a strange racing industry...Canada

[easterntrainer]

I have nearly 8 years thoroughbred race industry experience.3 months ago I moved to Alberta Canada ...
Every single day I see strange things in here and these things are completely non-sense for me.
Trainers don't give cool down opportunity to horses after canter.the horse comes from track and his groom bath legs and girth area after that groom put the horse to stall. ( horse still hot definitely) aready you know a thoroughbred makes 4-5 days canter in a week so a thoroughbred just only one or 2 day has a cool down opportunity (gallop/workout day)
All of trainers do that.I. think the reason is lower labor cost but nobody accept this.some of horses have monday disease definitely.in my home country(turkey)we provide always cool down opportunity to horses even if they do trot.

Another thing is warm up process.horses has just 3-4 min. Warm up opportunity.(between barn and track way)
Maybe nobody will believe in here but stall and barn doors open always.yes even wintertimes, (snowy -20 C) 24 hours 365 days...a lot of horse keep turning at the stall, shaking,pawing are regular behaviors for horses in here
Alfa Alfa cubes, extruded feed,concantrate feeds are so popular here.( I think all of them money trap and having lots of negative effects for digestive system)
By the way horses stay at the stall 23,5 hours in a day. There is not any evening schedule in racing barns
Really I can't believe...a horse work in the tracks at 5:45 am other horse at 11:00 and both horse have launch feeding at 12:00 am.
And i believe that you (British and Irish horsemen) maybe know better than rest of world horsemen.
I would like to learn your opinions...m I exaggerate? These are so strange for me and looks wrong...

 

[TarrSteps]

What track are you at? Generally horses in North America only live at the track during the season (many trainers rotate their horses through their regular stalls, some even just ship in) so I'm curious why they're there in the winter. Even the jugheads don't race in the dead of winter!

 

[TarrSteps]

Also, re the barns being open all winter - how do they keep their pipes from freezing???

 

[Enfys]

What track are you at? Generally horses in North America only live at the track during the season (many trainers rotate their horses through their regular stalls, some even just ship in) so I'm curious why they're there in the winter. Even the jugheads don't race in the dead of winter!

Are these flat horses or trotters we are talking about?

The trainers at the end of my place are jogging their horses at 7am in the dead of winter in -20C, crazy!

Mind, trotters are in trouble with so many of the tracks being shut down now.

Ah, sorry, re-read the original post, thoroughbreds.

 

[sammylou93]

Where I ride out at my local jump yard some horses are put on the walker for an hour before work but mine has usually been standing in. They get walked to the arena which is 2 mins away from the yard, walked round the school for 5 mins (10mins absolute max) then another minute walk to the bottom of the gallops and away you go.

10 minutes to get back in from the top of the gallop where they get a wash off then back in their stables regardless of what their temperature is and usually a rug on when still very warm. They get a handful of haylage once they have worked and then it's lunch for the whole yard at 1pm. Only the really stressy horses or ones that are really stiff get turned out for a couple of hours, other than that they are in 24/7 during the season and turned out for several months when on their holidays.

 

[TarrSteps]

Are these flat horses or trotters we are talking about?

The trainers at the end of my place are jogging their horses at 7am in the dead of winter in -20C, crazy! .

Do they at least put the foam nose cages on? I always thought if you need a cage, it's too cold!!!

 

[Enfys]

Do they at least put the foam nose cages on? I always thought if you need a cage, it's too cold!!!

No, poor beasts. Their track is a good quarter mile at the bottom of my land and I can hear them breathing from my barn. The Vet was with me early one day and he just stood there and shook his head sadly.

I had never heard of the foam nose cages, now I will have to go and find out about them, Google is a wonderful thing

Anything would surely be better than having to work, and work them they do, with having o breathe that freezing air, it cannot do them any good you would think.

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

The way our system works is that the yard is fed at 7.30am except those being ridden first lot, they get their breakfast when they get back in their boxes at 9am. They are all fed again at 1pm, 5pm and 9pm. Each feed consists of a 1-2 scoops of racehorse cubes depending on the horse. They get a good amount of haylege 3x a day as well - 7am, 2pm and 9pm.
Our work week goes:
Monday - walking hack for about an hour, straight out of and back into box.
Tuesday - twice up the gallops, 15min walk to the gallops, gallop up once, hack canter back down, gallop up again, hack canter back down, 15min walk home then on the horse walker for 10-15mins then back in box with either a cooler or light rug on depending on time of year.
Wednesday - Same as Tuesday but 3x up the gallops.
Thursday - Same again, 2x up the hill.
Friday & Saturday - 3x up the hill.
Sunday - half an hour on the horse walker and turn out in the field.

At some stage during the week every horse will jump as well after galloping. We try and turn them all out at least twice a week (lots of horses, not enough paddocks so rotational).

 

[easterntrainer]

When I said "winter" I mean snowy and cold times of the year.....winter takes 7 months here and all of outside and inside shedrow(stall) doors open.they use stall chain instead of door (also stalls have door but always open)end of February trotters and Pacers (harness) run for 2 weeks. First of may thoroughbreds races start.
Honesty I m disappointed. Racing industry has lots of mistakes here.
*%70 of horses use lasix before
race.
* wrong feeding system (different types concentrate feeds...extruded feeds) wrong feeding timing
*horses stay for 23.5 hours at the stall
* racecourse is just 5 furlongs and that is a negatcordfactor for joints and spinal cord.they have to turn sharply...most horses hind legs hit eachother...even 4-5 years
holds do that
*%50 of horses use Polo bandage for morning trainings....in my home country we use hardly ever.I think Polo bandage is not for race horses.

Cool down and warm up process are different story...

I saw a horse his groom applying furacin to horse's leg and bandages with sweat bandage (plastic layer addition under bandage)for the horse...do you know what is horse's problem?Tendinitis!