It’s individual. My horse came off of the track and a couple of weeks later did w/t/c with three others in a showground in front of several hundred people, then was w/t/c plus tiny courses (same size as intro) within a month or so.
At an intro event you do a w/t test, not necessarily on the bit, which many OTTB can already do handily before they switch careers. Then you jump 18" stadium fences and x-c logs that they can walk over. If the OTTB has ever hacked as part of his training (some live on a farm, not the track) he’s probably walked or trotted over logs that size.
The biggest challenge is that it’s a new environment, but if it’s a quiet, happy horse who’s used to shipping back and forth to the track, that is no biggie.
Sure there are horses who are stressed out by their owners but you need to look at the horse himself, at the event, before judging. If the horse is going happily about his day, then there’s really nothing to get judgmental about.
I’ve seen 3-y-o, barely-broke dressage prospects stressed to the gills by the prep for the auction rides. There are many ways to stress a horse and a little jaunt to a schooling show is not necessarily one of them.
