Ex racers etc..

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GypsyGirl

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Hey everyone,

I went to see some horses today - ex racers (well been out of racing for about 4months etc)
The horse that I went to go see is lovely - beautiful bay - lovely strides walk trot and canter - I havnt seen her jump yet because the ground is rubbish and there school is grass etc so rode out and she was lovely - wasnt bothered rode first and last had a canter out and wasnt competitive or anything really lovely horse. Big .. but really nice.

I am just wondering those of you that bought an ex racer - how long did it take the horse to adapt to its "new life?". Just because obviously - being out racing etc and then changing them, did yours adapt well? The lady really cares for the horses you can tell that, and obviously she has to make sure that I am suitble for the horse as well. She asked where the horse would be kept before hand on the phone so I did tell her that ours are kept out 24/7 really well rugged with lots of good hay and good food etc. So she did say that the horse would be fine living out - aslong as in the winter it is rugged up really really well with a big rambo rug with a neck cover etc which I also agree to.

So im just wondering really how long it took for your ex racers to adapt to the "quiter life". I am looking to school the horse and then compete show jumping and dressage (the horse was a winner over herdles and on the flat) so I will have to school as the horse tends to hurdle over the jumps etc. I also understand that they are a lot of hard work etc but I think it would be really good. The horse is lovely - had my nieces and the ladys young girl (4year old) brushing her and horse was fine.

Any tips or advice that you can give me? She has said that she thinks that I am good enough for a tb lol. So im just wondering about it etc.

The horse in question is a lovely Bay, 6year old 16hh Mare.

Thank you in advance! x
 
She sounds lovely! Any I have seen have slotted in perfectly, they start off with hacking which they are used to anyway although sometimes take time to go out on their own as they're not used to that. I would want to see her jump before you buy, perhaps hire a school? Will you have lessons and tuition with her when you buy her?

One other thing- my mare had never been lunged when I got her so you may need to teach her that! Also, mounting from the ground may be new to her.
 
Farrierlover said:
She sounds lovely! Any I have seen have slotted in perfectly, they start off with hacking which they are used to anyway although sometimes take time to go out on their own as they're not used to that. I would want to see her jump before you buy, perhaps hire a school? Will you have lessons and tuition with her when you buy her?

One other thing- my mare had never been lunged when I got her so you may need to teach her that! Also, mounting from the ground may be new to her.
Click to expand...

I will deffinatly have lessons with her (flatwork and jumping) The lady has said that I can go back and see her and she said that she will also take me out where there are some xc jumps so I can see her jump and also jump her myself x
 
mine had been out of racing 3 months when he came home with me and TBH he slotted in to *normal life* very easily and immediately, he is naturally very chilled though.

generally ex racers are very goo round the yard-clipping/bathing etc etc as they are used to being prepped for racing,they may not be very good at reading other horses body language though so initially would probably be best turned out with a fairly gentle horse, not a bully as they wont know to keep out the way.

mine is the easiest horse to train, can be sharp to hack, but picks the work up so easily, i couldnt have got a more trainable horse if id spent £50k on a warmplod!
 
How long did it take you to get the horse round etc - well I mean plenty of schooling and good grass and feed really. This horse is mega fit as you could expect - but being a racer she is also on the slim side - around her pelvis etc.

How long did it take for your horses to put the weight on etc.

:)
 
wow it sounds like the lady selling your horse has put alot of effort into starting her horses on their riding horse careers. My mare was straight off the track, and tbh i porbably made every mistake in the book with her! When i got her we had to start from the beginning, turned her away and whilst she loved being able to go out and play, her feet didnt like going from wet field to dry stable! So she ended up with around 9 months off between breaking down and her feet.
when we started she liked to go go go! mounting was an issue, she used to do hand stands when you first got on and if you last a few laps of the school she was fine but if you fell off the second time was always ok?? (chesnut mare btw) she still likes to walk a few steps but i can cope with it now, no handstands!
She has really nice paces and i only got my own transport this year so she is learning lots now, had DR lesson on thurs and trainer cant believe difference, she learns very quickly! :)
She hurdled too and was rubbish at it apparently (her trainer whilst she was racing told me this when i contacted them) but it was probably because she was super careful! if someone else hits a sj she gets upset! so the sj has been our stalling point to our eventing debut! she is amazing xc think when she is thinking forward and not looking for monsters she is bolder! so hopefully once she sees more sj fillers etc she will be great as she is scopey just a bit of a worrier!
on the plus side she hacks out alone great and is a quick learner! too intelligent at times, but once she understands something she doesnt forget! she thinks for herself and feels safe xc and despite everyone thinking i'm mad, i wouldnt change her for the world! oh and she was a gift horse for £500! :D
good luck with yours it sounds lovely :)
 
I have two ex-racers. I bought one at age 12. He is 20 now and still does a bit of dressage - he is completely bombproof in traffic, but scared of a crisp packet!! It took me a while to get him schooled - not because he was naughty, but because I had ridden chunky ready made horses for the previous few years so lacked experience.
I bought an 8 year old mare in the middle of April. She had been turned out over winter and was hat rack thin when she arrived. I bought her from the field. She was wormed, measured, fitted for tack and given a spin on the lunge in our school on the day she arrived and the following day I got up and rode her. A week later she won her first dressage.....so you could say she settled in really quickly....she had also never been on the roads, but is hacking alone and in company with no issues whatsoever....perhaps I have been lucky, or maybe I am just stupid, who knows...she is slowly putting weight on and looks better, but like yours, her back end is thin and she has strong muscular shoulders. I am feeding Calm and Condition and that seems to work.
Good luck with yours. She sounds fantastic.
 
hmmmm, star had spent his 3 months out of racing in the field, and the girl i bought him from had produced him beautifully so he wasnt super fit and slim when i bought him.

he put on muscle steadily for about 4months, tailed off a bit and then bulked up again at the end of the summer.
all though his 4yo year he was a bit more angular than i would like, but over last winter he really chunked up and now, as a 5yo i think is *perfect*.

i have found windergy equilibrium condition and charnwood milling linseed to be a good diet for both my ex racers, star gets 2.5 scoops of winergy and 2 mugs linseed per day, plus sugar beet and his supps and looks fab on it.

Star early 2009, as a 4yo, doesnt look thin, but just immature:
PadandStar015.jpg


starting to fill out summer 2009:
SNC10112.jpg


winter 2009:
SNC10093.jpg


spring 2010 as a5yo:
P1000807.jpg


today 10/07/10
P1010136.jpg
 
Prince33Sp4rkle said:
hmmmm, star had spent his 3 months out of racing in the field, and the girl i bought him from had produced him beautifully so he wasnt super fit and slim when i bought him.

he put on muscle steadily for about 4months, tailed off a bit and then bulked up again at the end of the summer.
all though his 4yo year he was a bit more angular than i would like, but over last winter he really chunked up and now, as a 5yo i think is *perfect*.

i have found windergy equilibrium condition and charnwood milling linseed to be a good diet for both my ex racers, star gets 2.5 scoops of winergy and 2 mugs linseed per day, plus sugar beet and his supps and looks fab on it.

Star early 2009, as a 4yo, doesnt look thin, but just immature:
PadandStar015.jpg


starting to fill out summer 2009:
SNC10112.jpg


winter 2009:
SNC10093.jpg


spring 2010 as a5yo:
P1000807.jpg


today 10/07/10
P1010136.jpg
Click to expand...

Star looks fab! I really like the yellow on him in the last picture as well! You don't see yellow really do you. He looks a lot like the horse I went to go and see today - apart from the mare today has a bigger blaze. Im thinking of it - im just not sure really, its just because when I went to see the horse, the lady was really really nice but kinda treated me like one of her stable girls? Like asking me to put all these different horses out and bringing others in and making sure that there all okay etc. I didnt mind - but I was only there to see and try out a horse for sale lol.

The horse is lovely and very cheap for what she is - but im not sure - we shall see :)
 
My girl stopped running about 5years ago. She took to normal life like a duck to water. She had a couple of weeks break and then hacked out, schooled and did xc. She did this for a year and then was bred from and produced a beautiful colt foal. After he was weaned she was brought back into light work for another year, owners did not have time for her so she was a field ornament for 16months and is now back in light work until she is fitter. It's like she's never raced, will go first or last, never races when out with other horses, brill to mount, just stands like a rock. apparently always had beautiful manners.
 
OP - sounds like the woman was just checking out if you would be capable handling a range of horses - not just that you could get on and ride ok. She is obviously trying very hard to find the right person for the horse, which I find really refreshing!

Sounds like she was more than happy with both your handling and riding skills to me.
 
echo the above, dont be offended :)

not just specific to ex racers but all horses, i think you will know when you find *the*horse, although i saw one more horse after looking at Star, as soon as i rode that other horse i rang and said i wanted Star! he ticked all my boxes and made me smile just handling him in the stable(i didnt ride him before i bought him).
 
Sorry I don't have much constructive to say other than...

May I just say how stunning Star is :-0

and it sounds like the lady was quite keen on you to be honest, try mare again and see what you think? Good luck either way :-)

I'd love an ex-racer myself, love TBs, but in my horse search most of the TBs seem to be too far away to view :-(
 
So glad that you are giving an ex racer a new home.......they are lovely, and despite the fact that I am getting old in the tooth now and hate to fall off - I would not buy anything else!
Like all horses they vary. Race horses are used to routine and they love it - some you can chuck out in the field and they will let themselves down immediately i.e. get fat and switched off - others are the opposite. I have a Pointer who is for sale because he does not stay the distance - he hates having holidays and pefers being stabled, with just a few hours out in the field. We gave him 2 months off after the end of season and are now riding him to prepare to sell - love him, he is in 7th heaven s he thinks he is in training again!
You will find that if you have a youngster - 4-5 years, that has been in training since it has been a yearling, that when you turn it out and let it down it will grow, and grow! I had a 4 year old that every season until it was 8 years I am sure it grew a hand each time!
Good luck and well done for taking a punt on these lovely animals.
 
i think they are the most trainable of all breeds! they all get tarred with the same brush being loonatic tb's but half of the time they are all laid back with just abit of sparkle! iv had mine 4 years now and he can do absolutly anything, he is the perfect allrounder, he is even going to try some polocrosse when hes sound! i would trust him with my life, hes been the best horse iv ever owned, even now hes lame behind and has been for 8 weeks he hasnt once been naughty which you would expect with a tb out of work and hes been having a bandage on the other hind leg for the last 2 weeks as hes burst old scar tissue open and he just stands there with no head collar on( not advisable, but hes a superstar!) he is getting abit bored with the bandage change now but he knows he gets a sweetie if he stands still. if the nerve blocks shows up something bad i will never sell him on as his company alone is enough, hes the most affectionate horse iv had!
 
Well the horse sounds lovely. I tried one ex-racer out before getting this one, and he was nice to ride - he had only been out for a few months and tbh I felt that he may go, go, go if I ever lost my nerve. What made my mind up was that he would not ever stand still (something to be expected), so he was not suitable for the roads where we live, as I have to wait at busy junctions to cross over. Thankfully he found a home soon after, so that was okay. I then went and looked at another TB, although at this point I did not know he had raced, but he has been out for about 1.5 years now and is great, although I am struggling with getting him to bend on one rein (a common problem I have heard, one rein better than the other) and he still has his head stuck in the air, all to be expected as he has not really been schooled before I got him and I've had him just over a month. He has a lovely personality and is really safe hacking out, even in open spaces, no racing instinct in him, although he does like to lead and has an occasional spook at things, nothing major. He is not great at standing still at the mounting block though, although he is getting better, which overall is not half bad for the bargain price he was :D.
 
My ex-racehorse has a Jekyll and Hyde character. (He last raced in July 2008) At home he is as quiet and well bahaved as a lamb. He will now work in a nice outline and jump at home. He is bomproof to hack alone round the streets. Hacking with another horse he is OK, but gets excited and may put in a little buck. He's better to hack alone. He is excellent to travel, and is good to take to training sessions, but only if I have hired their arena for a private lesson.

Here is the problem, and it's a major one..... He is an insane, dangerous idiot if we go out to any event where there are more than 2 or 3 horses. I have tried for 18 months to desensitise him, and I have several instructers. I can not even take him out to a low key flatwork clinic, without him taking off bronking whenever another horse starts to trot, and if a horse comes near him, he rears bolt upright. After 18 months my instructors have told me to get rid of him now, but I can't as no one would buy him because he's useless with this problem, and I would worry about his welfare. He would be too dangerous for hunting. Taking off and bucking is one thing...a good rider can sit to that and control him, but he's 17.2hh and bolt upright rearing is too frightening and I don't like that at all.

I am at a loss really. I can hack him alone round the streets for the rest of my days, but that's it. I can't see how I'll ever be able to compete at anything. All I want to do is local riding club events, dressage, clinics but it looks like he'll kill me before that happens. Very depressed :(
 
I'll pm you, where I am.

He'll buck in trot and canter through excitement.
He'll rear in walk or halt, and I believe it's because he's frustrated I'm not letting him cavort around at his desired pace.

There's no problem with back,saddle, teeth, tack, etc as I'm regularly double checking these aren't the problem, and he works well on his own, when there are no distractions.
 
We had a similar decision to make nearly 8 months ago. We are now the proud loaners of a 17.2hh ex-racer, who'd had moderate success point to pointing and hurdling, and came off the circuit when he was 8 and spent 18 months on a field chilling. He's now 10.

He was very unmuscled and crooked when we first got him, and he is pretty settled. He's a lovely boy, with a very generous personality but does get a bit stressed about being stabled a lot- he loves his field. Travelling has been tricky- he found it very exciting as he'd only gone in the lorry to race or hunt (he was a bit mental hunting, and just did the required amount!). At first whenever he came off the lorry he would be everywhere and A would just have to sit tight and let him canter off his excitement, but now he sweats less and is pretty chilled. The other day they went to Ely Eventing Centre and he arrived calmly, got off the lorry and wasn't even close to being over-excited. Big achievement!

Its been hard work, and he can be a pr!ck but he's worth every second. We've had constant support onhand from more experienced riders- he had done nothing before and A wanted him to have correct basics. If you like her then go back and see her, and try to get her taken somewhere new so you can see how she travels/ reacts to new places...
 
I have decided to go and have another look at the mare on tuesday to ride her again and spend some time with her so I can really really get to know her the best I can etc as im still umming and urming haha.

So shall see how it goes!
 
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