Racehorse rehoming centres

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mtj

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I'm guessing their time is very precious, so I was hoping one of you guys would be able to give me the low down on what they are looking for in a "ridden" home.

I consider myself competent (ridden arabs, off track racehorses, assorted warmbloods plus natives) but not the bravest. Don't do rearers and don't enjoy horses that get strong or take off. Also need to be able to hack out alone along bridleways which are turf strips -3/4m wide -adjacent to open fields.

I noticed Moorcroft are advertising in H+H for homes. Would I be wasting their time?

I do realise they will probably be taller than my wanted "spec".
 
It is never a waste of time to talk to them. You would be surprised how small some ex racers are.
 
I called Mary at Morecroft last year befor I actually ended up buying my own ex racer! They are over near Horsham. SHe will ask you what you are looking for and what sort of home you can offer etc. I will just say that it put me off that the horse will never actually be yours but you still have a pay a substantial amount of money for them. I know its a charity and how expensive horses are to keep but I was quoted min £1000. I actually bought my lad for £1000 a year ago and he is all mine and always will be.
 
JustaFlash said:
I called Mary at Morecroft last year befor I actually ended up buying my own ex racer! They are over near Horsham. SHe will ask you what you are looking for and what sort of home you can offer etc. I will just say that it put me off that the horse will never actually be yours but you still have a pay a substantial amount of money for them. I know its a charity and how expensive horses are to keep but I was quoted min £1000. I actually bought my lad for £1000 a year ago and he is all mine and always will be.
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I looked into rehoming one from a racehorse rehoming charity and found the same thing.

For where i was looking
I had to pay the transport fee there and back. (You were not allowed to pick the horse up as they wanted to do the home visit at the same)
You were expected to give some money everytime you visited the horse to try it out, vet it etc
You had to pay a set amount for the horse
And you were expected to set up a lifetime donation to the centre each month at a recommended amount of at least £20 a month

I went out and bought mine own too... for a lot less than it would have been to loan one.
 
And meant to say not all ex racers are loony. You'd be surprised how many calmly hack out.. open fields don't bother my guy. I'm sure you could find an ex racer to suit.
 
try applying to darleys, you have a initial loan period of 3 months then you get to purchase the horse. (its a very very small amount you pay) google darleys rehoming and check out the website, apply online, and be honest in what your looking for,some of the horses for re-homing are on the website but not all of them and when they have one that is suitable they will call you to go and try the horse out. really nice people who do a excellent job in re-training the horse before it leaves.
well worth a look if you want a ex racer, i got my boy from there, and he is a absolute star (and a complete bargain in my eyes!) good luck.
 
I would advise Darley they have very well bred horses too. I just looked what they have and i noticed that BOB is on there. I worked in Newmarket when BOB first arrived he was the hack for Godolphin then went to the pre training yard as the hack. He used to be quite a speedy boy!!

http://www.darleyrehoming.co.uk/
 
I went to one last year and was too surprised at the costs involved especially as -without sounding awful - some of the horses were obviously not quite 'right' with old injuries etc. There was a lovely little 3 year old who'd proved too slow but they wanted £3K for him! Now whilst I love the idea and ethos of racehorse rehoming through one ofthe centres and appreciate the costs involved in reschooling and keeping them, the costs were the thing that put me off when I knew I could get the equivalent for a fraction of the price through the private market. Especially as this time last year ex-racers were going for a complete song.

As it turned out in the end I spent much more than £3k on my horse, and didn't get an ex-racehorse, but that's just the way it goes some times.
 
I understand about the price, I would definately want one cheaper too but saying that, you are paying for a "retrained" one- with presumably a lot of back up help if you need it and you can be sure that you are getting what you pay for. If you bought a £1000 one from the sales you may have a mental case, underlying medical issues and def no retraining so really it is quite a bargain.

Also, you can get a lot of flat horses that are around the 14.2-15 hand mark so don't panic, you might just wait a little while longer.
 
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