Jewelry to Benefit Off Track Thoroughbreds at The Virginia Thoroughbred Project at Montpelier 

Sally Elizabeth Hamlin Jewelry Designs

I designed my jewelry to celebrate the Off the Track Thoroughbred in Jewelry.  The OTTB pendants are made from a hand carved wax models and have a border of roses, with a heart formed from two horse shoes and OTTB engraved next to the heart.  The pendants can be personalized to honor your individual OTTB. For example, the horse’s barn or show name on the front, with other information such as foal date, state bred and registered Jockey Club name on the back.  I also have designed fox hunting inspired jewelry as well as non equestrian items.

                        100% of proceeds from OTTB themed jewelry goes to the Virginia Thoroughbred Project at Montpelier

                         20% of proceeds from all other sales goes to the Virginia Thoroughbred Project at Montpelier

I am a volunteer and board member at the Virginia Thoroughbred Project Montpelier located in Orange, Virginia, where 40-50 horses are cared for.  Although we are part of the National TRF organization, we do all of our own fundraising locally in the VA area.  I also own three OTTBs’, which I do local hunters with and recreational riding.  I am grateful for the individuals that cared for them during and after their racing careers that led them into happy, healthy retirements and into my life. 

After my first OTTB, Make Me King, I became interested in contributing to a charity benefiting thoroughbred retirement and transitioning these great horses into second careers.  I began volunteering at Montpelier and was thinking about a fundraising tool that I could implement to raise funds towards the care of the horses.  At the same time, I had been studying Jewelry making and Design at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington DC while working in science policy at my day job. The possibility of capitalizing my jewelry experience with equestrian designs and fundraising for OTTBs’ would routinely surface to the “what if” stage, but submerged again because of other commitments.  Finally, the Summer of 2013, with the help of my teachers Jenn Parnell and Mary Ellen Trozzo, I was able to start pursuing my “fund raising project”.  

– Sally E. Hamlin