Here’s my assumptions. I haven’t bought from canter, but I have owned many OTTBs fresh from the track…
1 - I would NOT expect that the horses can longe.
2 - I WOULD assume the horses can trailer very well.
3 - If you are going to the track, bring a trailer and be prepared to take the horse home.
4 - read all of the canter stuff. They have alot of adivce on how to do this which answers your questions.
5 - I beleive folks will try to get the track vet to meet them when viewing the horse to do a quick PPE. It isn’t a big purchase, and personally I don’t have the vet look at them, I look at them, and decide if I am interested in rehabbing them or not, and you will be expecting to find dings, injuries new and old. A vet to tell you what they are so you can know how you will rehabilitate is a good idea, but personally I like to do that after the horse has been let down and had a chance for all his dings and pain to show up and I know more about his injuries myself. Then I’ll get a vet out to the barn, but if it were me I would expect that some of the injuries aren’t going to reveal themselves today, but over the let down period, and over time. I wouldn’t be expecting an enitrely sound horse.
6 - I would build a strong paddock for the horse to stay alone. I do not put horses in with each other anyway, because I don’t want to pay for the vet bills when they injure themselves, but I would not want a horse off the track who will be taking 3 months or more to be let down in with any other horses. It wouldn’t be fair to him. I would keep him away from nose touching for 3 months or so. Alot of biting and damage can be done over the fence. I would NOT use hot wire. I would use a tall, solid board fence he can’t get into trouble with.
I question how much you know about OTTB horses, with your questions. You put them on omeprazole if they are showing signs of ulcers like any horse. Remember these are baby horses, and they don’t have a whole catalogue of experience to draw upon, so everything they encounter with you will probably be brand new. Do not complicate it by asking them to go into an existing herd of horses. But I would have thought you would know that anyway. You will be reteaching them everything. I am assuming you know how to handle and manage OTTB horses, since that’s what you want. I love teaching them from the start, but you really have to know what you are doing.
For example, their feet will be so bad and need proper shoing for several cycles before I would ask them to do anything like move under saddle or longe.
As you know, these horses have never been asked to move in a small circle, like an outdoor arena, much less a longe line, so don’t put them on a longe line, you will scare the dickens out of them. They don’t know how to carry themselves, or use their bodies in such a way that they would balance. For example, one OTTB that I had, the first time I trotted him in the outdoor arena, he trotted straight into the end rail of the arena. He had no concept of making that kind of tight turn. As you know, also, contact for them means go, so they need to learn in tiny baby steps everything.
If you are buying at the end of the meet, you will be going to the track to view them. If you are buying after the meet, the horses will have already gone back to their farms, or sold on to auctions, so where you view the horses depends on when you will looking at them.
