Ex racers-do/can they make sane/sound allrounders?advice wanted

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prudunce

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Im thinking about buying an ex racer as cant find a nice allrounder for my budget(4k ish)theres quite a few around but do they make good,sane allrounders/eveters if re-trained well and sound? wud past leg probs show up in a vetting?
One i called about had raced but has been in re-training past yr and doing HT&sj,Is there anyway i can makesure im buying a safe/sane one?thankyouwill (they always want to P*ssoff withyou when on grass?or is that a nasty rumour??).
Any contacts in kent would be appreciated.

oh,how long is ideal for the horse to have been re-trained?
 
YES YES YES THEY ARE THE BEST...

no they dont p*&^off on grass.. you jsut have to have the guts to drop you hands when you want them to stop than pull on there gobs,


I addore my ex-racer.. and when he's right form this tendon injury i want to do some dressage with him.


yes... ride it.. if it trys to kill you.. dont got there?

Lou x
 
mine came to me straight out of training (she has had a month or two at grass) - sane, rideable, can canter in company in open country and remain in complete control - so no, the rumours aren't true!
 
ditto rachel.. ted had come straight from racing. two months off and i got straight on his back in a field at the race yard.. full of grazing sheep lol.. he did a lovely walk trot and canter and i had him a week later and he is the best thing in my life.. i got trust him with anything.
 
Rosie's Lottie is an ex-racer but had been out of racing for some time before they bought her. Placed at JRN a few times this season and SJs/hunts all winter. Not too bad at dressage either.
Can't help with how to be sure of getting a good one though, I guess you have to be a little bit lucky and prepared to be patient. Good luck
 
I agree that the majority is just nasty rumours although I am sure that some live up to the stereotype.
My ex-racer thankfully doesn't (at the moment anyway) and is pretty fit, I do all of my work (ground/jump and ridden) in a massive field and he isn't stupid. He is good to hack out in company and in an arena, yet to see how he acts in a field with them but I think he will be ok with it. He (as well as others on here) are very laid back.
 
Yes, they can become safe, sane allrounders - however you must always remember they were racehorses once.

I have 2 and they are very different in some respects, very similar in others. I got them both as they turned 4 having raced at 3. I have tried to treat them as normal horses as much as possible, although there have been occasions where I have had to address their racing history. My mare gets het up in company, hates other horses passing her and can be difficult to stop. We saw this straight away and we started in the school with horses passing her in trot while she walked, then in canter. Once she had settled to that we done the same in the field until she could stand in the middle of the field with other horses cantering round. Only then did I canter her in a group out hacking, and ever since then she has been fine and pulls up with very little effort. My point is that she wasnt being naughty or bad, she was doing what she had been taught to do, when we spent some time teaching her that there were other options and cantering in a group was no longer a race she was fine..! The problem some people have is that they have one bad experience - they have trouble stopping out hacking for instance - so they then just stop doing it, you need to understand how a racehorse works and how they are trained to understand how to train them out of it.

There is no set time for retraining. I have one out of training 18 months who is only 5 and a gem to take to shows, the other is a year older and been out a year longer and he is proving to be more tricky, however this is just how he is, not the fact he is an exracer. I have no doubts that they will both be superstars in their own rights - but they would have been just as good had they not been in training.

There are now specialists who deal in ex-racers and will start the retraining for you, - this may be a better option for you than getting straight off the track.

Good luck!!!
 
I brought mine 2 months ago,
he was straight out of training , ive always had ID X TB so he is a little different to what im use to and ive always said i would never have a full TB but he hasn't put a foot wrong, i adore him !
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i have one i bought, and one i'm riding for someone else. both totally sane, nice horses... if i hadn't been told they were ex-racers, i probably wouldn't have guessed. one is very keen when jumping, and gets a bit het up, but lots of horses that have never raced do that...
don't be put off, they can make super all-rounders. best of luck!
 
My horse hasn't raced for along time but he has done everything, Stressage, BSJA money and evented to Novice.

He is fantastic and hacks every where, however, he came to me as my friend was having problems with him. But he is now lovely and quiet.
 
I had one. Raced a few times as a 2 and 3 yrs old. Went to a eventer before me buying her.

She took some time to get adjusted to our sand gallops and in the end was good (on her own)

I was never able to canter her in company as she got dangerous.

She was not suitable for a novice rider, and never agan attained her preivous form.

It's great to get a race horse to retrain, and my experience, wouldn't put me off getting another. My only concern woudl be their feet and tendons however as they race too young for them to have fully developed.

Bx
 
Yes, they do. I've had two, the first a mare was a bit dotty to begin with but, once I'd earned her trust, became a faithfull and trusting friend. The second, an ex-hurdler recently out of training, was completely reliable out hacking, both in company and on his own, excellent in traffic, and rarely gave me any cause for concern. Of course you can get a rogue horse, but you could get that if you were looking for a native pony as well, but overall ex-racehorses have a completely undeserved bad press, and if you devote as much time and most importantly patience there is nothing more rewarding. However, as others have already said, they are racehorses, and are probably not the most suitable for a beginner or inexperienced owner/rider. (Don't know if you are!!) Rather than getting one from the Sales, if that's where you were thinking of going, why not approach one of the Retraining of Racehorses Centres. www.ror.org.uk, where you will get all the support, guidance and help you need; their horses are already reschooled; they match you to horses they feel would most suit you and your expectations and requirements, and, in the unlikely event of it all going wrong, they take the horse back as they retain ownership throughout. Find the right one for you and you'll not regret it. Good Luck.
 
no personal experience, but my friends horse who is Flash's only friend is an ex racer who was bought straight from the race yard, and he's the quietest most laid back horse I've ever known, and he's still only 6. He's totally unflappable to hack, I think nothing we encounter compares to the manic atmosphere at a race, and he'll happily canter on grass without getting silly at all, comes straight back and will just wander on a long rein as soon as you've pulled up. He's shown successfully locally, and is looking to be a promising amd careful jumper too, despite doing hurdles in the past. So in short yes, I think they can make lovely sane allrounders
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As I posted yesterday - my new horse came out of training in about March and you wouldn't know he was a racehorse in a million years. He is so calm and laid back and is an absolute pleasure to own.

They need time to adjust when they leave raceyards to become horses again which is why, I think, late spring or summer is a good time to get one because they can go straight out and you can ride them from the field as it were. A good couple of months on nice grass just chilling out does them the world of good.

As with any kind of horse - there are good ones and there are bad ones. If you buy one straight from a yard as opposed to the sales you can see it in its stable, being tacked up, ridden etc. You don't get that at the sales but then again... you might get lucky!!
 
Hope "Guildford" doesn't mind but this is copied from Picture Gallery, and thought it might help.

"I bought him unseen straight from his last raceyard. Crazy I know. I asked my father in law to find me a new hunter. He saw him and trotted him round a field and said he'd be ideal. I was very unsure about the whole situation especially when Happy arrived and spent the first 2 weeks weaving, getting kicked, having huge seperation anxieties etc.

BUT since I sold the pikie pony he has settled amazingly well and is so laid back he's almost horizontal. I ride him in just a headcollar back from the field, he goes out in the garden sometimes, he is just fantastic. He can be naughty but it just makes me laugh. I can canter him in a huge field and he never runs away with me and stops when I ask him too. He doens't like cows charging towards him and will start baby bucking and jumping about when they crowd round his bottom but that is the only time he's remotely misbehaved.

He gives ex-racehorses a very good name and everyone I've ridden him with think he's lovely and so well mannered. I think it helps that he is out 24 7 and will be out as much as possible over the winter. Seems to keep him very sane!! "
 
They are great, if I could afford to get another one I would!
Mine is 10 now and I got him at 6. He had done his last race 3 weeks previously,
He is a fantastic horse, although he has had his fair share of lameness issues which are just down to picking a horse with decent feet - I didn't but wouldn't change him for the world.
Great to hack, very chilled out at competitions - galloping is practically boring!
Fast hacks can be a little exciting - doesn't like to be left behind but nothing majorly dangerous!

I'd go for it, there are loads about, a lot of them nicely bred for the money you pay for them. It depends on whether you want to go for one which has come straight out of training or one which has already been re started. I would always look at them as a youngster who has done nothing before (other than become traffic proof!!).
 
Well, there is an increasing number of exracers getting into eventing so it must be possible
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Its horses for courses... you can buy a standard riding horse that turns out to be a maniac.... and its not even been near a race course.

Good luck !!
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