All Brad Altschuld wanted for his horse Nepal Up (Will Take Charge) was for him to go somewhere where he could enjoy his retirement, the type of situation where the owner would never have to worry about his horse's future. Nepal Up was about to turn 10 and had been put on the vet's list after a Sept. 1 starter handicap race at Monmouth. So Altschuld found someone who agreed to take the horse, a small-time breeder in Nebraska named Christina Nelson who said she was willing to give Nepal Up a chance as a stallion.While Altschuld admits he doesn't have anything in writing, he says that Nelson agreed that she would not race the horse again. He also admits that he did not have the horse's foal papers updated to indicate that he was “sold as retired from racing.”Still, Altschuld was in disbelief when he saw that Nepal Up ran in a $4,000 allowance race on June 7 at Chippewa Downs in Belcourt, North Dakota. He finished third and earned $480.“I am very worried about him,” he said shortly after the race.(According to a agreement signed by Altschuld and Nelson, Nepal Up was bred to 10 to 12 mares).Eight days after the Chippewa Downs race, Altschuld got his wish. After he worked tirelessly to retrieve the horse and come up with a deal with Nelson, Nepal Up arrived at a farm in Aberdeen, South Dakota early Monday morning. In about two weeks, he will be shipped to Charter Oak Farm in Hot Springs, Arkansas. The farm is owned by Jill Neece and is where Altschuld has sent other retirees.“I'll be happier when he's on the farm for good that he's going to stay at, but I'm glad that I did the right thing,” he said. “I'm glad that he's going to have the life of retirement that he deserves and the retirement that I had planned for him.”To make his happen, Altschuld agreed to pay Nelson $10,000 for the same horse he gave to her for free. The money was wired to her last week through her attorney.“Do I think he got $10,000 worth of care in the eight months she had him? I find that hard to believe,” Altschuld said. “If it had been $4,000 or $6,000, I would have been covering the care. But she had me over a barrel. I wanted the horse back. I needed to have the horse out of the situation he was in and I didn't have much choice. I wasn't going to let money stand in the way of the best interests of the horse.”Nepal Up was special to Altschuld. He was the type of old warrior who was easy to fall in love with. He made 47 career starts and earned $284,110. He won twice as a nine-year-old. Trained by Dan Ward, his biggest win came in the 2025 $125,000 Trail's End, the mile-and-three-quarter race that is run as the last race on the last day of the Oaklawn meet. It is a race that Altschuld had always wanted to win.But to Altschuld, every horse is special. That was ingrained him by his mother, Carla, who passed away in 2024 at the age of 77. Before her passing, she was partners with her son in the racing stable they named Brad's Equine Adventure.“I was the only one in the family who was interested in horse racing, so for my birthday one year she got me a $5,000 claimer and that's how I got interested in ownership,” Altschuld said. “She just fell in love with the animals and their personalities. I know this is hot button topic now, but when they go down the ladder and they can no longer be competitive they're going to end up in situations where they're going to get passed around and you can no longer vouch for their well-being. She just didn't want to see that happen to them. When they were no longer competitive at the tracks we were racing at, which were Monmouth and Oaklawn at the time when she was still alive, that was time for them to be retired. Even though she isn't here to know of this story, I want her to be proud and to know that I have her tenacious spirit to fight for the horse. Both Dan Ward and my mom instilled in me that doing right by the horse is what really matters.”Altschuld says he has retired between 20 and 25 horses, some of whom have gone on to second careers and some that are pasture pets. Altschuld said he has yet to decide future plans for Nepal Up. But he knows that the horse in good hands and will live out his life safely and comfortably, the way Altschuld had always intended that he would.The post Nepal Up Is On His Way Home appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.