People with ex racehorses

[No_Angel]

How often do you ride them? Do you find that more work helps settle them down?
Did you re- school them yourself?

Thanks
Tasha

[April_showers]

hi i breed tb
and about 6 months ago i took on a ex racer and i ride him 6 times a week because other wise they get bored easily and i didnt reschool i have a time table of work which i worked to for 6 weeks if you want to have a look
and now we are jumpin 3 ft by 3ft speard and have won sevral dressage comps
if you want a look just msg me
x x x

[No_Angel]

Thanks April, I would like to have a look at it, if thats ok. :)

[Carmen]

Hi, I have a TBred that was bred on a racing yard. She didn't race but she was training with the racers. She became uncontrolable. I used to school her 6 times a week and still no luck. I just couldn't slow her down from the pace she was used too. I had three dressage instructors try and handle her and got told she was the worst mare they had ever ridden!!!!

I was going to put her in foal then retire her, but before i did i had a go at Parelli Natural Horsemanship. Now i can leave her out in the field for weeks on end, and just jump on her. walk, trot, canter and gallop and stop dead with just a halter and one rope on the one side of her neck!

Basically, i have found out that it doesn't matter if they have raced or not, its all about the way you treat them and how much respect they have for you.

My friend has an ex-racer who has raced in several races and won and she has no problem hacking her horse out twice a week.

Also another friend does nothing but train and race racers and hers have 2 months off a year, when she brings them back she has no problem with handling them, hacking them, jumping etc.

So all in all it is the way you handle them and gaining respect, not the amount of times you have to ride them and the fixed schooling you give them.

Good Luck

[No_Angel]

Thanks. :)
I do alot of natural horsemanship work with all my horses, and its not that I have a problem getting on and riding her, shes fine, I can get on after a week or so and off we go. She does spin faster in a circle tho the longer you leave it :p
I just find that she is a very fizzy horse, she gets excited very easily, and ive noticed that she isnt relaxing as much in the school as she used to, and I used to work her 2 or 3 times a week,and since ive got my other pony back i have had less time to ride her.

[helenc]

I ride my ex racer 5-6 times a week depending on my schedule & what we have planned show wise. Obviously the more he is ridden, the fitter he gets & once he's very fit, we start to run into a few problems, the warm up time is increased & he can be (more of) a handful, so every now & then he gets a couple of weeks off to chill out & to drop a bit of fitness. It seems to suit him really well & he enjoys his break & his attitude changes when he comes back into work.

Someone else had him straight from racing & did the basics with him but I wouldn't call it being re-schooled. when I got him he couldn't really do anything & he had been worked mostly on one rein so I did most of it myself. One year on & he can do walk to canter, canter to walk, flying changes, shoulder in etc. He panics when we start new things but it doesn't take him long to pick things up. We do lots of SJing which he really enjoys but does get a little enthusiastic at times!!

[*Sez*]

I used to loan a TB x-racer. We did a half hour hack every week day and an hours schooling three times a week, then she got Sunday off completely. On a Saturday, I'd quite often just take her out for a ride for a couple of hours. She didn't need re-schooling as she had retired from racing quite a while before I loaned her.

[No_Angel]

My girl has been out of racing for quite a while.
She finished racing at 9 then was used as a broodmare. She had a little bit of reschooling from a dressage rider/instuctor, helped teach someone to ride then was only used as a hack horse. Now ive got her and want to do a bit more with her, but im finding it hard to school her.

[angelfben]

Getting any horse to respond, be it an ex-racer or a horse of any other nature is not about exhausting them into compliance. The only purpose this will serve is the get the horse fitter and even more difficult to school.

You need to engage their minds and keep them interested, ensure that they understand what you are asking them. Thoroughbreds in particular are extremely intelligent and intuitive horses and if they are confused or bored you will have problems with them - however they are also extremely talented and if you put the time and effort into ensuring that they are interested in their work and understand what you are asking of them there is no reason why they should be any more difficult than any other horse.

It's not about quantity of work with them it is about quality, ex-racehorses should be treated like a newly backed youngster, they have to learn a whole new concept and way of being ridden and it is a lot for them to learn. They need things taking slowly and short sessions to keep their attention while they learn a whole new set of aids and way to work, to a horse that has only ever known to run flat out in a straight line even being asked to trot in a confined space can be incredibly challenging and confusing.

These horses do not need excessive work, they do however need a kind, experienced and understanding person to take the time with them, and then they can be fantastic horses in any discipline.

[No_Angel]

Im sorry but I didnt say that im trying to run my horse into the ground to get her calm. I understand she needs patience and understanding, but I also know she needs correct work to build up her muscles to make it easier for her to work.

[angelfben]

I wasn't commenting on anything anyone else had said :confused:

I was just answering the question in the original thread.

[No_Angel]

I didnt take your thread as you answering my questions, it seemed to me that you were saying I was exercising my horse alot and i needed to be more considerate to the fact she is a horse.
Sorry if I misunderstood.

[angelfben]

No sorry I was just answering your original question about how much in our view ex-racehorses needed exercising etc.

[No_Angel]

sorry about that :)

[angelfben]

No worries :)

[MeMe]

As far as quantity of working an ex racer is concerned, I dont feel its any different to any other horse, it really depends on the horse, how far into its training it is, how much muscle it has, how fit it currently is and what it has done.

Assuming its not got an awful lot of prior schooling then lots of long and low work, with lots of stretching, 3/4 times per week for 20mins/half an hour per time and a couple of 30/40mins hacks per week, mainly in walk, including lots of stretching.

[Swissarmyknife]

i feel that it depends on the horse. My horse when he first came as a 6 year old, was very high streng and had little trust in anyone as well as very stitish. When i rode him he'd be just all over the place. He has little weight so it was hard to move him around with my legs so i then had to just go back to the ground work. Spend a lot of time with him to get him to trust me and just calm down....He was also a horse that hated to be by himself. I've spent a lot of time on the ground with him and just getting close to him. I ride him about 4-5 times a week with one lesson which is ususally jumping. I work him about 30-45 mins each ride depending when my shows are. So to sum it up, After he got to trust me on the ground, he started putting his trust in me when i'm on him. Of course it doesn't happen over night because it does take time but now i can ride by myself and he's very quiet.
O ya, to answer the last question, i didn't really have to re-school him. I got him from owners that had him before who went through walk, trot and canter with him and pushed him over the jumps. (he jumps REALLY big!!!) So i just need to work on what he knows and then introduce the new things, leg yeilds, moving off the leg, bending, etc....
I hope this helps. I"m only 15 so ?!!...i don't realy liek to give my opinion sometimes because every horse is different but if this helps..
THanks

[racipaci]

I have an ex-racehorse and would absolutely agree that unless you want to get them fit for competitions I don't think more work necessarily settles them down - although obviously it depends on the horse in question.

Dave was 8 when I got him, nearly straight off the track, he didn't understand anything from how to talk to other horses to how to walk in a straight line!

The answer with ex-racehorses is time and patience and a lot of each. You have to think about it from their point of view, they've spent years, dragging themselves along on their forehand, hauling themselves to a halt and generally workng in completely the opposite way to how we want them to work.

Then we come along and suddenely ask them to shift the weight back, accept a contact and use all those long forgotten muscles along the top line, they have weak backs which makes it exceptionally difficult for them to do what you want.

With Dave I will sometimes spend half an hour in walk trying to get the bend and softness then as soon as he gives it to me I'll stop. I try not to get stressed or cross and make sure I know what I'm asking and that I'm being clear with the asking.

Sorry for the essay, I love TB's they are intelligent and so willing to work it's just a shame they do get misunderstood when they come out of racing. They are often considered stubborn or "mad" when really they just don't understand.

(not implying that's the case with yours, it just seems to be the way with a lot of them)

[Swissarmyknife]

I totally agree! :)

[PrinceSilver]

I'd just like to echo Angelfbenn, MeMe and Racipacis posts - you do not need to work a horse into the ground to calm it down, keeping them mentally stimulated and occupied should be enough in most cases. TBs are very intelligent horses and bore easily, they also get frustrated very easily when confused which can lead to misunderstood 'outbursts' this is not them being mad or bad - just confused and panicking.

Another thing that I'd like to point out is that their behaviour can very often depend on what you're feeding them, TBs are very susceptible to what you feed them, and too much hard feed can literally 'blow their brains' - its a very fine balance with a TB between keeping enough weight on them and keeping them 'on a level' mentally.