I’ll be shopping this autumn and I’m excited to take on my first OTTB retraining project. How would you evaluate a potential candidate, knowing they’ll almost certainly need some groceries and downtime before starting new job training? I know almost nothing about functional conformation (how embarrassing) and therefore not sure how to assess trade-offs assuming a perfectly built horse doesn’t come my way.
I had a thread early last year where I received many good suggestions for what to ask for in a PPE, but this time I’m more asking for how to weed them out pre-PPE.
Note: I will have my knowledgeable and experienced trainer alongside me in the shopping and training journey, but I need to do some education of my own. That’s why I’m looking for suggestions of where to start.
Thanks!
If you are really not that educated in this, I am glad to hear you are taking your trainer with you. Hopefully this is someone who is educated and schooled in getting horses off the track.
If you are going straight off the track, I suggest you consider going the route of already restarted. This way someone experienced can do the hard part for you, finding the right type of horse for the right type of job. These sellers who have them restarted have the knowledge and experience and are taking the risk from straight of the track. Its a huge plus for buyers.
To be completely honest, it is a bit of a gamble and a bit foolish to buy off the track when you don’t know what to look for.
There is so much to know and look for, more than can be said on a forum and is more what is learned and known through experience, and it is also dependent on the type of rider you are, the type of home you offer and what you want the horse for. This is your first OTTB retraining project, how many OTTBs have you ridden and worked with? What is your skill level on difficult and hot horses? All things to be considered when you are looking at horses.
I have seen many people end up with horses they can not handle or horses who are broken because they wanted an OTTB and had no knowledge themselves and didn’t want to pay the bit extra to get one from someone who has already done the restarting.
I’m not trying to be negative, but as someone who has retrained many Thoroughbreds and currently owns 6…learn from others mistakes.
That being said, this episode is a must listen: https://www.buzzsprout.com/168580/1092173-bonus-ottb-101-with-jessica-redman
My advise is always buy the best brain, however the brain at the track isnt always the brain at home. Thats why an experienced TB person to help is your best and safest bet.
Yes, I agree! Which is why I was asking for some tips 
I could have included more background information on myself and my trainer but I didn’t realize it was relevant to my question. Here’s an attempt to fill in some of the gaps and address some of the very reasonable concerns you bring up:
When I refer to my trainer’s knowledge and experience, I mean specifically for this task. She has bred thoroughbreds to race and restarted and sold many to h/j homes. I have sat on some of these very horses.
For myself, the majority of my riding career has been on OTTBs. I only started riding warmbloods in the past 3 years or so and they’re not my preference.
So yes, as I initially mentioned I have little experience with something fresh off the track. I have never bought a horse before, just leased and borrowed from others. Your points are well taken! But I don’t think that should disqualify me from learning or starting now. I think I would be getting myself into a real pickle if I bought whatever thing someone pointed out to me without knowing why. As I said, my trainer will be there to guide me - but I’d like to be able to form an opinion as well.
ETA: thanks for the link, I will check it out!
What is the goal for this horse? I know you say resale, what discipline are you thinking?
I get to see a lot of OTTB in riding homes as well as some actual TTB on furlough at my barn as well as having watched the occasional race. We are very close to a lower teir track.
For me the first challenge has always been seeing through the skinny racing fit 3 year old to the gorgeous riding horse he will become. Lots of young OTTB have thin necks and butts. In a full weight adult horse that would be a ewe neck or a hunter bump or wierd tucked up gut. I grew up at the lower end of horses around a very mixed bag of stock horse types and formal feral horses, all adults, so I got to see lots of funky conformation that was not going to go away. So I ended up being very alert to that. It’s taken me some time to get my head around how young horses develop and how gangly they can look at 2 or 3.
My adult experience has shown me that almost all healthy OTTB mature into beautiful horses and that they have excellent functional conformation for the job and great canter.
There are however different body types. Some are tight knit and end up looking like WB, others are long legged and light bodied.
Unfortunately when you go to the track you can’t ride the horse, you may not get a vet check, and you can’t send him down a jump chute. The three biggest variables of rideability, soundness, and jumping attitude are going to be a mystery.
Add to that, many maybe most OTTB are going to be a little body stiff from hard work and not show you their best trot when they are hand trotted out for you. Plus the personality on the track might differ for better or worse when their routine changes.
For the folks with adequate skills to restart an OTTB, the biggest challenge appears to be getting a horse that is going to stay sound and not either injure himself or have old track injuries or poor feet disrupt training.
For the many folks who had no business with an OTTB in the first place, the biggest challenge is dealing with a very hot horse that they can’t handle.
For reselling reschooled OTTB the challenge may be how to recoup your investment. Take the money amounts here as from my local observations over the past decade. Prices have gone up this past year but so have costs. You can vary the money amounts according to your market. But my point here is that unless you have very cheap board your care costs are going to eat up your resale profits.
Let’s say you buy an OTTB for $1000.
You could put 90 days on him and then sell him as a “prospect” for $5000 to another trainer.
You could keep him a year and start local shows and sell him for $10,000.
You could put more miles on him and sell him as a solid ammie ride for $15,000 after 2 years.
If you are paying $500 a month board you aren’t going to make a huge profit anywhere.
Anyhow, as far as confirmation. Pick a horse built like other horses in your discipline. Pay attention to legs, stay away from post legs behind. Look at pasterns and hoof angle, not too upright but not dropped. Look for head bob or going short behind or uneven gaits.
Oops, I must have a typo somewhere. The goal is not resale, this is to bring along my own project horse. No plans to flip. I’d be pleased if this horse could go along in the 2’6 hunters at local shows eventually.
Then you want the brain and soundness first. Without those you are nowhere. I think any sane sound TB can do 2 foot 6 hunters locally. Look for a nice big walk.
I am hoping to buy an OTTB within the next few years so I am studying up too!
What I’ve found helpful in educating myself:
-Christian Schacht’s book Sport Horse Conformation is great for understanding conformation and training your eye.
-I’ve also gone on Facebook and joined tonnnns of OTTB groups, plus followed pretty much all of the resellers I can find. Study all the photos, watch the videos, just get your eyes on as many TBs as you can and start to look for patterns. If you like a horse, try to figure out why!
-If a horse is particularly striking to me I send it to one of my friends who likes TBs and they pick it apart with me too. This also helps you find the “holes” in your eye.
And I agree with @scribbler that anything sound with a good mind should be able to do the local 2’6.
Please, please for the love of all that is holy, look carefully at the feet. If possible, take pics and send to your farrier for approval. Significant hoof issues will impact overall soundness and will take months, if not years, to rectify.
In addition to Brain and Soundness, buy one with the best canter that you can find. You will make your life so much easier if you start with one that has natural balance and rhythm.
Big shoulder, kindness in temperament.
The rest can be dealt with.
Em
Sorry I might have just assumed by project.
Ok, definitely temperament is best. However, and again please don’t take this as negative but you can not tell the horses temperament at the track, or right after the track unless the horse has been at the track for years and years and is a war horse type. Which being said, a war horse might be perfect for what you are looking for.
Horses people think are quiet on the track become wild once healthy and feeling better. Horses that are wild at the track come home and are super quiet and chill. I see this all the time.
The best way to find out temperament is NOT looking at the pedigree like some might suggest, but it is to talk to the people at the track who are closest to the horses and who know those particular Thoroughbreds and what they are like.
Even as a very experienced person in OTTBs I have friends who are far better at knowing whether one is a good one or not, these are people who are closer to the horses than anyone else (grooms, trainers, barn owners etc).
I again think its best to use someone who as already done the down time.
This is a bit of problem though. You can not tell a good TB from a photo on the internet. You just can’t. You have to see them move in person, and find out what they are really like from their connections. Otherwise, its a complete gamble. Which some people are fine with. But I don’t like the idea of people choosing horses to buy over a pedigree and photo. That doesn’t tell what the horse is or will become, at all. A basic starting point, at best.
What @floppyammy said. However, if you are buying straight off the track, you won’t be able to see the horse canter, but a good overstride at the walk is a predictor of a decent canter.
So, conformation, conformation, conformation!
I recently bought a WB from an eventing trainer and she buys from the track all the time. One thing she looks for is if they raced unsuccessfully it was probably because of a breathing problem, so scope them during the PPE if possible.
I’ve vetted a few TBs recently in my horse search, and “unraced” generally seems to mean “unsound.” Issues I’ve seen are weak suspensories in the hind legs, bone chips, old bowed tendons, and arthritic changes. I paid a lot of money in PPEs to diagnose why horses weren’t successful on the track, so now I would only look for winners. War horses generally have better conformation, so don’t overlook geldings that raced a long time.
As far as down time goes, it really depends on the horse. My OTTB required none. Zip. He was done racing. Remember, these horses aren’t just raced around on the track all the time. They do long trot sets; they canter plenty as part of their training. They do lead changes.
Check out a thread by @sakey called “Thoughts on my OTTB?” for encouragement. I tried for a few months to buy the full sibling of Sakey’s horse (his name is Gods Will Be Done and he’s still racing) because he has similar conformation and temperament. If you could pry that horse out of their hands…
Good luck to you!
Longtime TB person here.
For me, I think it’s hard to teach someone how to select an OTTB because a lot of it is luck and instinct.
As for conformation, this is going to sound counterintuitive, but I think we over-emphasize conformation. What I mean is in general, most every TB at the track is going to have conformation suitable for low level english disciplines, with their faults and all. You are unlikely to encounter conformation so bad it makes the horse unsound for riding, because if that was the case, the horse wouldn’t hold up to race training at any level. Of course, there are exceptions to everything-- you do sometimes come across horses with conformation that may affect their longevity, etc. But in general, I wouldn’t stress too much over the horse’s build unless you are selecting a prospect for conformation hunters or the highest levels of disciplines.
The race track has some of the worst farrier work on the planet. But often the horses can stay sound despite it because of the frequent shoeings (every 3-4 weeks), the controlled environment, and the general attentiveness to pain management. Then we take the horse home, shoe them with heavy keg shoes that we leave on for 6-8 weeks, turn them out to stomp at flies or trudge through muck, without preventative medications… and they develop issues. I just say this because as you are selecting a horse, think about what kind of hoof rehab you are able to provide. If you don’t want to go down that road, make feet a priority.
Injuries are tough to provide guidance about. Racehorses are going to have wear and tear. It’s almost impossible to predict how that wear and tear will affect longevity in a different discipline. Many will have “jewelry” in the form of visible injury or swelling. Much of the time, that jewelry is completely insignificant; I would not rule out a horse because of it.
I’ve had 7, with #7 in my barn/pasture now. For me, it’s going to be a gelding. I don’t have super high show or performance aspirations, so that opens the door to many more candidates. After that, it’s brain, temperament, and manners. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered (yet) a “low-IQ” OTTB—they have all been smart, and my current guy is almost scary-smart! They need a kind eye. I’ve had horses come directly from the track to me and even if they are “up” and fit, they still have good manners, which to me, indicates how well they’ve been handled. My current guy, who I’ve had just 6 months, is a hotter type, but he will stand in his stall without even a halter and let me pick cactus thorns out of his legs with tweezers and never move. I’ve even pulled them out of his upper lip and he stood like a rock. FOR SURE—get foot/lower leg radiographs, at least in front, and of any other area you might be concerned about. All of my OTTBs have had crazy thin soles, and two also had really crappy hoof walls. No matter how many supplements, for how long, or special shoeing/barefoot/whatever I tried, they didn’t improve much, if at all. TB feet are not what they were 40 years ago! At least you’ll have an idea of what farrier work will be needed. Conformationally, I prefer a shorter-coupled horse and nice shoulder. I don’t like straight pasterns or calf-kneed types. If they’ve had injuries or surgeries, at least read up to get an idea of what they entailed and definitely get a PPE. I don’t worry about old bowed tendons, ankle jewelry, mild-to-moderate suspensory injuries, or cosmetic stuff. I can forgive some toeing in or out because I’m not going to be doing high-performance work. And then, since they live here with me, I have to enjoy looking at them! If a horse meets everything else but isn’t pretty, that’s OK if he has personality.
I am in the camp of taking a very knowledgeable horseman along with you or buy one already restarted. Too many folks have no real idea how to transition a TB from the track to the ring. It is not easy, and to really do it right takes years.
First, unless you have contacts on the backstretch, you can’t get back there on most tracks. You need somebody with a license.
For me buying a true OTTB means I need to be willing to lose $1000-$2000 right off the bat since no vetting as said before. I’ve agreed to buy a horse on the backstretch and ran to the ATM only to have it sold by the time I got back. When you buy, you buy. Take cash and do it on the handshake.
I tend to only look at movement and handling. I like “quiet” horses that have clear thought processes going. They don’t react, they respond. They spook and then turn towards what spooked them to investigate. That is the BIGGEST criteria.
I like close coupled with more vertical hind ends and a deep shoulder. They tend to be quicker off the ground and more catlike.
I figure 2-3 years off the track retraining to do it right. The have to redevelop their musculature to the new demands. Many OTTBs are VERY well trained. They simply don’t know the new cues and expectations. People who hammer on them to do a quick turnaround tend to blow them out physically.
I vetted my latest OTTB 2 years after I bought him. I got him as a 2 year old off the track. There was no point in vetting given he was still growing and he was sound. I spent 2 years trail riding and just messing around while he grew and we got to hang out. Started jumping at 4 1/2 (other than the typical log or ditch on the trail). Spent 2 years letting him develop his jump and brain. Now he clocks around at 1.10m with no effort and plenty of capacity to go bigger if he wants.
This was him last year
This.
and keep this in mind, one my mine just spent 2 years in the field getting ridden on and off because it took 2 years for her abscesses to stop and her feet to grow out. Some horses can recover from the track quickly because they had quality care, but others might not have gotten their nutritional needs met while under such stress, and it wreaks havoc on their body, and takes literal years to overcome.
Some people think you should work them right away, but I’m team turtle, I like to take things very slowly and correctly and I always give them minimum 8 months off after racing, but its usually more like a year.
In the current market (and probably in general with OTTBs) I would stay away from anything that has been listed particularly long… it has probably already been through a PPE or several showings and there is a reason people are walking away.
I agree with @Scribbler, brains and soundness are the most important, regardless of what job you want them to do. In many ways, I think it’s easier to see the conformation on a race-fit OTTB because there is no fat to hide flaws.
Here are the things I personally look for in a OTTB off the track (or any horse really):
- Good/large feet. Added bonus if it already has a good heel, but that can usually be helped with a good farrier.
- a good hip angle and a shoulder that matches. Some ottbs have bigger shoulders. I like to see a good slope on both hip and shoulder, and the hip and shoulder should “match” in size if that makes sense.
- slightly uphill build, makes rocking back on the haunch easier
- neck ties in well to the shoulder, set slightly up, or even, you want the horse to be able to pick it’s head up
If I were you and a little uncertain, I would look for a reseller who has lightly restarted the horse and who can give you a good evaluation of the horse’s brain and what they are best suited for. Two such people that i am aware of are Ash Blank (a friend got a LOVELY gelding from her), and the other is Jessica Redmond in DE. Both are very good at picking out horses and want their horses to go to the right people. They get really lovely horses too.
I went to reply to this earlier today and the sheer magnitude of how much would need to be said daunted me; there is so much about picking a TB from the track that can’t be communicated over a forum, so much that can’t be described without a subject to look at.
It is a little bit luck, a little bit intuition, and almost everything to do with connections.
The best TBs are not coming to us, the riders - they are going to resellers who already have a connection with the trainers/owners, or, if they are truly good, they are going to the breeding shed.
Functionally there are very few horses who race who cannot do the job you are looking for. Like another poster already touched upon, TBs especially young, can surprise you with how different they look fully mature.
What you look for depends on your goals. For me, someone who rides alone often and enjoys bringing along their own projects at their own pace, I look for a horse who looks for his handler. I don’t care for the “look of eagles” saying - I want a horse who is tuned in and interested in his people.
I look for a good walk; clear, even, with overtrack. If the handler can trot, I look for the same to be communicated in the trot - but many horses are tracky, and move so much differently once their feet are fixed and the minor bodily complaints that come with racing addressed.
Keep in mind one of the hardest hurdles of getting an OTTB isn’t even keeping them sound - it’s fixing the way they were shod on the track. They grow great hoof as a general rule, but the longer they race, the more difficult it is to fix their angles in their hoof and the more likely they are to have bodily complaints in light of their race track angles.
I can’t stress enough going with someone who has connections at the track. There is so much to learn from a seasoned horseman’s eyes, and you will likely see horses offered for sale to them that don’t go to the regular Joe-Schmoe market.
