I completely agree. Connections are definitely important. Or at least a good ability to read people.
It is unfortunate that a lot of horse sellers lie, regardless of breed or discipline. In addition to weeding out the used car salesman types, you still have to contend with nuances of the racetrack. The culture is a bit different and we horse people don’t always speak the same language.
Having people you trust in your corner is one of the surest ways for success.
Unless your trainer already has good contacts at the track, I think buying one from a reseller is a great strategy because they have already started the retraining process and you can actually go and ride the horse before you buy it.
The other place to look is at organizations such as CANTER. I fostered for CANTER NE for several years and when I had those horses I took them on trail rides, started them over small fences, helped them get the new muscle they needed. I kept one and he became my first flight hunt horse, but it took 2 or 2- 1/2 years to get him to the point where he was comfortable in that environment. The CANTER volunteers know the trainers and the horses quite well, so even if you are looking at the track they can help steer you toward a suitable horse.
The only thing I wish is that my TB had better feet. We had challenging times with thin soles, abscesses, and pulled shoes. I eventually used glue-ons for him and that seemed the best choice.
Happy shopping!
Thanks everyone for your replies! There seems to be consensus that fresh off the track is unadvisable for my circumstances and somewhat restarted might be better. I’ll be reevaluating while checking out the resources recommended.
Having several off track TB’s over the years, I’d go for a line known to have good dospositions for sport, Fappiano and Gone West are 2 Mr P sons known to pass on a good dispoition. Unbridled and Unbridled Song sons and grandsons produce some nice good minded horses, and the Unbridled Songs are often big and good looking too.
Don’t be afraid to check out TAA organizations like New Vocations, too. The “must adopt a horse for life and make all decisions through us” contracts are becoming less common. Instead most of them are more like resellers with a safety net.
I went the already restarted route, but in my search I got to sit on some that were much greener than others (think 60 days OT vs. 2 years).
Personally, I think conformation is important but not the be-all, end-all. I ended up with a horse who’s quite straight legged behind. Not ideal by any means, but his temperament, brain, and work ethic are outstanding. The conformation compromise was worth it to me, it might not be to you or someone else.
Be prepared to see them in the ugly duckling phase, and then potentially through several more with whichever you bring home. Mine just turned 6 and is in the middle of a massive growth spurt. He so butt-high, he looks like his front end’s in a hole. I keep reminding myself that he’s going to level out eventually (we hope) and that the muscle and weight will come in time.
You’ve had great advice here already, from experienced horsemen. Good luck, and happy shopping.
Though you can’t ride a horse that is for sale at the track, you can often watch them be ridden by one of the exercise riders on the track. Offer to pay for this, will cost ya $10 to $20. This is possible if the horse does not currently have a soundness issue that precludes him from being ridden at that moment. You can ask them to trot the horse for a while, and canter, to get some idea of how they move, and how tough they may be (or not be) to ride. You must have enough experience to be able to recognize what you are looking for when you see it. I like to see some natural carriage that I like, a nice disposition, a soft stretch with the front leg, and an active hind leg.
And yes, disposition is important, talk to grooms who work with the horse daily, information can be gleaned if you ask. That being said, I did buy a horse that I had watched and liked for several months, who had a disposition like an alligator at the track. Came at people with his jaws wide open over the stall door. But the groom told me that he was “just miserable here” (at the track), and he’s not really like that, doesn’t want to be here (at the track). So I bought him. He was a great horse, very talented jumper, but sensitive for sure. He bit people if he felt they needed it for an education, and he was usually not wrong in this judgement. But was very sweet if you had manners and were well behaved and fair with horses. Won a derby at Spruce Meadows (beat all the international horses who flew in from Europe) with my friend who bought him from me, made my heart swell with joy. I just rode him in the 4’6" ami divisions. “Sand and Surf”, and he never had his name changed.
If you want to be a horseman, eventually you have to make the decisions about what you like, and what you want to buy and attempt to reschool. The money you put where your mouth is, is the tuition you pay at the school of horsemanship. You learn as you go. You can take advice, you can ask for opinions, get coaching etc. But it’s your decision what horse you choose, and how you go about with the reschooling.
Step one, rebreak the horse… run him through basic training all over again, look for “holes” in his training that may have been missed or skipped. Start with ground work, handling, lunging, maybe even long lining. Fill any holes you find. Make a connection with him. Show him what you want him to do for you, it will be different from what has been asked of him previously. TBs are plenty smart, but if they have had race training, they need to learn a different carriage, different cues, and not to balance on your hands. They have to learn to carry themselves, like we expect riding horses to do. People who make mistakes about this, and skip this basic step are still riding racehorses and trying to get them to jump, and it never works out well. Make sure that the horse understands the difference that is necessary, to make the change from racehorse to riding horse. No leaning on your hand, and recognizing leg cues. Other than basic breaking, exercise riders fairly soon start shortening stirrups and don’t use a lot of leg cues when galloping. Some riders don’t know much about using leg cues or basic dressage (some do), and if the rider doesn’t know, the horses they ride never learn.
Good luck, and enjoy the process. People used to do this all the time, before the WB invasion. And many people had good success with it.
The biggest thing that I look for in an OTTB is a really good canter, balanced and loose. So many videos focus on the trot while that is the easiest gait to improve. Show me a good canter please, at liberty or under saddle.
Another piece of advice:
Have a backup plan in place for when the first OTTB you buy doesn’t end up working out, or maybe the second, and then the third, etc etc. I know you’re not looking for a resale project, but at least don’t discount the possibility that the horse you take a chance on may have a hole that ends up being a bad match for you. The temperament can change so much after a change in the horse’s circumstances and lifestyle, and old hidden injuries sometimes take time to become apparent. Have a plan.
There is so much great advice here! I second the ‘have a plan’. That is fabulous advice.
Deb Bennett’s Principles of Conformation Analysis is a really good introduction to conformation. A lot of conformation books have drawn diagrams and lots of wordy explanations, which can be a bit difficult to break into if you aren’t familiar with the basics. She uses drawings of course, but she also takes 4 horses per body part (Hind legs/back/neck etc) and breaks down what she sees in their conformation. Out of all the internet posts and books I’ve read, her explanations were the most helpful to get a basic all-round knowledge of conformation and its effect on sport horse careers.
Great. And another plug for getting a restarted horse. Because of my track contacts, people often ask me for help getting one off the track, and after I talk to them I’m often scratching my head wondering why they don’t just get an already restarted one. They cost a bit more, but you can find ones that don’t have a lot of work put in yet but the kinks have been largely worked out.
Also on the list of what to look for: a horse who doesn’t mind trailering, or at least one who loads.
There is nothing wrong with going this route – the added bonus is, you get their eye and experience for free (well… you buy the horse, and I guess you pay for it). But the good, trusted sellers have enough experience that within a ride or two on this new horse they know exactly what type of horse it is, especially if they know the connections and have had couple by them before. It’s almost always worth the extra money to go this route because you are able to ride the horse (which you rarely can do on the track) and it usually has had some remedial work done to its body in the form of farriery, chiro, dentist etc – which is not to insinuate these things are not offered to working race horses… they are – but normally, a horse off the track worked very hard and has some residual soreness.
Don’t discount the Canter owned horses either. Like @Bogie said, these horses are usually restarted and sell for much cheaper than some flippers list their barely-restarted horses. I like Second Chance in NY too - they did a great job with one of my horse’s siblings, and he was a steal of a price ($1100) for a horse who was restarted very well.
Jessica Redman’s Benchmark Sporthorses is another that is worth looking at if you want a horse “fresher” off the track. Hers usually sell within a few days of retirement if they’re nice, and she has several very nice ones.
I’m not planning to buy off photos nor suggesting the OP do that. I’m just suggesting the fairly normal horse shopping activity of looking at lots of ads/listing/horses and discussing the horses with others?
Yea sorry that wasn’t directed at you I just used your comment as a jump off.
For an adult amateur, brain is most important. Don’t pass on the horse with the perfect personality just because it toes in or has an old tendon. This is actually one of the biggest mistakes I see people make when buying a horse of any breed. For lower level jobs, a lot of those things just don’t really have a huge impact. Pick the one that you enjoy handling every day.
Another mistake that I see people make (even a lot of people taking horses off the track and reselling them as a business), is not looking at the horse’s record. It’s available, for free, on Equibase. You have to pay a small fee if you want to watch their races, but that can sometimes be worth it, too. If the horse has been vannned off the track, it’s probably got an old injury of some sort that you do need to be concerned about. Another person I know had a resale horse who bled. She had no idea, but it was right there in the notes from the last race that the horse bled.
Not an OTTB rider, but I’ll also add as well as feet…teeth. The two most unintentionally expensive OTTB projects of friends were the result of poor dental care (infected teeth) before they got the horses. Bad teeth, leading to bone infections not only caused complications with health, but also difficulties restarting the horses under saddle, and getting enough food into them. (As well as ulcers from antibiotics).
Yup, agreed. My favorite of my current crew toes in and has lots of track jewelry - including a medial/lateral collateral ligament injury that he raced on (not well… lol). I bought him because when his trainer (who was three legged lame) jogged him, he took the teeniest tiniest steps to not get ahead of his trainer.
Liked him so much, I got his “brother” (same sire) a few years later – came to us with DFFT injury with suspensory involvement.
Both are solid BN-N horses, can hunterpace any day of the week, always happy to work and a pleasure to be around. That’s really all most people need…
Yes to all of this. My heart horse had a significant bow in one of his front legs. Wouldn’t you know that it was the only leg that never gave him a problem when he started to slow down in his mid-teens! Horse jumped around 3 foot easily and schooled up to 3’6 at home. If a bowed tendon sets properly, it should not be an issue. The bow had been his reason for track retirement and he did his stall rest by us, so we knew about this rehab.
He was kind-eyed, short-coupled, smart as a whip, and was so relieved to be off the track that he barely even hand-galloped under tack until one day years and years later when we raced the horses in a back field and someone snarked that they’d see us back at the barn in a few hours. Horse went aerodynamic and flew by all of them. I almost fell off from laughing so hard. Never underestimate a good TB. Also, you can tell a lot about their mind and foundation from how they are handled. I had an OTTB before him that was completely headshy and would break the crossties and gallop off if you tried to bend end over to put your helmet on. If you waved at someone… he flew backwards. Classic case of a horse beaten into submission. This horse you could tell that he loved his grooms. If someone spoke Spanish, horse perked up and watched them intently. You could work around him without being tethered. Stood like a statue. Not out of fear, just liked having interaction with his humans.
My favorite horse of all time made 109 starts and bowed both his front tendons. His front legs were a disaster to look at, which is the only reason he was given to me and ended up staying with me. Yet that horse was as sound as they come until arthritis caught up with him around 20. I did everything with him.
Much of the time that is the case. The problem is no one has a crystal ball.
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