race horsey people!

[cobface]

Okay so the horse is bred for racing - gets sent away to be broken etc but doesn't make the grade.........what i want to know is what kind of training do they do with the horses (how do they break them etc) and what makes them not make the grade?? (commonly) do they just send them back to the breeder then the breeder sells them on???
Thanks

 

[toomanyhorses26]

Mine didn't make the grade as he simply didn't have any competitive instinct at all. He has the breeding,the speed but when the chips are down he is far too polite and wouldn't 'battle ' the last few furlongs. Mine was quite lucky in that he was owned and trained in a private yard so they weren't in a massive hurry to sell so when the opportunity arose he came to me

 

[ladyt25]

Do you know I am no help as I don't know but I have a friend who used to break in the 2 yos at the race yard she worked at and it seemed to be pretty much the same as usual breaking - well as far as the basics are concerned. She did a lot of lungeing with them and then I assume they just chucked a rider on!

I imagine the 'not making the grade' is that the horse is just not fast enough or just not showing willing. Sadly many of these end up getting shot. The lucky ones get taken on by stable staff to bring on and sell or, if they have decent owners they will sell them on as riding horses.

Sadly my friend has said of the amount that do end up being PTS which is just awful I think - they are only 2 yo a lot of them.

 

[Mavis Cluttergusset]

I can only comment on my own experience. I worked in a yearling prep yard which occasionally took on horses to break and recuperating racehorses. The youngsters were broken the same as a riding horse - walked out in hand, lunged etc then slowly backed and ridden out.

I have bought two horses 'off the track' but they were ones who had previously raced rather than never made the grade - one was crap and was owned by a syndicate who asked the trainer to sell him on, and the other was very successful but his owner decided to give up racing as one of her horses broke a leg, and she too asked the trainer to rehome.

A friend owns loads of racehorses and because she is 'horsey' she sorts the selling/rehoming out herself but leaves them at the trainers yard whilst she does it. All hers race a few times first before she decides whether to keep them in training or not.

 

[hadfos]

Means they cant run fast enough

And no they get put through the sales ring,knackerman etc etc i believe,depending on breeding!

 

[Enfys]

Hi,

When I was at a breaking yard we backed the yearlings (for the flat) exactly the same way anyone else does. They were lunged, longreined, backed, w/t/c in the arena and then hacking on the roads with older horses, then onto the gallops with older horses. It was done a bit faster than much starting in the UK is done, within 30-60 days they would be on the gallops doing canterwork. After that they went on to the Trainers yard.

Not making the grade? It isn't purely a question of breeding, mentality has a huge amount to do with it as well. Plenty of failed racehorses are very good at other things.

Some horses are simply not fast enough end of.

Others don't want to race and won't try, or frequently, won't start at all, never tell me you can make a horse race if it really doesn't want to!

Then some others have the speed, but they haven't got the guts, when push come to shove and that extra effort begins to hurt they give up.

 

[irishdraught]

My sister has a pre training business and has worked within the racing industry all her working life. She backs/starts the horses the same as any riding horse. No particular time scale as she goes as quickly or as slowly as required.
They are turned out regularly with company and spend life as a regular horse.

Those that don't make the grade are generally the slower ones or those that simply don't try, mainly because they don't enjoy it for one reason or another and of course the ones that pick up injuries (of which there are many).

Some are sold by word of mouth via the owner or others via the trainer. Some are also sold through the sales. I have not known one to be sent back to the breeder to sell unless of course the breeder is also the owner/trainer.