November 2007 • VOLUME 27 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine

Retraining the Ex-Racehorse: An ongoing series on the concerns and opportunities involved with retraining the ex-racehorse.

Why would you want to work with an ex-racehorse?

For many people it has to do with hard cold cash. Often getting an ex-racehorse is what appears to be a very cheap option for someone looking to buy a horse. These horses are let go from the track at a fraction of their value, because they are no longer valued for the job that they were bred for. The reasons can be varied and in each of those reasons lies the information on how difficult your retraining progress might be. It is worth your time and energy to see if you can find out why this horse is not racing anymore? We know it is not because he was winning, because no matter how bad the problem, if the horse is winning, you know they will keep on racing him. So if you can, you need to find out why this horse was not winning. Don’t always believe the trainer as it is his job to get as much money for the horse as possible. The race trainer may tell you he is only retiring the horse because he really likes the horse and wants to see him go to a good home, but the reality is that every horse that is not winning is a liability both to his pocket book and to his reputation and the sooner this horse is gone, the sooner another horse can take his place. If the trainer can recoup a few dollars in the process, so much the better.

Was the horse not winning, because he kept breaking down?

Obviously a problematic situation. But even this reason is not reason enough necessarily to not buy the horse. It is amazing what a good rest period can do for a horse that has been on the racetrack. The punishment on legs and ligaments is extreme and every horseman has seen remarkable changes with a horse that has come off the track and been given the necessary time to recover. But can you afford to wait? These horses will need months of no work, only gentle handling, sometimes you may need to wait six months, a year or possibly even longer to allow the time it is going to take to have the horse heal properly. This is not to say that it cannot be done, but are you willing to have the patience to not ride while this horse needs to recover? Too many people believe that light easy work will be okay because they want to ride. But if you do that, you are doing that for yourself, not for the horse.

Was the horse not winning because he would work himself up too much before the race even began?

Do you need to worry about how excitable this horse is?

Was he just not fast enough?

This is probably the very best reason of all. This usually means that the horse is young, has not been raced a lot, has not yet broken down, and is a good candidate for retraining. On the other hand, please do be careful. Some horses are not fast enough because of other problems. Breathing problems, particularly that are not easily seen, such as a partial collapse of the voice box, will quickly show up once you put a horse on the racetrack.

Studies have shown that racehorses are the most problematic of all horses when it comes to their physical health. Breakdowns that are both visible and unseen are the norm, not the exception. Damage to the sacro-iliac area is common. Any horse that is started at the age of one, and in full racing by the age of two - when the skeleton is not completely mature until the age of six - is bound to be damaged by the experience.

The final message is that buying a horse off the racetrack is always a risk. Definitely a buyer-beware situation.

The positives of buying an ex-racehorse are that they are plentiful, their conformation tends to be excellent and hence they tend to be beautiful creatures, they are a breed known for their forwardness and keenness. Being what is referred to by some as a hot blooded breed, also means that they tend to be very sensitive creatures, light to the aids once trained, which is a pleasure known by anyone who has worked with them. Some trainers believe that the thoroughbred cannot be trained for upper level work. Considering that for decades before the advent of the warmblood the thoroughbred was the horse of choice from the military to the dressage ring, we can see that, quite to the contrary, the thoroughbred can be all that we want him to be and more. But if you can buy one that has never been exposed to the racetrack, you may find that success is much more likely.

For the purpose of this series, though, we are going to assume that, even knowing all the heartbreak that could follow, and having done your research into the difficulties of re-training a horse from the track, you have chosen to purchase a racehorse off the track. So now what?

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