How are racehorses trained?

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newhorse

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I have an ex racehorse and am interested to know firstly, how he would have been trained eg: methods and secondly, you hear some people say that the training is brutal and cruel and others who disagree. I am sure it depends on the trainer but am interested to know what my boy has or hasnt been through.

Thanks
 
they get broken in at an early age and are trained on the gallops for a long time so the trainers know wether they are good enough to race. they are then raced, if they are good they keep going, if they are not good they will be sold.
my ex racer raced once and came 10th out of 11 and he didnt raced again. my theory is he wasnt nasty enough! sound stupid but they all go past eachother with ears back etc. but he is a big whimp. do you know your horses race records. but mine is petrified (sp?) of whips, i can carry one but i only need to tickle him with it and you would think i am beating him lol.
 
I did look back as he is on the Racing Post website and he raced 2 races (thankfully not many!) He also didnt do too well and came last out of 9 and the first race was 9 out of 13. He hasnt raced for 3 years but like yours, still doesnt like the whip and has a lot of marks on his rear to show why! Poor Lad!
 
i have owned mine 2 years after loaning him for a year and i took him up on a hill called the common in cheltnam and let him go! and OH MY GOD! my eyes were streaming, my cheeks wind burned! I hate to think how fast race horses are if he didnt make it as he went like S**T off a shovel!
 
Ha ha ha ha ha oh god, I would have been off!!! I was slightly 'tricked' when I bought mine. He is my first horse and the lady told me he had never raced, was very quiet, only hacked out and usually with an 8 year old girl so I thought great! 3 weeks later he is bolting down the lane banging into another horse and refusing to stop! Gave me a bit of a shock since I hadnt been riding for about 10 years lol. So I have now stopped riding him for the time being and he has gone into schooling and we are literally starting from day 1. He has a bit of an attitude and if he wants to go, he will go. Not ideal but I shouldnt have been so naive lol.
 
its unfortunate how some sellers feel the need to lie! i was lucky that he was a friends horse where i liveryed and i did them a favour by exercising him for them for over a year. and fell in love. starting from scratch is the best thing you can do. youl be surprised how trainable they are. But il tell you one thing. ex racers are cross country machines!! we got penaltys for going to fast :O
 
ha ha ha ha I will have to go down that route then I think and plenty of more lessons in the mean time I think! My balance is pathetic - I would be off in a matter of seconds lol.
 
What you have to remember is that ex-racehorses will be most used to a large yard and a very strict and structured routine. They thrive on this and can get a bit 'lost' when they move to your average DIY/livery yard whereby routines vary and other horses are doing very different things. It's therefore best to keep as much structure as possible and be mindful at times of stress.
Generally they'll come out of racing with not much mouth so not a lot of steering, no concept of softening to the bit and sometimes not much concept of pull means stop! You have to teach these basics first and foremost and then this gives the horse some security in its ridden work. Once this is established you can ride them like any other horse- I've never had an ex-racer that was strong to gallop, that was tricky in company or that was an overly sharp ride.
 
Ditto very much that they will be used to routine and generally like a routine. Tend to find that they know a lot about life which is really useful. Mine loads and travels brilliantly, settles into overnight stabling no problem (they don't generally stay overnight racing but are stabled at the racecourse on raceday), used to different people doing them etc. Hopefully with more and more competitions and special prizes for ex racehorses, the fact that they have raced is a bonus rather than a fact to be hidden at sale.
 
Ditto bossanova.
Mine came to me three weeks after his last race as a hurdler. He came from a big yard onto our very small laid back farm yard!! He was given 6 weeks to come down & chill out before he was started again really.
One thing I always notice about the ex racers I have known is their impeccable ground manners. Mine is the easiest to handle!

The only difference with mine when ridden from other horses is when doing fast work or half seat work in order to slow or stop I just need to drop the contact & say 'woah' & we stop! Easy peasy! He finds galloping boring & not in the least excitng as that was his job!
 
I used to work reschooling ex racehorses so feel free to pop me a PM if you want with any specific questions.

My lad was just far too laid back to race....I could just imagine him coming out of the starting gates saying to the other horses
"Now everyone just calm down, we're all going to get to the end so lets just take our time"
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If you can iron out your problems you will end up with an althetic, intelligent horse. My boy came from a big yard, he was unraced and sent for meat as he was too slow on the gallops.
He settled well into my 'laid back' way off life and after the initial teething problems he has proven to be a horse of a lifetime! He has thrived in a one to one relationship and is fiercely loyal. Despite the fact he dumps anyone else that rides him I'm still jumping and hacking him at 4.5 months pregnant
smile.gif

The big thing to remember is when they hack out it is usually in a string and the jockeys ride with very loose reins. I think that is what freaks a lot of ex-racers in a riding horse situation out, they are suddenly asked to go out alone and with the sort of contact they had on the gallops
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I love ex-racers!!
 
[ QUOTE ]


My lad was just far too laid back to race....I could just imagine him coming out of the starting gates saying to the other horses
"Now everyone just calm down, we're all going to get to the end so lets just take our time"
smile.gif



[/ QUOTE ]

Sounds like mine - they didn't even bother to enter him for a race though he was in training till 4 1/2 as his bloodlines were over jumps so I think they hoped he might make a chaser.
He would love walking round the parade ring as he loves attention but would prefer to eat the course than run on it.

He is very bright and I have to keep one step ahead of him at all times and is another one person horse.
When I first got him, he was quite insecure hacking alone so we had to build that up slowly.
We've had some feet issues (another tb cliche) but hopefully he is now on the mend and considering I am doing gentle walking with a 6 yo tb after 6 months of box rest he behaving pretty well.
Wouldn't have anything else now
laugh.gif
 
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