Ex-racers

chelsearoper91

chelsearoper91

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Within the next couple of months I'm hoping to buy a new horse. I have a very limited budget and I want sometime young that needs bringing on that I could in the future potentially event.
My first thought was to get and ex-racer, as I have a friend who has many over the years and they have made brillant riding horses. She generally gets them for a couple hundred pounds or often free.

Just wondering what the best way of sourcing a cheap/freebie one was?
Blood stock sales maybe? I don't know how they work though
And if anyone has any people I could contact?

Also thought about horse sales.
Where/how is the best way of picking up a bargain?
I know I'm not likely to find anything amazing under £500 but I just want sometime to work on and bring it's potential out.
 
try rehoming centres near where you are based look on the RoR website i have had 2 and they are the most perfect horses i could have asked for although bothe were just over 1000 they did come with all their stuff... good luck and hope this helps! :)
 
My friend wrote to the trainers in Newmarket, giving a brief CV of her horsey experience and what she wanted the horse for etc. Provided you are not too fussy then you should be able to find something for £1000 or less. These horses are often free or cheap because they no longer have a future in racing, so perhapes have an injury that prevents them from galloping everyday but not light/medium work, not suitable for breeding (gelded!), come to the end of their career, owned by a syndicate who want to enjoy watching a horse race but are not horsey people as such (don't ride, breed etc). Provided you are ok with those things, as in can cope with a horse with perhapes suspensory strain for example or a little quirky etc then go for it.
Go direct to the trainers, they are in the yellow pages or on the trainers website, just write a letter because they are busy and a phone call is easily forgotten. My friend was known to the trainers so referances were easy for them to get. They do care and have no interest in timewasters. My only beef with the retraining charities is that you never own the horse, they are always the property of the charity. Another friend has wasted thousands on unsuitable horses (she showjumps) and whilst you can send them back if they don't suit, she has only ever been offered exchanges. The advantages is you will get a full run down on the horse and it should have had some work since finishing racing, you won't have to do the de-oating, chill out stage yourself. Don't know about the getting everything with it, as my friend only received a bottle of calmer for one of her geldings!
I have a mare who was too slow for racing but still very keen. She is a very willing, happy to work person and I have converted from jumping to dressage fairly easily but she is quirky and takes over if you are not confident.
Good luck, I hope you find a horse.
www.thoroughbredhorse.co.uk
 
chelsearoper91 said:
I know I'm not likely to find anything amazing under £500 but I just want sometime to work on and bring it's potential out.
Click to expand...

Don't think £500 won't get you a bargain because two winners at Royal Ascot this week were both bought for that amount. I know they're racing and you're looking for riding - but there are some amazing freebies on offer at every trainers yard. Your bet time to approach them is after the sales when they may have bought them back and the owners don't want them. The general rule of thumb now though is that they aren't free - you have to pay £1.
 
When I was looking for a new one I emailed trainers asking if they had anything suitable for showing that was leaving racing. I had 4 people email back saying they had nothing at the moment but would let me know of any in the future, one who had nothing himself but gave my email adress to another trainer who he knew was kicking some out. And then I had 14 horses offered to me. 1 was for stupid money - £4.5k straight off the track - it wasn't even worth that as a racing race horse so who would pay that for it out of training?!?! 1 of them had never raced as he was too slow and that particular trainer pays the transport (if a transporter is needed) to the horses new home so they get the best start in life, 11 of them were free if I went and fetched them and the last one, which is the one I now have, was technically free but for a £100 donation to the ROR.

So defo go to the trainers, they won't hide anything and are usually keen to get their stables back for another horse to come into. You can find some real gems if you ask. The worst that can happen is that they say no, they have nothing at the moment.
 
Thank you all so much for your help, definitely will get hold of a few trainers when I have the cash together hopefully come September time. I have all all the tack and equipment from my old horse so that's not a problem. Great to know that there are the horse's out there, when I'm ready to take another one on.

Exciting stuff! :D
 
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