Best to turn away ex-racehorse?

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Always-Riding

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I got this lovely ex-racehorse 2 weeks after she last point to pointed in April. No injury etc, owner sadly has health issues.

She has been going very well, took her to Wales and West for the experience and she was foot perfect. Even started light schooling in the warm-ups. However coming back from there she has slowly got more and more buzzy.

I think she is just really confused as to what her life is now and what she should be doing, and I'm wondering if it would just been better to just turn her away for a month or two?



Sorry this has been done to death!
 
She is probably far too fit, what I would do is slowly wind down the work for the next month then turn her away completely for at least a month if not more.
Racehorses really need to unwind and relax after racing and pretty much start all over again
 
I turned my ex racer away for a year before doing anything with him at all, then when I brought him back into work I did lots of ground work with him first before even thinking about getting on him, I then treated him as if he had never been backed before and took everything nice and slow... 4 years later and he is amazing to ride now really sane and level headed (still not got the hang of standing still though! :rolleyes: )
 
I don't consider p2p ers to be the same as a horse that has come out of training, they will have been in a less institutional envirionment. Having said that no harm can come from roughing it off for a month and bringing back into work fat and relaxed in august. Sounds like he would appreciate the break.
 
justabob said:
I don't consider p2p ers to be the same as a horse that has come out of training, they will have been in a less institutional envirionment. .
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Not neccesarily, most the yards here in Ireland run horses in P2P and on the track. So the pointers will have the exact same training enviroment. But I suppose it might be different in the UK.

I know a horse who recently ran in 2 p2p kept in a normal yard not a training yard, was quite as anything before he ran and after his races he has gone off the walls. He is no longer in training for racing and hasnt been for months or anything but he hasnt had a break and hasnt gone back to how he was before he raced.
I think a break really does do racehorses the world of good
 
I would always turn an exracer away for a few months and let them reset and drop the racing form they have. Also lets them settle and if they are young allows them to mature in the head :)
 
I came home tonight and my son was out riding his ex racehorse - he came home buzzing, from the lovely ride he had experienced (bombing around the farm, celebrating the end of GCSE's). We bought the horse 2 years ago from the Ascot Derby sale (the one horse when seeing it bruised and bloodied in its stable - we said we would not purchase....) but £400 later......I turned that one out for 3 months - but it has taken time for the partnership to gel - and now horse and rider love each other, and are fully confident in each other.
But it is horses for courses - and the trick is getting them out of any sort of racing routine (in the past I have had far more problems with early days of fittening racehorses (from 6 months of grass) then I have had, when they are racing fit and pumped full of protein - galloping 3 - 4 times per week (I have been bucked off far more frequently during the road work, then I have when they are race course ready.....)
Change their routine - vary their routine, do different things with them - and sometimes they begin to click that the job is a different one. But, also turning away for a significant time can be detrimental - they don't actually like it.....Listen to your horses individual needs and requirements.
 
I got my mare 3 weeks after her last race. I rode her for another 3 weeks hacking out and very light schooling mainly to see what her temperament was like before deciding what to do. She had such a nice nature but had been in full training and was 9 yrs old so I decided she deserved and could handle a long break. I turned her out for 9 months. I had intended to turn her out for 6 months but as I got to know her better I changed that to give her longer. She did take longer than a lot of ex racers to retrain but had had a long racing career in p2p and on the track in Ireland.
 
Mine had 3 weeks hanging out in his stable and on horse walker at the trainers then cane to me and slowly started schooling. He's having 3 weeks off in September though
 
As others said, no prescriptive route. A wind down and change over diet takes time but some don't seem to cope with a sudden switching off!
 
Luci07 said:
As others said, no prescriptive route. A wind down and change over diet takes time but some don't seem to cope with a sudden switching off!
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Agree with above. We had to turn our lad away after he had an accident 3 weeks after purchase, but he became a handful on the ground and was confused with not having a routine. He disliked being in the field with 24 turnout and paced, jumping fences too, his stable was his santurary. I have found that he thrives on routine and is far better behaved when regularly worked. So, it was the opposite with us and if I had another ex racer, would probably put them to work straight away, and establish turnout and riding ASAP, but also allowing them time to adjust to a different type of riding and including lots of ground work as well
 
I was lucky in that mine had a couple of years (!!) of not really doing anything before I got him, so I could start work straight away.

If I got another I would probably give it a month off from work, but still bring it in to groom and handle every day :)
 
My girl last raced last October and she came home with me in the November - she spent her time in with me bonding (and with my other horse) and lots of time to play out and be 'a horse' again - we ride as and when we feel like it - no pressure on her - we ride one night and it may be a week later we hack out again - as long as she seems happy, i wouldnt worry about it too much! Half of the time, I open my girls stable door to let her free into the field and she prefers just chilling out inside with me looking for neck scratches :rolleyes:
 
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