Racing fit Thoroughbreds before and after pics please?

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welshcobnewbie

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Can you post pics of your racing fit tbs before and after pics?

say if you bought them racing fit how do they look now, and what time between the pics?

My friend insists all ex racing thoroughbreds are skinny nut jobs, so im curious to see how yours have turned out?

What are their temperaments like, are they all really nutters? What height/age are they?.
 
Take a look at the racehorse to riding horse classes, there are some gorgeous ex racers, all in lovely condition. I ride 2 ex racers, one is 7 and has been off the track about 3yrs, he looks like a hunter and tends to be dead from the knees up. The other has only been off track about 6 months, he's still too skinny for my liking, and lacks muscle. He's more excitable than the other but very kind, bit of a worrier though!

The temprement depends on the horse as it usually does, some take a while to change their mind set, but they certainly don't have to stay thin!racehorse to riding horse site gallery

edit to say the quiet one is 15.2hh and the more green one is 16.2hh
 
Sorry don't have any pictures to hand, but will just say this - our P2Pers that are out in the field on holiday look more like show hunters than racehorses!

The variety within the breed is vast, I've ridden all sorts from 15.1hh buzzy mare built like a whippet to 17hh + gelding built like the proverbial brick s**thouse and as polite as they come and everything inbetween. Yes you get sharp ones (and though I've never worked with them other than babies I get the impression that flat horses can be a bit sharper), but some of the nicest, most well mannered horses I've ridden have been race fit TBs. I'd take the right ex-racer in a hearbeat if I had the cash, we've the nicest horse ever standing in who's due to be started as a riding horse and I'd have him tomorrow if my numbers come up!

Have you bought one or are you looking?
 
Go along to the races, and take a camera, fit horses will look good, well muscled and well groomed. Do not put any money on something that is sweating between the legs, or anywhere else.
Flat horses are grouped by age, so two year-olds will be leggy and lighter than three year-olds, you should be able to see a few ribs, but not prominent hip bones, rump should be well muscled. 5 furlong sprinters tend to have a big bum [acceleration and power], and 1 milers look more like your average fit horse.
National hunt horses are older and will be more mature, stronger, fitter, they have to be able to gallop for three miles and still have a bit left to sprint to the finish line.
 
People do sell racehorses racing fit [see selling races] but most are at the end of a [failed to win, again] season, or are sold unfit, after being laid off, cue "slow racehorse syndrome"
At the end of a busy racing season most horses will have lost a bit of condition, there are quiet ones and buzzy ones, but as they have been ridden by professionals and using a different riding technique, many BHS trained people find them a bit of a handful at times.
 
my crazy (i think not!!) ex-racer;

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yeeha.jpg


and a posh (ish) one

poshp.jpg
 
Straight out of racing (last ran 3 weeks before this)
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9 months on
Sammy2.jpg


At the sales, racing fit-
ben1.jpg


A few months on-
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I've had many and the transformation is always very rewarding, I've certainly never had a nutter- theyre generally much more pleasant to work with than a normal youngster!
 
Race fit TB

GrayPerth.jpg


This must have been taken 3-4 years ago! Jeff

Jeffsummer.jpg


And Jeff not so race fit tb!

JeffFife.jpg



To be honest the racehorses are the nicest horses I have ever ridden. Most of them are polite, well mannered and thoroughly enjoy their work. Yes you get some that are buzzy and like to be doing things and you get some that are so laid back they never make it to the track but each of them is different from the next. You get 15hh whippets to 18 tanks and vice versa and everything in between. You can't apply the stereotype to racehorses anymore as the way of training them has changed so vastly. Once upon a time yes, they may well have been highly strung lunatics that went from a stand still to a gallop in the blink of an eye and you do still get some like that but with remodelling the food regimes of the horses and more and more trainers turning their horses out in the field for a short time every other day it keeps them all much more level headed.
 
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I don't have any straight off the track pics but here she is a couple of months after -

IMG_1183-1.jpg


And now (2 years later). She certainly isn't skinny and it didn't take that long to get her looking like this. I have seen some who are hard to keep weight on though.

IMG_4003.jpg


As for general nuttiness, I agree with MrsD123 - I've met very sane and quiet ones and I've also met some that are very high-strung. I happen to love them though - they're among the smartest horses I've come across, they love to work and are incredibly willing. When you tap into that and make a bond, you've got a great partner.
 
The first pic is my ex NH racehorse as he was at the height of his (rather unsuccessful) career, and the second pic is after I'd owned him for a year. I'd pumped loads and loads of food into him, and had done daily hill walking, up to 2 hours a day, keeping him long and low. Doing this built his top line up really quickly. I didn't put any pressure on him in the school until I'd had him for a year, and it was only then, once I started to encourage him to work over his back, on a circle that I started to realise there was a problem. A few months after the second photo was taken I discovered he had KS and the xrays revealed other complications, meaning I decided it was in his best interests to retire him from ridden work. He's now my other horse's companion and he looks fat (but not too fat!) and fabulous, and he's living a pain free, life of luxury.
skinnyclaudecopy-1.jpg

claude4-2.jpg
 
Havent got all my pics, on a diff computer so they're not the best. He raced 16days before i got him and is as good as gold, never really been a nutty, fizzy horse. Got him end of sept didnt really gut much weight on till the spring grass came thru regardless of all the feed, hay & haylege.

When i got him at the sales
http://i1106.photobucket.com/albums/h362/LeanneBoa/Bilboa.jpg

When he got home and plaits out.
http://i1106.photobucket.com/albums/h362/LeanneBoa/CIMG1196.jpg

At home now he has put weight on.
http://i1106.photobucket.com/albums/h362/LeanneBoa/CIMG2280.jpg
http://i1106.photobucket.com/albums/h362/LeanneBoa/CIMG2261.jpg

By the way he was 4 when i got him and 16hh
 
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Thank you for all the replies . Your horses are all stunning and seem to be lovely light to middle weights.

Gives me food for thought in my hunt for a new ned, although i would probably go with one already starting a riding career rather then straight out of racing.

I will be showing this to my friend with the hope of opening her eyes a little bit to the versitilty of ex racers
 
This is Baz when I first got him - he'd been out of training about three months but was in regular work
bazaug2008.jpg


And this was him 10 months later
baz.jpg


It took plenty of feed, lots of schooling and even more patience....but it was worth it all :D
 
Major a few weeks after his last race, as a 2 year old :(

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He didn't come to me off the track, a good friend of mine got him and turned him away. A little while after.

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The day he came to me, as a 5year old after being turned away for a long time!

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And now - 10 months on!

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He can be a handful, but he is lovely!

Majjumpies3.jpg
 
I can't do a before and after, but here's a couple of pics of the ex NH boy I look after, taken yesterday :)

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Not really a skinny nut job ;)
 
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