Bits for ex racers

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Fingerontheneckstrap

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Hi everyone,

About 3 weeks ago I did something I’ve always wanted to do and purchased a thoroughbred who was finished racing and starting her riding horse career. She came straight from the racing yard and while she is a little bit fizzy, she is sweet and very willing to learn.

As soon as I started riding her I noticed she was mostly throwing her head in the air or occasionally on the forehand pulling her head down to evade contact whenever I put pressure on the reins. She doesn’t really have the hang of voice commands yet so I’ve been doing a ton of ground work and some simple walk/trot transitions using my voice, but when we canter I have no breaks without me pulling on the reins which she doesn’t like 🙈 I immediately thought of teeth and back to be checked… her teeth were a little sharp but nothing out of the ordinary, she regularly got physio in her old yard but I got the physio out yesterday and she said she was actually in very good nick just a bit of regular maintenance more or less.

I’m getting her saddle checked next week but I’m guessing all will be okay albeit a few minor adjustments as I feel the saddle actually fits her quite well.

So now I’m wondering about bits. She is going in a plain snaffle with a lozenge currently and I’m wondering is there something any of you have found your ex racers like? I don’t mind if it’s extremely gentle as it’s not necessarily control that is my main focus at the moment… I just want a bit that will help her relax into the contact and help with some breaks if needed without annoying her too
 
I highly doubt that she will have much concept of contact, bend or balance. A race horse's training is all about running, not actually about being a riding horse. So you'll have to do all that basic stuff from scratch, with the added complication of having to undo the way she's been used to going. The bit isn't going to make a huge difference although she obviously will need to be comfortable in her mouth and getting a dentist to check would be useful.
 
Cortez said:
I highly doubt that she will have much concept of contact, bend or balance. A race horse's training is all about running, not actually about being a riding horse. So you'll have to do all that basic stuff from scratch, with the added complication of having to undo the way she's been used to going. The bit isn't going to make a huge difference although she obviously will need to be comfortable in her mouth and getting a dentist to check would be useful.
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Only reason I took her on as my first project was because they actually did a lot of flatwork in that yard with her and all the other racehorses for strengthening and improving their way of going. So she does accept the contact at times but I can tell she’s just not happy with what’s in her mouth and potentially where it is putting pressure. Teeth have been checked and all okay, a little bit of sharpness but nothing out of the ordinary and I’ve ridden her since then with no difference.
 
I’ve had a couple get on well in the Neue schule turtletop, very gentle mouthpiece which has helped them settle in the mouth.
I find most ex racers straight off the track soft in the mouth. It’s a very different way of going and she won’t be strong enough to hold a contact consistently yet. Try and keep your hands completely still and focus on relaxation over the back. The contact will come when she’s settled and working correctly. If she is coming into a contact, try and vary the length of contact if possible, or if not give her breaks in walk. You want her to find the contact comfortable and not sore from having to work differently.
Other point, has she just finished racing? If so then it’s a massive change for her and I wouldn’t expect anything much of her yet. Personally I’d give her some downtime, I’d only go straight into working an ex racer if the yard had already taken her out of training and started the retraining. I’m sure you want to crack on but she’ll be in a much better frame of mind after some time being a horse.
Re canter-trot transition, hands into the neck, relax, think trot. Pulling will have the opposite effect. Pop her on a circle if she won’t come back and let her figure it out.
 
Sail_away said:
I’ve had a couple get on well in the Neue schule turtletop, very gentle mouthpiece which has helped them settle in the mouth.
I find most ex racers straight off the track soft in the mouth. It’s a very different way of going and she won’t be strong enough to hold a contact consistently yet. Try and keep your hands completely still and focus on relaxation over the back. The contact will come when she’s settled and working correctly. If she is coming into a contact, try and vary the length of contact if possible, or if not give her breaks in walk. You want her to find the contact comfortable and not sore from having to work differently.
Other point, has she just finished racing? If so then it’s a massive change for her and I wouldn’t expect anything much of her yet. Personally I’d give her some downtime, I’d only go straight into working an ex racer if the yard had already taken her out of training and started the retraining. I’m sure you want to crack on but she’ll be in a much better frame of mind after some time being a horse.
Re canter-trot transition, hands into the neck, relax, think trot. Pulling will have the opposite effect. Pop her on a circle if she won’t come back and let her figure it out.
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Someone else actually mentioned the turtle top so I might look into that! I probably should have mentioned above but the yard she came from always does flatwork with the horses during the week aside from track work so they strengthen up so she has a basic grasp of flatwork but nothing amazing! she raced last in April and had time off, they brought her back in to work around end of June/start of July and was mostly hacking/flatwork so she’s had a nice bit of time off but I’ve been considering maybe doing another two weeks with her to get her relaxed and settled in her riding and then give her a bit more time off because I might have blown her mind a bit by asking her to carry herself in a different way and to relax! I am in no rush with her anyway, I’ll keep her for as long as I need to!
 
I’d get her teeth looked at if you haven’t already, but be aware that racers are trained ‘on the bridle’ meaning that they will often bare against pressure and interpret that as an invitation to speed up, forcing a potentially unbalanced, potentially weak horse even further onto the forehand. Any contact based schooling you do will need to be almost entirely from the leg, at least at first.
 
Sorry, just read that you’ve already done the dentist. As well as looking at bitting, have you added a noseband that might be objected to? Many of ours would run without nose bands, unless something specific like a grackle was needed.
 
I wouldnt even say its the bit to be honest. She wont have had a huge lot of proper riding done. Id say downtime and just take it slowly.
I wouldnt even try to get her into a contact at the moment, have a few weeks of just riding around having fun
Its a whole new lifestyle to settle into and it takes time.

A lot of ex racers that do throw their heads wear a bib martingale, she is probably used to that.

I have edited to add, groundwork will be the key, you have basically purchased an unbacked horse, thats the way I treat it. Go back to basics 😊 ride her in a headcollar and see what she does
 
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I have ticked the ‘like’ button BB but not quite sure about the headcollar riding! 😁 your racehorse was only three wasn’t he, that would make a difference.
OP doesn’t say what age her racehorse is, nor if it was a flat horse or a jumper, that makes a difference in how they have been ridden.
My daughter was given a rising 5yr old who had one run in a bumper and 2 in hurdle races. She had been bought by the owner to be a top class brood mare and she needed a win. They gave her away , extraordinary, but they did know us and it would be a good home.
She had been beautifully started though and was just traumatised by going racing.
Any horse in a new home is unsettled, your horse needs downtime and easy riding before you worry about anything else , most of them are really good in the mouth. I hope you have fun once she has time to settle into her new life.
 
Chiffy said:
I have ticked the ‘like’ button BB but not quite sure about the headcollar riding! 😁 your racehorse was only three wasn’t he, that would make a difference.
OP doesn’t say what age her racehorse is, nor if it was a flat horse or a jumper, that makes a difference in how they have been ridden.
My daughter was given a rising 5yr old who had one run in a bumper and 2 in hurdle races. She had been bought by the owner to be a top class brood mare and she needed a win. They gave her away , extraordinary, but they did know us and it would be a good home.
She had been beautifully started though and was just traumatised by going racing.
Any horse in a new home is unsettled, your horse needs downtime and easy riding before you worry about anything else , most of them are really good in the mouth. I hope you have fun once she has time to settle into her new life.
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Well, no, BB was 7 when I got him, I had to do all of the above and when he still hated the bit , I went bitless 🤣🤣

I didnt do any of this with Orbi because he is a star 🤣 and I can literally get on him with nothing 🤣
 
Racehorses are taught to go faster off contact. They are ridden 90% off the time in a loose rein and then the signal for speeding up is to tighten the contact.
I start mine with something quite thick and with cheeks - I normally like a simple D Ring with a single joint. A lot also like a simple rubber snaffle. Something they can learn to take the contact down with and grow confident with. You effectively need to undo everything they know about the bit.
 
I started mine with a nathe type bit, then a lozenge snaffle with cheek pieces and did try a thicker lozenge for a while of a different shape. He seemed to prefer one that lay in a particular way. I know lots of trainers yards do do flat work with their horses but I still think that going back to basics is a good idea which it sounds like you are doing, but I didn't try canter for mine for a long time. When we did, we managed about three strides down the long side of a 20 x 40 arena before we fell back into trot or got to the corner so just play aorund and see how it gets going.
 
I ride my last exracer predominantly is a snaffle - a simple French link to start then moved to a Neue Schule trans angled lozenge. I had a period in the middle where I rode him in a Waterford to jump because he would lean heavily and tank off but didn’t take long before he was backing off it and we went back to a snaffle.

I’d make sure she’s comfy in whatever bit you’ve got, and accept that contact will take a while - contact means go faster in racing, so it’s getting them out of that that is the tough bit.

It’s not popular nowadays, but I spent ages schooling on the lunge with side reins so that he got used to a contact and the voice commands reliably before I started actively schooling him properly on top. Riding was hacking out in the main for the first while whilst schooling was lunging and then short spells on top with transitions, circles etc in walk and trot to reinforce the lunge work.
 
They aren't taught to listen to the leg or seat so you need to go back and teach the horse the correct cues and will by default, pull and/or fall on the forehand - it's how they are taught to run. At least for flat racers back home (we don't have any jump racing), the harder you pull, the faster they go so you need to mentally break the idea that pulling back is your brakes. If we rode them straight from the track (which we sometimes would back then!!), we would pretty much drop our reins and get the horse to tune into the body - i.e. closing of the thigh = brakes. You need to go wwwwaaaayyyy back to the beginning and get the horse used to relaxing, shifting its weight back, and understand leg, voice, and rein cues and only move up the paces once the previous pace has been established. This means you need to completely change the muscle development of the horse as well.

Depending on the age of the horse, I likely wouldn't opt for a plain snaffle but rather something with a little bit more "security" - i.e. full-cheek, eggbutt, or d-ring (usually eggbutt though).
 
I taught my my ex-racer to come down from canter using polos 😁 started in walk, offered him a polo so he would stop, turn and eat to take it from my hand, moved to trot etc, eventually if I put my hand down when cantering even without a treat he’d slow/stop.

Probably not very technical but it worked for him!
 
HopOnTrot said:
I taught my my ex-racer to come down from canter using polos 😁 started in walk, offered him a polo so he would stop, turn and eat to take it from my hand, moved to trot etc, eventually if I put my hand down when cantering even without a treat he’d slow/stop.

Probably not very technical but it worked for him!
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😂 that made me smile! I got my not ex racer to walk quietly home alone by the odd polo being handed out.
They can’t go forward at speed, which is what he wanted to do and take a polo at the same time!
 
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