ex racehorses

Amy567

Amy567

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I wondered if anyone could help me out with a little question. I'm currently looking for a new horse and would like to retrain a racehorse to showjump and do a little bit of RC and ODE and hacking etc. I wondered what tje difference is between a national hunt horse and a flat racer, apart from the obvious being one jumps and one doesn't. If the trainer had never given the horse a chance to see if they can jump, how do they know the horse is best suited to flat racing?

If it's a stupid question I apologise, I'm just not that clued up on racing xD
 
The NH horses are bred to jump and stay over longer distances, flat horses are bred to run faster but for shorter distances. Flat horses are usually of a slighter build, NH are usually a bit bigger with more bone. Flat bred horses will sometimes go into jump racing, depending on their stamina and success.

I have had a few of each to retrain over the years, both are just as capable of learning to jump 'conventionally', sometimes it's easier to start with a flat horse though, then you are not trying to undo it's race-jump training, but i do enjoy jumping an ex-NH horse as nothing else feels quite like it, and they are very bold :D

It really depends on the type of horse you want, and of course the individual animal... try a few before you make any decisions
 
There also tends to be an age difference. Most flat horses are started at 2/3 and will be leaving 4/5. Most NH horses start at 4/5 and can go until their teens.
 
Thank you :-) I have a little TB at the moment, who we think is an ex racer, a friend if ours who trains racehorses says she has brilliant action for flat racing, but used to hurdle everything too haha. Then again, she could have been anything. I'm seeing a couple NH horses today and I've enquired about a flat racer who has been given time to mature and is currently 4 and has done 10 races over the past 2 years. He's called Gadreel if anyone has heard of him and is 16.2hh and, to me, looks a bit heavy for a flat racer from pictures. I'm really excited about the opportunity to give a racehorse a nee job :-D
 
Stick any names through the racing post website and get their full records, you can also pay to watch any races they ran in (helps to understand a lot when they insist on running round like a camel!). If you are like me then you get obsessed and then track down all sales records for the horse. Mine came through sales from Ireland at 7months, things like that change them.
 
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