BUT it's a TB.......!!!!!

Bug2007

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Why does that bl**dy matter????

Does my head in TBH.

I have a shock horror ex-racer, she is now 4 and is amazing (bias i know) but she jumps 3' hunt jumps. Schooling is coming on brilliant with good paces and lateral work is coming on.
Hacks alone and in company, isn't spooky, brave and bold. Will go in front and behind on the gallops, will come back to walk as and when.

£900 paid for her as a 2 yr old out of training, been valued for insurance purposes at £4.5k.

Brilliant attitude and very trainable. (a mare!!!! :eek:)

There is no reason in my eyes why they are valued less than anything else even if raced.....

TBH if they are raced that just opens more doors in all disaplines, more classes being judged against the same type.
If ROR eliable then bonus.

Everyone who sees her loves her.

I also ride Pointers in training and they have such a bad rep that they really don't deserve.

You get bad ones as with any breed.

Now lest all treat a decent horse and not as a decent TB against a decent Warmblood etc.... they all have thier indivdual pro's and con's.

Sorry major rant from a clear pro TB owner/rider!!!:D
 
I know what you mean!

My TB sounds like your mare, shes fab!
It pees me off when people value them (money wise) lower than other horses just because its a TB :mad:
 
I thnk theres a horse to suit everyone. Personally TBs are not my cup of tea but then neither are cobs. But I can appreciate the beauty of both. I suppose it depends what you want to use your horse for. Maybe the typical reaction to TBs is because they are so mass produced? Not that that means they are any less individual. All horses have their own personality traits. Just out of curiosity, may I ask how you went about getting your insurance evaluation? Im really not sure how it works?
 
cob&onion - another one!!! woo hoo.

elsazzo - I agree with you, cob's aren't for me at all, but i'd not value a good one at a low price just because it's not my cup of tea.
 
There are a lot of misconceptions about how racers are kept that fuels the fire when it comes to ex-racers.

People still think of them as being 'nutty' and 'flighty' because all they've seen is a fit racehorse at a racetrack buzzing on adrenalin.
They think that they are 'gone in the head' because they are stabled continuously and don't get one-to-one contact.....which is the biggest load of bull I have ever heard. Yes a racehorse in training might be stabled a lot but they also do tend to get lots of turnout/handgrazing etc...In fact I have seen a showjumping yard who keeps their horses worse than how racehorses are kept.
As for the 'they are worked too hard as youngsters and will be crocked by the time they are 6'......try telling that to my lad who I acquired from racing at 3 and he is now 16 and as fit and as strong as ever.
I also know a girl who paid £15,000 for a 4 year old who was jumping Newcomers (I think?) unsurprisingly she got 2 years out of it before having to breed a foal from it due to injury.

Ex-racers do carry prejudice but not from me...I bloody love 'em :D
 
Personally I love TB's. I used to have this preconception of scrawny spindly things but i was completely wrong!
I work with racers and we have some really chunky big boned ones who are just the most perfect easy to handle polite horses ever.
Yes we also have the scatty very fine sort but i love them too now!
My friends all have ex racers and so do i, because they are cheap- I'm not going to complain tho. I am hopefully getting another when he retires at the end of summer so the fact they are cheap is great for me! I would however pay a fortune for him if i had it because he is the most gorgeous horse!
 
I bought an ex racer who I did a bit of RC activities with, (2 ft 9 comps). SHe was always strong willed and tended to take off with me in XC etc. 15 months ago she was diagnosed with pedal ostitis and fetlock damage. Expert horse vet (30 yrs experience) said he saw this a lot in ex racehorses. After 3 months off she was passed as sound and ok for light work but probably not ok for jumping on hard ground etc. She has been turned out in for last year as I got another horse I am happier riding and able to do much more on. Honestly, I wish I hadn't bought her as now I've got to feed a horse that is no good for me for the next 20 years.

Free to good home a crib biting 10 yo with a sarcoid on her chest !
 
Trouble is you get this with every breed, ive got Arabs & get fed up with the whole "its an ugly nutty thing" weve also got Standardbreds who we pretty much get the same thing about. Then of course there is the anti hairy coloured brigade & the we hate welshies group.
Enjoy your horse & stuff everyone else :)
 
I've been told off for saying I don't want to loan a full TB, but to me it isn't about them being less valuable/trainable/sane, it's mainly to do with personal preference for the looks of the horse, but also, lots of people have warned me against the greater expense of keeping a TB because they can be poor dooers and are less 'hardy' than cobbier types. Of course this varies, but I'm just explaining my reasoning!! Every individual horse is different.
 
I've been told off for saying I don't want to loan a full TB, but to me it isn't about them being less valuable/trainable/sane, it's mainly to do with personal preference for the looks of the horse, but also, lots of people have warned me against the greater expense of keeping a TB because they can be poor dooers and are less 'hardy' than cobbier types. Of course this varies, but I'm just explaining my reasoning!! Every individual horse is different.

Anything can be a poor do-er ;) There's badduns in any breed or type. One of mine costs me a small fortune in feed/vets bills every month and the other gets fat looking at hay so go figure..... Fair point on the looks, saying that a friend of mine allegedly doesn't like TB's but asks if she can lunge them for me lol!

Both are ex racers and bought at the same time by me (bit of a happy accident :o)
 
You get your bad TB'S and Good TB's, Just like you get good WB'S bad WB'S, Good Cobs bad cobs etc.

I think people only say TB's are flighty and nutty because off what they see when the Horses race.

My old riding school had a ex race Horse, he was lovely could be ridden by anyone on the flat and Jumping. Needed a slighty more experienced rider to hack though, but he wasn't dangerous at all.
 
I was one of the people who said never. I was given my old boy nearly 20 years ago and we had our ups and downs until he died in november. I mow could not be without one. Such a rewarding breed IMHO
 
Op - I couldn't agree more. I had a TB x racer who was PTS and now have a Warmblood. But my little TB was so easy to do! Fantastic attitude, lateral work, not alot actually spooked her and fantastic temperment on the ground!
My first horse I shared with a friend raced til he was 12, gelded at 9. Couldn't of asked for a more level headed horse! Looked after me and my friend who were complete novices at the time!
It drives me mad because with ANY breed there are good and bad. If it fits the bill who cares what breed it is as long as that individual horse is suited to your ability and needs!!
 
If you told me 8 years ago that I would come to own 3 tb retired racehorses I would have told you that you were off your rocker! I'm a Shetland and Native girl through and through and I started working in a racing yard just so I didn't have to go back to school or go to uni. The first of "my horses" to be retired was offered to me after I had worked there a year but I couldn't take him on as I knew I didn't have enough experience of such horses at that point. He wasn't the easiest to ride either and was a bit of a bugger in the field with other horses. The only reason I would have taken him on these days is because he is by Sadler's Wells and I simply love those horses. As it was he went to the local Hunt Master to ride and point and again he only wanted him for being a Sadler's Wells. They got on great and he still has him and hunts him.

The first one I brought home was Kyle, he was injured and couldn't race again and his owners were a syndicate that wouldn't know the head from the tail of a horse gave him to me as they didn't know what else to do with him. He is brilliant fun! So bloody minded and only works when he wants to else you will just end up in a fight but he's not nasty, just a piss taker. He will be with me for life. Then you get Jeff who I rode for 4 years in training and was gifted to me on his retirement. He is a cracking stamp of a Riding Horse but he broke :( He playing in the field with my darty and put a hole in his OH DDFT round the fetlock so that's him out for a year at least with the possibility of never being ridden again.

The final one of the 3 is Laurel. I got him only a few weeks ago from a Flat yard in Yorkshire so I could have a horse to show this year with Jeff being broken and Kyle not quite suited to showing mentally. He is a gem, I haven't sat on him yet as he is just on route back from a tendon injury. He is a 5f sprinter so it will be interesting to see how different he is from my others who were jumpers.

I can see why they have this stigma attached to them as I myself once believed that racehorses went from A to B very fast, didn't know how to walk, trot or canter just jog to the gallops, gallop then jog home. Since working with them that couldn't be further from the truth! Whilst I still love my natives and wouldn't trade them for the world I also would not say no a TB again either. I just don't do coloureds with more white on that any other colour :D
 
I've been told off for saying I don't want to loan a full TB, but to me it isn't about them being less valuable/trainable/sane, it's mainly to do with personal preference for the looks of the horse, but also, lots of people have warned me against the greater expense of keeping a TB because they can be poor dooers and are less 'hardy' than cobbier types. Of course this varies, but I'm just explaining my reasoning!! Every individual horse is different.

Poor doers...no more than any other breed....i know of a few poor doers but loads of fat ones too. The ones we have in training have had to have food cut to make them racing condition.
Bug is a very good doer, and although i think she is very much TB, i have had people ask me what breed she is as she has a big neck great top line and a belly.
 
Poor doers...no more than any other breed....i know of a few poor doers but loads of fat ones too. The ones we have in training have had to have food cut to make them racing condition.
Bug is a very good doer, and although i think she is very much TB, i have had people ask me what breed she is as she has a big neck great top line and a belly.

My last mare was a good doer, ex racer, good feet, only had front shoes. Wintered on one feed a day.
Had to watch her in the summer as the first summer I had her she got cresty :o
 
I thnk theres a horse to suit everyone. Personally TBs are not my cup of tea but then neither are cobs. But I can appreciate the beauty of both. I suppose it depends what you want to use your horse for. Maybe the typical reaction to TBs is because they are so mass produced? Not that that means they are any less individual. All horses have their own personality traits. Just out of curiosity, may I ask how you went about getting your insurance evaluation? Im really not sure how it works?

but then if people are like that about thouroughbreds because they are "mass produced" then why are Welsh Section A's and show ponies not in that bracket too? They are mass produced too. I had a fantastic TB mare. To begin with we did not know her background because we got her off a dealer, the horse had been dumped in his field in a bad state. I spent 6 months getting her back on form and realised she was a racer when I took her on some gallops near the yard I was on :D. She made a brilliant showjumper and on her first outing we were offered £7,000 cash in hand ! ( we did not sell) and she went to a young girl who had lost her confidence and my old mare did me proud !
 
My last mare was a good doer, ex racer, good feet, only had front shoes. Wintered on one feed a day.
Had to watch her in the summer as the first summer I had her she got cresty :o

he he another fatty!!!!

Bug is out 24/7 365. I think half of the poor doer TB's would be better off on 24/7 grazing as alot don't do well stabled. If more were willing to try it....just need to close your ears to the howling wind you hear at night.
As long as they are rugged they'll be fine.
Not to say all like it, you do have some duvet lovers. Those TB's that just don't do wet and windy!!
 
Just out of curiosity, may I ask how you went about getting your insurance evaluation? Im really not sure how it works?

Sorry missed this bit: My insurance company asked that i got three instructors that are registered to write down a valuation for her, so i could up the insurance. Only had her insured for £1k when we first got her as a two year old.
I used to BD dressage judges/instructors and a BHSII, all three had never had anything to do with her. I had a lesson with each so they could see her go through her paces. See temp etc... then they write to insurance company with valuation. had to pay them for it.
had three different valuations. £4k/£4.5K and £5k, nice range, so took the middle one.

Hope that makes sense.
 
This was Poutu Mid winter, like Dec/Jan time I think..
HPIM1418.jpg


Mid Summer :D
Picture001.jpg
 
Perhaps I am wrong.
But having had a tb and having bought a WB currently who wa supposed to be a poor doer, and both of them wintering well. Perhaps it is down to management as opposed to temperment. Yes I know some horses do worry weight off but with the majority of them its just correct management..
Bug 2007 - Your girly is v.pretty :) :D
 
but then if people are like that about thouroughbreds because they are "mass produced" then why are Welsh Section A's and show ponies not in that bracket too? They are mass produced too. I had a fantastic TB mare. To begin with we did not know her background because we got her off a dealer, the horse had been dumped in his field in a bad state. I spent 6 months getting her back on form and realised she was a racer when I took her on some gallops near the yard I was on :D. She made a brilliant showjumper and on her first outing we were offered £7,000 cash in hand ! ( we did not sell) and she went to a young girl who had lost her confidence and my old mare did me proud !


I dont know Sheryl, I have no idea what the general opinion on welsh sec A's and show ponies as we have none on our yard but we do have quite a few TBs! :D


Sorry missed this bit: My insurance company asked that i got three instructors that are registered to write down a valuation for her, so i could up the insurance. Only had her insured for £1k when we first got her as a two year old.
I used to BD dressage judges/instructors and a BHSII, all three had never had anything to do with her. I had a lesson with each so they could see her go through her paces. See temp etc... then they write to insurance company with valuation. had to pay them for it.
had three different valuations. £4k/£4.5K and £5k, nice range, so took the middle one.

Hope that makes sense.


I see, thanks. Thats interesting to know ;)
 
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