One Thing You'd Wished You'd Known About Green Horses/OTTB's

[Robby_Johnson]

[QUOTE=JER;8940751]
Despite?

The fact that he’s had that many starts and been in training for a length of time is one of the main reasons why he’s quiet and easy.

Track horses are almost always exposed to all kinds of stuff. They’re used to a busy environment. They’re used to working in company. They’re used to machinery and weird stuff. They’ve trailered all over.

All that experience works in your favor when it’s time to turn them into eventers.

:)[/QUOTE]

Yes. This.

My last horse had 34 starts running as a 3, 4, and 5 year-old. Easiest attitude ever and definitely BTDT.

[Jleegriffith]

I have had horses of every breed and I sell upward of 40+ tb’s a year and I don’t find anything like the experiences that soloundinhere is referencing. I sold her one and I guess she didn’t like him because he didn’t stay long but we loved him and were competing him with success before he left. I think sometimes certain personalities/riding styles just don’t match but then again maybe they just haven’t had the right tb? I don’t really know because I get so many tb’s and most are absolutely lovely with minimal soundness issues and are easier than other breeds IMO. I guess it is all just perspective when it comes to horses.

[Winding_Down]

[QUOTE=Jleegriffith;8943142]
I think sometimes certain personalities/riding styles just don’t match but then again maybe they just haven’t had the right tb? I guess it is all just perspective when it comes to horses.[/QUOTE]

Agree X 1000. I know some really experienced riders who have ridden at advanced who are just unsuited to a tb. I personally LOVE riding thoroughbreds and love the typical personality. It is a perfect match for me. If I were rich, I would have a barn full of them.

However, if I am looking for a resale project, one that I will put 1-2 years into, I typically go with a crossbred. People have this attitude that they are not supposed to pay much for an ottb. If I have a connemara cross that is 16 hands, I could sell it every day of the week. Oh, and it has to be a gelding.

[katherineyyyy]

[QUOTE=Mia Sorella;8940702]
#1 - Make no assumptions about how quiet your OTTB is until he is in good weight and riding fit from regular work.[/QUOTE]

^^THIS! I’m not sure how long your guy has been off the track, but just keep in mind that they need time to be a HORSE after the racetrack.

I love OTTB’s, and my trainer regularly has them coming in and out of our barn that I sometimes am lucky enough to hop on now and then.

She had one recently that had only been off the track for three months, was quiet as can be, she took him to a little dressage show and cross country schooled him with great success. After a couple more months of good food and getting to know the mare in his pasture, he became a little herd-bound freak and bucked her off in a scary and dangerous manner!

Just don’t trust them fully even if they haven’t given you any reason not to, and that goes for any young horse really. Lots and lots of ground work and safe riding practices!

[beowulf]

Maybe it’s just my experience, but I’ve always had my TBs be quieter after their race-track gig… but again… they’re already in fantastic health and crazy-scary fit when I get them… Those horses are in regimented, structured schedules and for most of them being in a “program” with a rider (instead of a jockey) is a walk in the park and a huge step down from the structured reliability of their former life. Racing IS regular work.

Take them off the high-octane feed, put them in a herd on full turnout instead of having them live in a stall, put them to work and they simmer down a lot.

When you get them off the track, if they’ve been in work and weren’t retired because of an injury, they already are as fit as they will ever be in their life-time (unless they later become UL eventers…). I’ve only had the quiet-horse-turned-hot thing happen when it’s been a rescue situation, and most OTTBs are not rescues.

So I’m not saying I don’t buy the above story… but I think it’s a misconception fraught with peril: most race TBs already are on good food, good care, and fit as a fiddle.

[Sempiternal]

It might take them a few times to realize trailering to a show with all the horses and commotion =/= trailering to the track to race. My little mare is finally figuring out it makes the day MUCH shorter to chill with the other horses while we’re waiting for SJ or class or whatever, than it is to jog and dance.

And you may get lucky and get a horse that was kicked out for winters. Which means not only will they be nonchalant about fire engines blasting past you at 40mph while riding alongside the road, but the random pheasant that flies out from under their hooves will only give them momentary pause.