For people with ExRacehorses ..

tonitot

tonitot

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Just a ponder ...
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How much do you feed them? What do you feed them? Do they keep weight well through summer and winter? How heavily do you rug them?

Just wondered about peoples experiences with them as I work with racehorses and found out my favourite filly is owned by the trainer and regarding she isnt sold at sales in the future and he decides to give her away I'd love to take her on .. but thought I'd find out some more about owning ex racers before I decided I'd definatly take her on
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tt x
 
my friend has one (17hh) who is fed 1.5 stubbs scoops of alfa-a oil, 2scoops conditioning cubes & 1scoop sugarbeet per day. which is reduced in the summer. he is on good grazing in summer & adlib high quality hay in winter.

he is currently wearing 550g of rugs but is fully clipped.

she does worry about his weight a lot as he can drop it suddenly, but is doing well on this at the moment!
 
It really does depend on the horse. My ex-grand national horse eats like a pig, and has hardly put an ounce on since I got him five years ago! He's a proper racing snake. My other ex-racer only has to look at a blade of grass and he needs to get to weight watchers!!

Its the same with rugging, the ex-grand national horse needs rugging to the eyeballs and he'll feel the cold at the drop of a hat, whereas the other one has been out in all this snow with only a mediumweight with no neck and he's been like toast underneath!!

The only thing they have in common is that they're both sane, sensible, you can do anything with them and I would quite happily stick my gran on either one!!

You'll only be able to judge this filly on her own merits really, no two ex-racers are the same! But seeing as you have a lot of contact with her already you'll be able to make a good judgement when the time comes.
 
My ex racer loves life outdoors - a total earthworm.
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he wears a heavy weight rug with a neck and a hood to try and keep him clean. He over heats if his rug is any more than 400g even in teh coldest weather. I have no problem whatsoever keeping weight on and he lives out 24/7 from May till November. He is actually a good doer and thrives on loads of haylage and Simple Systems. He has no additional suppliments and is totally calm and sane. although has a fantastic sense of humour and will open gates and stable doors when he feels like it. easy to do in all respects a very polite horse as I have been told be several dressage judges. Now he looks like a little warmblood - short backed 16hh and muscled like a sports horse. I love him to bits despite his filthyness
 
I don't own but do look after one - he does need more food to keep his weight on over the winter than others on the yard but not excessively more. He wont actually eat more than 4 sections of hay a night anyway so I do feed him oily fattening feeds which to be honest does keep his weight on well. He also does have an extensive wardrobe as he is quite wimpy.

On the whole though he is a lovely horse and is worth his weight in gold - the big problem we have had with him so far is keeping him in work as he has old injuries from many years racing - so has to have things like more regular back checks and things like that. However if you are buying one young you shouldnt have too many problems to inherit.

Good luck anyway - he is definatley worth every penny spent on him.
 
I have an ex-p2p horse, and although he was underweight when I got him, now he keeps on weight really well
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When in work he is given a scoop of Showshine chaff, a scoop of Staypower Cubes and half a scoop of sugar beet twice a day, together with ad-lib hay if he is stabled
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He is the first horse I have ever had who shivers when he is cold, so he is rugged up a lot more than previous horses I have owned - tonight it is due to be -2 so he is wearing a heavy weight stable rug with neck cover, and an underrug also with neck cover

He is only 15.2hh and about 500kg mind you
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well i dont see that an exracehorse is any different to feed to any thoroughbred. thoroughbreds are harder to keep weight on than a native type, but it does depend on the individual as there are good doer thoroughbreds too.

If the racehorse looks quite highly strung and stressy i.e. it box walks or has another vice, i would say its more likely to be a bad doer and will be harder to keep weight on.

It all depends on how your going to keep the horse as well, like if it will stay in or out and other factors!
 
mine eats 2 1/2 scoops of winergy equilibrium, 2 large mugs of micronised linseed, 2 mugs of bruised oats and 3/4 scoop (dry weight)speedibeet, split in to two feeds a day.
he also has a joint supp, a vit E supp and an immune system supp (as he is prone to cellulitis).

he isnt a poor doer at all, but isnt a fatty either. he looks very wellon what he's getting and imagine if i really went for it he would get fat, even in winter.

he does have ad lib haylage but doesnt eat a vast amount-3 small bale slices a day.he's not like my ISH who will trough and trough until every last stalk is gone, the TB picks at it a bit more, chews slowly, has a think, has another pick etc etc.
 
mine gets endurance mix,barley and alfa a with as much haylege as Ican stuff down him. Quantities vary through out the year but at the mo he is on 1 scoop mix,1 scoop barley and 2 scoops of alfa a for dinner and then 1/2 that in the morning .
 
My ex racer is fed on top spec cool condition cubes, top spec balancer, speedi beet, twice a day but only once in the summer. She is fine'ish and have always managed to keep the weight on her reasonably well. In the summer when she was really fit, she looked lean, that is jsut the way she is. She was bred to be an athelete and doesn't have a lot of body fat.
I don't think that she has had any more injuries than any other horse on the yard. She is sharper to react to situations than the others on the yard and more sensitive. Very intelligent. She is brilliant to hack out and pretty much bomb proof. great brakes, pretty sensible really.
At the moment, she is wearing a premier equine 450g rug with full neck as she doesn't 'do' cold. When it was -16 she had a medium , weight stable rug underneath. She has an extensive rug collection.
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In the summer, i have to watch the weather forecast and if it is to rain she needs a rainsheet. She doesn't 'do' wet. She becomes really miserable if she is wet, even her teeth chatter. In that way she is more high maintenance than others. she is the only tb on the yard and people think i have made her soft and i am ott, but that is the way she is. Not all are like that obviously but i can only comment on mine.
 
Thanks guys
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She seems to keep weight on quite well .. shes currently on box rest with what I'd call a medium weight rug being fed 2 scoops of Saracen Recoup split into lunch and dinner (would be 3 scoops as she'd have a breakfast too but horses aren't being ridden at the moment due to weather) and I wouldn't say shes underweight or overweight. Looks about right for a TB to me although I know this could all change once shes back in work.
 
Mine is a good doer - he gets haylage because he is allergic to hay and with not riding every day because of the weather he is getting even fatter.

He gets 2 feeds a day with 1/2 scoop of top chop alfa and 1/2 scoop herbal chaff to carry his supplements.

He wears a heavyweight turnout and stable rug just since we've had this cold snap, before he was in a medium weight. He goes out all day every day whatever the weather.

Picture of the poor pony forced to dig for grass under the snow

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My ex racer is fed 1 scoop (like this http://www.pandtpoultry.co.uk/index.php/fuseaction/shop.image/type/product/imageid/196) of horse and pony nuts with a mug (dry weight) speedibeet. That feed is only during winter and he is as fat as anything. Currently wearing a mediumweight with neck but when it was very cold he wore a mediumweight with neck and medium stable rug underneath. I have found the more you put on him though he seems to get colder. I have to do a few rug changes during the day/night to make him comfortable.

The summer he has no feed and no rugs on, when it rains he has steam coming off him. He really is a hot bod.

Oh and he is out 24/7/365
 
Loving the picture
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Now that is what a true outdoor horse should look like. Even better with it being an ex racer too.
It's nice to see owners allowing horses to be just that and roll and play and do whatever they want to do in the fields. As I feel so sorry for a lot of horses that are trussed up like chickens or professional ones in which the majority of the exercise they get is mind numbing schooling to the point whereby if it were human it would have put a gun to its head ages ago.
Sorry rant over.... but you get my drift.
I like to see horses in a natural state as you can get them really in the confines of being kept in fields, or stabled overnight etc
To OP my TB ex racer who is 17 this year is fed once daily at the moment during winter with 1 to 1 and a half scoops of Rowan Barbary fibre mash (just switched from the ready mash as it was making her a bit fizzy at times), carrots, codlivine ( or similar), alfa A oil ( or Alfa original), an occasional gloop of veg oil or similar and/or a gloop of molasses, and ad lib haylage. She is not doing that much work at the moment though and seems to be holding her weight ok. When she starts doing more work though and as we get into Spring I will re-assess her feeds and what I give her when the time comes.
 
Agree that each horse is different. My 15.2HH ex-racer is out all year round, 24 hours a day. Prior to this cold snap, he was in a medium weight rug with a half neck. He is in the same style of rug now, but a heavyweight. No under rug. He is fully clipped except for half head, legs, and saddle patch. He has a scoop of dodson & horrel just grass & a scoop of fibre cubes twice a day, plus ad-lib hay. He is always the perfect weight. Prefers hay & grass to hard feed. If I feed more hard feed, he will not eat it all. He has a dodgy thermostat and over-heats very easily. My Mum's 16.2HH ex-racer however is not clipped, wears a full neck heavy weight, and is fed conditioning mix with dengie hi-fi as he loses condition. He is also more prone to get cold with all his winter coat than my horse does clipped! They are exactly the same age. Shows how different they can be!
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I have 3 - it gets slightly addictive...
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My 3 are all on Simple Sytems, mostly because one has ulcers and one used to windsuck which could be due to gastric issues so I have them on a high fibre, no sugar type diet. They only get about 2/3 the recommended amount though as they all put so much weight on! I've never had problems keeping weight on, however this year it has been especially easy on SS.

2 of mine live out, one is in at night in winter. In this horrible weather they all have 2 rugs on, both 250g med weights, but normally they wear a full neck medium weight witha 100g liner underneath at the very most. All 3 are blanket clipped and ridden as much as we can in winter months, twice a week minimum.

I feed as much hay as I can possibly get them to eat though.

I have one who used to be a bit of a wuss, I threw him out the first winter I got him and stuck to my guns to make him rough it. He did drop a bit of weight but he was 4 at the time so some of that was him growing - he gained 3 inches - and since then he has been fine and now hates coming in, even in the snow!
 
Mine gets 3 scoops of Baileys endurance mix a day... brilliant stuff, love it as she does not heat up on it and she had put on weight after half a bag.Now she is on her 3rd bag and she looks like a different horse. It is high oil -8% as opposed to 5% which is what usual conditioning mixes are. Had had no success with Baileys No.4 (which she blew up on)or Calm and condition ( she lost weight on this and looked just so awful!!)
My old one had adlib haylage and 1/2 scoop of nuts per day and he looked amazing on that.He had to be rugged to the nines tho.
 
When I said all day - I meant daytime he does come in at night in winter not that I wouldn't consider 24/7 if I could. YM said he didn't want to becaught the other day but the yard isn't set up for it.

If he doesn't go out every day I would get serious sulking, he loves his field time and makes sure everyone suffers if he doesn't get it.
 
mine gets a scoop of Dengie Hi Fi Lite , Scoop of Baileys high fibre mix, scoop of baileys nuts and a scoop of Allen & Page Calm & Condition ( Which is soaked in as much water so goes a bit sloppy) + ad lib hay . Lives out 24/7 apart from when the weather is horerendus, he wears a 300g rug when the temp goes into minus figures otherwise in a 200g with no hood ! anything heavier makes him sweat up and if he is in more than a few nights in a row he gets V. grumpy and a pain in the backside.

I am lucky he loves his grub so will eat pretty much anything I put in fromt of him and my friend keeps her ex racer & DWB with mine and they all pretty much have the same and are doing really well on it so far.

I would say it is definitly dependant on the indvidual horse as I used to have a 16.3 ID and she had to come every night and practically have an electric blanket on to keep her warm as well as 3 feeds a day !!
 
Mine gets a scoop of Hifi, 1/2 scoop Baileys endurance mix, 1/2 scoop economy mix and 1/2 scoop sugarbeet. She is currently sporting about 400gms of winter rugs due to the cold snap and adlib haylage and is holding it all pretty well.
 
I have a 16.2hh ex racer. He is a poor doer and is 15 years old, I have had him for 8 years.
He is currently out of work due to injury- hopefully he'll be coming back into work in the middle of next month.
He is currently out from 7.30ish-4ish (on reasonable grazing, when it's not covered with snow!!) in a 500g rug- I don't change into stable rugs so he has this on overnight. When it was really cold he was wearing an underrug under that.
When he comes in he has ad-lib haylage. His feed consists of 4 heaped Stubbs scoops Alfa A Lite, 2 soaked scoops of Calm & Condition and 1 scoop Baileys No1, split into 2 feeds.
He is currently on various supplements- Echinacea, EnerG, Mud Guard, Pink Powder and Devils Relief. This is because his immune system is extremely poor and we are 'boosting' him up. When he is well he just has the Mud Guard and Pink Powder.
 
My Ex-racer is a bit of a wimp
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At the moment he get ad-lib hay and is fed twice a day. He struggles to hold weight over winter so is fed build up cubes and molli chaff calmer. He gets through approximately one bag of cubes a week, the chaff lasts 2-3 weeks.

Summer he holds his weight well providing he has good grazing and is lightly rugged during heavy rain/wind.

At the moment he is hunter clipped and is wearing 3 rugs as he is really feeling the cold at the moment.

(He's 14 BTW)
 
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