Thinking of getting an OTTB....

[rides2fly]

California is a great place for finding quality TB’s off the track but you do have to know what you’re looking at (and for) and some familiarity with common Calif. bloodlines helps. I’m going out on a limb with this one but in my experience some TB lines do pass temperament along with physical attributes and it’s helpful to know which lines are making successful sporthorses. Doesn’t matter how pretty the body is, if the brain isn’t there you’re not going to have fun. Make sure the California person you’re working with understands what the sport of eventing entails in order to evaluate the horse’s temperament.

That said, I have to tell you prices are really low on horses here right now and you might be surprised at what you can find in horses that are already trained! I have an experienced friend who has taken horses off the track and her most recent project, a really nice 6 year old, who will vet sound, has had a little over a year of solid training, is nicely jumping small courses and, I think, has the right attitude to make a nice eventer. The market is so slow his price has dropped to $3,500 and she has a video of him (really helpful to those out of state!) You might want to check out something in this range if you can find a way to make it work – payments or something. I think that’s a real bargain considering someone else has already done the tough work the first year off the track involved.

Good luck,
Brooke

[Hopeful_Hunter]

Oh, a couple more things…

If the horse is in racing plates with toe grabs, and has run in them a lot, REALLY look at the legs. Those toe grabs coupled with the mistaken faith in long toe/low heel farriery can really wreck those legs.

fwiw, my guy has Citation and War Relic waaaay back, and is a lovely hunter (his barn name and his race name are Asherman for those who care to look him up on Delmar). He’s NOT an event prospect though – HATES uneven footing, VERY picky, described by 4 trainers as “sensitive”. My other OTTB was out of Native Dancer lines - a bit nasty with some people but a lot less of a pansy.

[2Dogs]

Or you could just bring out Robby from CO since he has done such a beautiful job with his Rhodey - go with the best, I say.

One quirk I learned, to add to all the above fantastic advice, is that for most track horses, pulling on the reins (and bit)means speed up. I have ridden OTTB’s with standing martingales because pulling on the martingale and putting some light pressure on their chest gets them to slow down, and I can avoid touching their mouths until they get used to the “new” signal. Has worked every time for me (learned this trick from my wonderful SC trainer…).

[Anna79]

Hopeful Hunter, you’ve reminded me about the importance of feet! How could I overlook that, it wasn’t even ON my top 5, silly me. Thanks for your advice on what to look for.

Rides2fly - someone on this board needs to take advantage of that great deal. Pricewise, I haven’t seen anything close to that on the east coast.

[sporthorselover]

Another good tip is to take OTTB’s off grain completely, and go 100% free choice hay and turnout. You don’t need any extra energy during the re-training period.

[wanderlust]

Oh, and lets not forget the absolute heart attack most of them have the first time a horse passes them in the opposite direction at a canter… ya definitely need to hang on tight the first couple of times that happens!

[rhymeswithfizz]

Wow, my thread is back! I think that’s the first time I’ve ever had a resurrected topic!

But this is fun because now I can post what I did… I got a 3 year old TB from California (I’m in Colorado), through a sister of a friend who is located in CA. She found me a horse who had never been raced, and I ended up buying him sight unseen (he was that much of a bargain).

He’s a cutie pie! I’ve been on him all of three times, and last time we even trotted a bit. So far he has been very un-thoroughbred-ish… very quiet and calm. I’m actually a little worried that he’s going to be TOO quiet and I’m going to have to sell him as a hunter. But it’s too early to tell for sure, I suppose – I just keep expecting explosions that never come!

[Poombadesign]

I have an OTTB and he’s great. I’ve been reading everyone’s posts and a bunch of the quirks are so true (not necessarly bad things), even several years later. So that’s why he doesn’t like crossties!! I would have never thought. And one-sidedness, definitely, but we’ve worked through it pretty well. Also with him not really being ‘my horse’ rings true…seems like he could care less that he belongs to me. One thing about my guy that I dunno if it is typical or not is that he is bombproof on the ground, unflappable. If he doing something naughty that he shouldn’t be doing (aka, cribbing ), I can’t scare him away from the fence if I wanted to. I run at him waving my arms and yelling for him to get away, and he just stands there looking at me like I’m the dumbest person on earth. Hehehe, anyway, have fun with your new horse!! He sure is a cutie!!!

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