they're as good as they possibly can be before we offer them to other people."

CATCH UP ON JACKIE BARKER’S INTERVIEW:

Susan and Heather Paix operate Patchwork Park Equestrian Centre in Snake Valley, where they look after former top pacer and HERO ambassador Born To Rocknroll.

The horse won 17 races and more than $300,000 in prizemoney during a glittering career and has helped convince the Paix family to become a registered re-trainer as of September 1.

“We were initially thinking of not being re-trainers and we just wanted to try and see with this ambassador horse,” Heather said.

“And as soon as we had Buddy (Born To Rocknroll) for two days, we thought let’s get more. This is obviously going to be pretty straight forward.”

Owners Bill and Anne Anderson from Lauriston Bloodstock sent Born To Rocknroll to HERO and have contributed financially to assist with the ongoing training of the horse.

CATCH UP ON SUSAN AND HEATHER PAIX’S INTERVIEW: