Can exracers become good jumpers?

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Frazer

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I am thinking about buying an exracer, and have had one to reschool before! However there is a lady at my yard who just buys and sells exracers, she has just brought one which she thinks has the poientional to do BSJA jumping and be successful. However I was under the impression ex racers, didnt really do well in this disicpline, Im not saying that no ex racers can because they can. Has anyone had an exracer that was also a good jumper.
 
Ex-racers are tbs- tbs do exceptionally well in eventing, also there are several good tb sjers and indeed dressage horses too!!
Just because a horse has raced, doesnt mean its limited in any way in respect to other disciplines- in fact I love having them off the track as they know far more about balance and tend to be more grown-up than your average 3/4 yr old. They have their problems on occaision, my main worry being long lasting damage to joints etc

My sister has had several off the track- her last good horse went 3*, jumped 1.35 for fun and was only held back by fetlock probs, most likely stemming from having raced as a 2/3yr old. Our last one was Jazz, he went novice aged 6 and also had springs in his little feet but we lost him to navicular earlier this year, again most likely as a result of his racing past.
 
Ex racers can indeed become excellent jumpers. PF for instance is very, very good and people keep trying to buy her although I'm only competing at 80 and 90cm (you can affiliate at 70cm here!). She's very scopey and careful with a very promising future ahead of her!
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What was that one David Broome had? Philco? Little grey horse? He'd raced in the States and they thought he had lots of winnings in SJ so David Broome took him straight in some bigger classes. They found out some years later that it was in racing he had lots of winnings!!!

I have an ex-racer and I'm having problems with SJ - he's fab xc and loves it, but doesn't think twice about knocking fences SJ. He's built raher downhill so am wondering whether that is part of the problem in that he's not using his shoulder properly, but it's our project for the winter now - to do as much SJ schooling as possible.
 
My boy Risky is an ex-reace, he jumps for fun and would jump over you if you were in front of him. We've just had a very succesful first eventing season, 7 runs and 3 placings and I also do BSJA in which we've won several BN classes, now moving into Discovery and Newcomers.

I would defo buy another racer, word of warning though, he can be a bit tuned to the moon at times!
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(He's the Bay in the piccies below)
 
My best SJ'er ever was an ex-flat racer...15.3hh....used to win in 1.30m+ classes
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They don't all do it, and he was far from an easy ride, but my god could he go against the clock lol!
 
my ex racer doesn't jump very well, but she was a flat racer. but a family friend has an ex racer who become a very good showjumper, only missing out on hickstead, due to a sudden onset of lameness. Shes now in her late 20's, and only hacks about, but she'd still jump if she had the choice
 
Iv known a couple of ex racers that could both jump very well, but the one I owned a few years ago couldnt jump higher than about 2ft9. I competed in a 3ft unaffiliated open with him once, and he had every single fence down.
 
A few pics....

Josh, pretty useless racer but advanced eventer/ jumping machine
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And my baby Jazzman....

In his racing days
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and his eventing days:
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God knows!!

Josh was a jumper, Jazz a flatracer- I'd tend to just go for athleticism. Theres a little horse at the vet school that they use for treadmill studies, he's barely 15hh, a mini flat racer type but that horse is just pure athleticism and could I take him home I would in a heartbeat-he'd jump the moon!!
 
I wouldn't think a horse that had hurdled would be the best SJ and quite scary XC, is it easy to retrain them to jump differently? A Chaser probably would be easier????

I have no idea or experience of this, just interested.
 
I'm interested in this too - my little ex-racer is an absolute poppet but I am only just teaching him how to jump (never jumped at all in his previous life). We are only popping over 2ft at the moment so too early to tell if he has any scope.

My boy is as game as anything - just has a look and a think and then goes for it. Legs all over the place most of the time though.
 
It doesnt matter what they have done previuosly as long as you follow a sensible training program. I have Sov ex chaser who we have spent nearly 12 months getting round a BN, and Emerald ex hurdler who is already (after 2 months)jumping clear rounds at 75cm and will be affiliated next month when I get paid! Emerald has a much better attitude than Sov which probrably explains why he is progressing. ON the which one to choose I would go purely on conformation, But then I am a very shallow person who likes beautiful horses,dogs,men,cars......
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Tim Stockdale had a lot of success with ex-racehorse called Mighty McGuigan, and much further back there was Lizawake who won a lot of good classes for Tom Brake. Probably fewer around at top level these days as the trend has gone so much towards the purpose-bred warmbloods.
 
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