Supertrooper
Well-Known Member
How this can be seen as acceptable I don’t know ?
Poor horse
- Thread starter Supertrooper
- Start date
Nari
Well-Known Member
Something is very wrong there.
TheOldTrout
Completely Unknown Member
Sheesh, poor horse.
splashgirl45
Lurcher lover
that would scream pain to me
fetlock
Well-Known Member
Just a 2 year old, and he's already ran 5 times this year, from April to June.
https://www.racingpost.com/profile/horse/4241641/blackbeard/form
https://www.racingpost.com/profile/horse/4241641/blackbeard/form
Pearlsacarolsinger
Up in the clouds
It just looks to me as if he doesn't want to go into the stalls. It would certainly pay to spend more time training him to go in without a fuss.
Cortez
Tough but Fair
Just a highly, highly overexcited young TB. I had a horse that would do this in his early competition career (not a TB, but a very weird, highly strung PRE). He grew out of it and settled down, no pain causing it, just nerves and not knowing what to do with himself. He once dug himself a 3 ft hole and laid down (with me on) before entering the arena at a dressage competition.
Elf On A Shelf
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He is a 2yo colt playing silly beggars as all little twats do from time to time. He's fully fit and ready to run which makes them worse.
He comes from the biggest training empire in Ireland - Ballydoyle and Coolmore. He will have had plenty of stalls practice, he will have every kind of treatment you can ask for - veterinary, muscular and physio. I doubt he will have his balls on for much longer if he carries this malarkey on though as he isn't top class so will probably be gelded and sold my next spring.
He comes from the biggest training empire in Ireland - Ballydoyle and Coolmore. He will have had plenty of stalls practice, he will have every kind of treatment you can ask for - veterinary, muscular and physio. I doubt he will have his balls on for much longer if he carries this malarkey on though as he isn't top class so will probably be gelded and sold my next spring.
SusieT
Well-Known Member
That's a highly stressed animal. The training team need to review how they build his confidence . Being part of a big enterprise means nothing in terms of individual care or attention to detail. That horse is not coping .
ester
Not slacking multitasking
I saw it a while back and was curious over the 'its usually fillies' comment and wondered why it was usually fillies.
bonny
Well-Known Member
His record says otherwise.....racing is stressful for all horses, especially two year olds and I seriously doubt anyone on here knows more about training horses than Coolmore.
shortstuff99
Well-Known Member
One of mine when she was unsure of something would do the full downward dog, bow pose. Ridden and in-hand. She was never pushed, backed at 4.5, just a weird habit she had. Prefer that to bucking etc.
Elf On A Shelf
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Young fillies in season usually make it well known either by broncing on the way to the start or bunny hopping if they put the rope behind them to load them, they are also less inclined to moveand refuse to load which you fully appreciate and understand!. Colts tend to either act the goat or nip when they are buzzed up at the races. I wouldn't say one gender is worse than the other they just do things differently.
stangs
Well-Known Member
“Bit of a playful horse” 
ycbm
Einstein would be proud of my Insanity...
It's a sad video of a stressed and very young horse who should be being removed from the environment he's finding so stressful. It's even sadder that so many people are so immersed in how horse sport has always been that they can't see how sad it is.
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Cortez
Tough but Fair
And yet the horse I had who acted pretty much exactly like this (bar the biting), went on to perform very well immediately afterwards, and subsequently learned to cope with his excitement. If I had removed him he would not have progressed.
ycbm
Einstein would be proud of my Insanity...
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And if he was 2 he might just have needed to be allowed to be a baby. Maybe you were lucky, maybe your horse would have progressed slower but more happily, I don't know, but I don't believe the right way to get them to learn to cope with their anxiety is to flood them like that.
I owned a 3 year year old ex racing filly who was thrown out of racing and then refused insurance applied for by me as a leisure horse because of her behaviour on the racecourse. She didn't learn from being pushed through it, it nearly ruined her.
I have to have a wry smile at you describing the behaviour you pushed on through as "excitement" Cortez. I'd accept revved up, anxious, overwrought but really, what horse ever got excited, in the "looking forward to doing something" sense that's usually meant by it, by being about to go into a ring and do a dressage test?
We've done stuff like this for so long that those who've been immersed in it can't see how wrong it is. Instead of trying to understand the horse he's called offensive names. If racing doesn't wake up to the fact that this is a bad way to treat horses and absolutely terrible PR, it will go down the pan. I understand racecourse attendances are well down this year and that will only continue.
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And if he was 2 he might just have needed to be allowed to be a baby. Maybe you were lucky, maybe your horse would have progressed slower but more happily, I don't know, but I don't believe the right way to get them to learn to cope with their anxiety is to flood them like that.
I owned a 3 year year old ex racing filly who was thrown out of racing and then refused insurance applied for by me as a leisure horse because of her behaviour on the racecourse. She didn't learn from being pushed through it, it nearly ruined her.
I have to have a wry smile at you describing the behaviour you pushed on through as "excitement" Cortez. I'd accept revved up, anxious, overwrought but really, what horse ever got excited, in the "looking forward to doing something" sense that's usually meant by it, by being about to go into a ring and do a dressage test?
We've done stuff like this for so long that those who've been immersed in it can't see how wrong it is. Instead of trying to understand the horse he's called offensive names. If racing doesn't wake up to the fact that this is a bad way to treat horses and absolutely terrible PR, it will go down the pan. I understand racecourse attendances are well down this year and that will only continue.
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bonny
Well-Known Member
All sports are seeing lowered attendances, even Wimbledon had lots of empty seats, It’s post covid time and nothing to do with perceived cruelty.
rabatsa
Confuddled
I had a mare that would do this out hunting when we had to stand around. She would be fine at the meet and the first stop or two then start messing like this colt. She also did it at a trec competiton before heading out onto the course. She only ever behaved this way when there were lots of other horses around her, never when alone.
ycbm
Einstein would be proud of my Insanity...
Well I'd like to see you prove that assertion. We'll see if they recover if racing continues to provide this type of PR.
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palo1
Well-Known Member
Yes I have seen horses do this too and also ponies! The horse in the video, when he is not doing that particular behaviour, looks quite relaxed. Coolmore may or may not have their horse's happiness at the forefront of their operation but they undoubtedly know that a stressed or anxious horse will not perform to the best of it's natural ability and there is no interest for them in compromising horses in training. It's not exactly a desperate tin-pot operation! Animals do all manner of things; not all of which are due to negative interactions with people and the environments we put them in. If this horse were mine I would say he is being very babyish (in that one particular manifestation) but then I wouldn't be working a very young horse. My mare will dig holes when she is being asked to wait for something that she is anticipating; food, being saddled occasionally and at events when she seems to think I ought to get on with things a bit quicker! She doesn't do exactly this but I have seen other horses do the same. I couldn't be certain, without knowing more that this was 'sad' tbh.
TheMule
Well-Known Member
To me, this is a very stressed horse. Mine would tend towards this (nowhere near as extreme) but he paws with a front leg and then will drop his front as if in a stretch when he’s impatient.
palo1
Well-Known Member
Yes I see impatience for sure and also 'nerves/stress' exhibited in biting and rearing which I would assume as a well handled horse at Coolmore, he would know is not mannerly. However, he also walks around quite calmly, ears forward and what I might see as an interested and confident expression (from as much as I can see on the clip). I would think he is experiencing several things including that he doesn't want to do what he is being asked at the same time as being quite engaged with the environment.
xTrooperx
Well-Known Member
I had a tb that did this not long out of racing, out at couple events, basically found it little stressful and did not like to stand about, quickly stopped once settled and learnt that didn’t have to follow others & event did not = racing.
Elf On A Shelf
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Have you seen the prices racecourses are charging to get in!?!?! £20-30 for a bog standard, mid-week meeting with few runners. £5.50+ a pint, £8-9 for fish & chips and you can't even take so much as a bottle of water in with you to make sure you buy everything inside the track! That's what is putting people off of going racing! They simply can't afford it!
sakura
Well-Known Member
That doesn't mean the horse wasn't stressed in the first place. Stress and excitement look incredibly similar in horses and you often get the same result from them - i.e. via whatever means the trainer/rider uses, the horse will adapt and then perform the required behaviour.
I really do question why we're putting horses in these situations more and more these days. Doing something for a long time and getting results does not mean the trainer is in the right.
ycbm
Einstein would be proud of my Insanity...
He doesn't look relaxed to me and the fact he explodes again shows, to me, that he isn't.
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bonny
Well-Known Member
He’s not going to be relaxed waiting to go into the stalls and then run a race.
ycbm
Einstein would be proud of my Insanity...
A horse flooded with adrenaline will run faster over a short distance, its a banned substance if not produced naturally. The only incentive for them to train out this behaviour happening at the track is removing him from the race.
ycbm
Einstein would be proud of my Insanity...
The others aren't all doing it. The behaviour, to me, shows a very unhappy young horse.
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