What does it involve??

[Fattie_Hattie]

My grandad owns a few of racehorses and is hoping to retire one of them from racing in the summer. He has asked if i could take the horse on and reschool him. I am just trying to research more about it and what it would include.
Has anyone on here had any experiance with retraining racehorses? Was it successful? What problems did you come across?
Would it be easier to send him away to be retrained?
Any comments welcome

 

[Mavis]

I think it is entirely dependent on the type of horse you get. My first ex-racehorse was turned away for a year (and was a dismal failure as a racehorse) and I started out hacking him about quietly, had lessons, did a few r/c bits and hunted him eventually. He was a completely cool and chilled horse and I had the best fun with him. The second was a stroppy cow of a mare who I didnt keep long, she was a total stress-head, and the third was a fairly successful 17.2 chaser built like a brick outhouse who I was given straight out of training. I struggled with him for 6 years, I could never get him to lose his racing mentality. Having said that I am a bit of a pansy and would have been better keeping him on a yard with a school, with very regular schooling and company to hack out with. All of them thrived on very regular routine and all of them were headshy - presumably time was of the essence in a racing yard and the horses gave me the impresion they had all had a fair amount of rough handling

I enjoyed no's 1 and 3 - but wouldnt have another just yet, am enjoying my Hann x's laid back personality too much!!

 

[Bosworth]

my new horse is an ex racer - he was a hurdler for 4 years and is 8 years old now. He is phenomenal - so laid back he is wonderful to hack out, fantastic to clip, great to shoe. He works from behind in an up hill outline and looks like a warmblood dressage horse now - only 16.1 hh. i have taken him on pleasure rides and he is really cool about everything, leads through water, comes back to me when I ask gently and goes everywhere in a lozenge snaffleI hope to start him eventing next year. The only problem I have is that he cannot have a bridle put on without undoing a cheekpiece. I have to slip the headpiece over his ears then put the bit in his mouth and then do up the cheek piece. He hated whips - having not been whip shy his trainer had the fantastic idea of taking him into a stable and beating him with a whip until he was whip shy - it has taken me a couple of months to be allowed to carry a schooling whip. He couldn't cope with a broom being used around him - we have worked through that.

If I could have another dream horse it would be another like him - but not that easy to find i would imagine.

 

[keeperscottage]

We have two ex-point-to-pointers, Scare McClare and Keeper's Cottage. Scare McClare was a winning ex-pointer but now, even at the age of 16 (she's currently in foal and so hormonal that she's unrideable!), she's always "racing in her head"! Brilliant at hunter trials, but she simply cannot contain herself to do dressage! (At Pony Club, they really looked down their noses at her when my daughter took her to a rally!) Brilliant hunter (quieter to hunt than to hack) and a "psycho" but totally safe, predictable hack - danced, but never bucked, reared, spoked, etc). Keeper's Cottage however, has the most amazing pedigree and, on paper,. should be a superstar - but he's so crap it's laughable! His point-to-point form guide reads ppppp and he's never raced past the 2 miles mark, so, in other words, useless! However, he is SO quiet to hack, bombproof, laid back, good to school etc. In fact, he is so laid back it's ridiculous! And he's only 7! He seems really, really happy with his new life!

 

[Fattie_Hattie]

My grandads horse is 10 years old, is pretty laid back and is a hurdler. Do you think he has passed the stage of being able to change?

 

[keeperscottage]

Fattie_Hattie, 10 is no age and if he's laid back (refer to my earlier post re: Keeper's Cottage) he probably won't need to be sent away for re-schooling! Keeper's Cottage just wasn't meant to be a race horse (despite his brilliant parentage!) - he's just born to hack and (hopefully!) event!