Opinions on a 12yo ex racing tb stallion as a jumper

[findeight]

Yes to the basic question, he can have another career.

But success depends very much on things OP has not shared, like can they handle reconditioning and restarting the horse, including the jump training, themselves or will they need to pay for training and lessons? Do they board out ( if so does that barn take studs?) or does OP have a place with proper facilities at low cost? Is the horse serviceably sound for a jumping career or need expensive management to remain able?

Biggest thing, IMO and IME is OP needs to ride this horse a few times and see if he is going to accept the training and if he will stay sound enough in regular 4-5 days a week schooling to turn into a jumper. That goes double if not been in regular several days a week work for years getting only occasional low impact work.
Think those questions should be answered first before assuming its a good choice for this horse and OP.

Just sayin here but most times when horses sit mostly unused for years there’s reasons. They don’t keep them around and pay their bills but sell them on, especially in a professional competition operation that cant really afford to carry unusable horses if there js any hope they can be sold.

So, for OP, be careful. Trust but verify with neutral sources, no matter how much you want to believe everything you are told by a seller you assume has your best interests at heart when they are trying to get a long time unproductive horse off their books. Proceed with caution.

[BeeHoney]

@NancyM

The plan would be that the horse would prove his worth as a stallion through success in competition in the coming years. His conformation has lasted as “sound” through 6 years of a racing career, which is something that no “non-TB” has done. His disposition sounds quite good, better than many. His jumping ability sounds encouraging. The plan would not be to sell the horse, the plan would be to keep the horse, compete the horse, and accept a few select mares to breed on his attributes for approved breeders who appreciate having access to such a TB stallion. Perhaps not you.

I’ve kept stallions in my barn on occasion, first in race training, then on in hunter/jumper training and competition. If it is a “nice” horse, it’s not an issue, nor is it difficult. It requires that the handler not forget that the horse is a stallion, but everyone else at the show should not even know the horse is not gelded. “That” is a “well mannered” stallion. If it’s not a “nice” and “well mannered” horse as a stallion, then it needs to be gelded, and is asking to be gelded. An owner needs to have a suitable facility to keep a stallion at home, and acquire the experience to handle him adequately both for breeding, riding and in competition. But to immediately geld a 12 year old stallion that other people have handled, competed and kept successfully, before you get to know him, or actually “try” him in a sport discipline that you are interested in, may be premature. He can always be gelded, but you can’t sew them back on if you later regret gelding him. Instead, you are looking at cloning him at that point to rectify your mistake- an expensive and questionable practice.

Good horsemen can keep nice stallions at home, compete them, and breed them to appropriate mares without issue.

@NancyM while I respect your opinion, there is much about your post that I disagree with. A 12 year old stallion of any breed or ability who has not yet proven himself in sport is unlikely to do so after age 12. Modern jumper courses are very technical and to be successful a horse needs years of training and experience and a type of rideability that is completely contrary to what horses learn at the track, so I would say this horse is doubly disadvantaged in that regard.

Thankfully, the OP did not mention keeping the horse a stallion. People who are intentionally breeding their nice sport mares to TBs at this point in time are few and far between–there’s just no market for it. Even very successful WB stallions with well known sport pedigrees often have very small books and/or are not successful as stallions. A TB stallion that starts his sport career at age 12 is not going to get any “select” mares booked to him. While keeping a stallion can be simple, many boarding facilities do not allow them and there are still precautions that must be taken. Just because someone else keeps a stallion “over the fence from mares” and it doesn’t seem to be a problem doesn’t mean that that is a responsible way to manage a stallion or that it would work in another scenario. IRL, cases of regretting gelding stallions are extremely rare. In most cases gelding allows a horse to have a better life and more opportunities.

Lastly, with regard to soundness, many horses who have retired “sound” after racing careers are not actually sound enough for performance careers. This is just my experience. I work in the TB industry and have horses coming to me off the track. Some are truly sound, but a reasonable number have underlying physical problems that make them unsuitable for sport careers. So I definitely wouldn’t be hanging my hat on the fact that the horse “retired sound,” I think it would make more sense to do a thorough vetting and to also ask if the owner would be amenable to taking the horse back if it goes lame in the first month or so of training. That’s really the biggest risk here–getting stuck with a 12 year old horse that proves to not be suitable for the purpose intended.

[GraceLikeRain]

If he’s been sitting around not doing a lot, would they be willing to take him back if it didn’t work out? Would they be okay taking him back if he were gelded? If so, I’d geld and take him in for a year. If he doesn’t seem to enjoy a second performance career, then he has a good place to go back to doing some support work for his owners.

[Green_pastures]

Hey. Sorry to take so long to get back to you guys but thanks for your opinions!

I’ve got him on a 3 month trial and so far he’s going wonderfully, quieter than my show jumper lol.

I had him throughly vetted with no issues, we also can’t see any thickening/residual damage to his tendon and he has full flexion in that leg. He’s currently in work with me and must’ve have quite a bit of schooling since he retired(or maybe while he was racing I’m unsure). He carries himself very well undersaddle with good impulsion. We have been popping him through some trot poles/small x bars thus week and our only problem that I’ve noticed is that I’m used to horses that only follow through the jump with their hind legs, whereas this guy tends to kick out over jumps. Pro i suppose is that i don’t have to worry about taking rails behind but the con is that I’ve had to relearn jump landings lol.
I mentioned it to my vet and he checked his back/hips/hocks closely, no problems there but he did suggest it may be a way of getting his man bits higher over the jumps? Does anyone have any experience with stallions with over dramatic hind leg action?

Re my plans for him. Ultimately it depends on how he turns out. We’ve had competition stallions previously so keeping him intact wouldn’t affect us(and realistically, gelding him now would be unlikely to change any behavior issues he could have). If he’s quiet and comfortable popping around 1.2m ish heights for the next few years then id probably keep him for myself unless I trip over a buyer for him.

I probably wouldn’t ever breed from him or stand him at stud unless he turned into a superstar jumper and I had the perfect mare because (as someone wise once said to me) its the same ai costs and risks to put your mare to a GP or a dud, choose wisely.

Yeah so, anyway hes currently working out really well. We’re taking him to a training day this weekend, suppose we’ll see if he turns into a fire breathing dragon or not haha

[snaffle1987]

give him a chance!. geld him . then have some fun

[skydy]

I’m glad he’s going well for you.
It’s great that you have experience with performance stallions, since gelding a 12 year old stallion is not without risk.
If he’s managed well he should keep his easy temperament. Let us know how he does at his training day.

[nycjumper]

If he is well behaved, I’d skip gelding him if he’s not for resale. At that age, there are increased risk for complications and the recovery time is quite a bit longer. Obviously if you’re hoping to sell him, that’s a different discussion as very few buyers in the US will consider stallions much less a TB so it narrows the market considerably…

[Xctrygirl]

FWIW, might be helpful for folks to know that the OP and the horse are in New Zealand. NOT the USA.

So there are a few differences in the norm there and the norm here. Nothing bad, just different from one countrie’s outlook versus anothers.

OP - Good Luck to you. I’m sure he’ll be grand.

Em