I appreciate the information! And, yes it is Mineshaft and Blushing Groom. However, the only thing I care about is he loves jumping, moves well in dressage, and is a giant Labrador. I bought him based on his curiosity and desire to go explore. Never even trotted him and I knew he was good.
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I do think they’ve stuck around a bit more in the mid-Atlantic than some other areas, especially at the lower/local levels at 3’ and below. The TB divisions, both the USEF 3’ and the 2’6 MHSA, tend to be quite competitive around here!
There aren’t a lot of them that can do the big slow 3’6 step, but there aren’t a lot of WBs that can actually do that, either.
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To be fair, there are a lot of WB owners who say their weanling has GP (dressage/jumping) potential, when the pedigree doesn’t support it. Or they say their 2yo has the potential for a top Hunter, but his conformation strongly suggests he’ll jump like a deer and hang his knees
But yes, the rose colored classes in marketing the TB to an unsuitable audience is definitely a thing, either in a poor effort to convince someone (and sometimes they do),but also probably because they aren’t riders of the level they’re trying to sell to
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Thoroughbreds are horses, like every other horse… Some are quiet, some are not. Some are easy to train, some are not. Some are easy to ride, some are not.
Are you talking about a horse direct from the track or a “horse with a record as X” that just happens to have raced at one time? Former racehorses, with a proven record in a second or third career are what they are. I’ve never heard of one who somehow suddenly converts to crazy at random. I took lessons as a beginner on thoroughbreds and years later, taught beginners on them.
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Everyone has already said the main points, but I always laugh when I hear people specify breed requirements to do a sport with no breed requirement. IE if you were showing AQHA and said, “No APHA”… fine. But USEF accepts horses of basically any breeding, so why does it matter?
90% of the people searching need to be looking at the individual and focusing on their ability to get around a course accurately. Correctness > Quality. If you can’t be accurate, style doesn’t really come into play.
My last H/J (before moving to breed shows) was an OTTB. No one ever guessed it; everyone thought he was a warmblood.
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Not to mention
Most warmbloods have a significant percentage of Thoroughbred blood in them.
No, my Thoroughbred does not look like a warmblood. Your warmblood looks like a Thoroughbred.
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There was a thread awhile back on OTTBs that I think brought up two good points:
- Simply put, we don’t have a lot of trainers great at putting the basics on horses let alone retraining for a new discipline. Any Average Joanna can hang a sign that they’re a “trainer,” get mostly well-behaved horses, talk a big game, and have a business. They don’t have to be inclined to train horses to be better; they just have to find a way to get better horses.
A lot of folks in H/J land (heck even dressage, too) import from Europe because someone else has already done a lot of heavy lifting. And given that most horses in Europe are very purpose-bred, they do a lot of things naturally (like balance themselves to a fence very well, even at a young age). So that makes the trainer’s life easier, and then they don’t have to worry about figuring out how to get Sally Sue’s horse ready for its rider. Sally can just go show ASAP, per her parents’ orders, and trainer can take home a pay check and not sweat the fact they have no clue how to put lead changes on a horse; Sally Sue’s horse thankfully just does them.
- The breeding of TBs in the US these days favors a smaller, lighter, faster animal with minimal attention to conformation that holds up long-term with good feet and good temperament. In regards to temperament/training, this is different in other countries like GB–but in the US, there isn’t the same consistency. For every good-tempered, well-behaved horse I’ve met off the track, I’ve met one that I thought should be sent away for a total restart.
1000% there are good looking, good tempered TBs that someone put some thought into breeding and care into raising. But it’s not consistent.
There are plenty of problem WBs out there, but I think the sheer volume of TBs we have in the US lends itself to a 50/50 crapshoot of what you get. And with the WBs, you can go through the registry, see the evals for stud/mare books that goes beyond just performance. I kinda wish Jockey Club did similar, but it’s all performance based.
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One last thing I’ll flag is that recently in horse sales land from the high 4s to the low 6s–the market is cooling a bit because people are less risk adverse given where the economy is (inflation is stabilizing but jobs ain’t great and take home pay still doesn’t feel its worth what it did 5 years ago). People want to know they’re going to have as close to perfect a vetting as possible to reduce risk of a bad buy. OTTBs aren’t going to have a “perfect” vetting; that scares a lot of people.
To be clear: I don’t think there are perfect vettings; I think people need to be cognizant of what’s manageable over time for the job at hand vs. a deal breaker.
But even a low 4-figure investment can turn into an expensive 5-figure long term commitment if a person can’t get the full vetting they want at the track. Usually you gotta be willing to take some risk if you’re buying right off the track.
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Wait, is that In Vogue? If that’s who your mare was, the girl you sold her to was a barn mate of mine when I was a kid and I dreamed of riding her. She was so beautiful. I had totally forgotten the Touch of Class connection to her until I saw your picture and recognized her and her story.
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My favourite horse I have owned was an OTTB gelding. Ended up selling him after a few years as I had another horse at the time with some very large vet bills and he went on to FEI level eventing. BUT he was a very tough restart. Some of these horses come with some serious baggage (I said some, not all) and most riders are not willing or able to get them through it. Also when purchasing straight off the track there is a huge amount of “unknown”. You can’t get on and take them for a spin. Soundness is always questionable, at least around here, many dishonest trainers just want to unload the cripples and make a buck on unsuspecting “dumb show people”. Also, there seem to be fewer around these days with the jumper type conformation. So i think these are some major reasons why not, but I still love a good TB.
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Yep, that’s her! I won’t mention names, but I just loved the person we sold her to. She wasn’t actually for sale, but I was pretty sick and the person who bought her had been through so much…
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In my opinion, in general TBs are the very best second horse for most people. Like faster, scopier, and harder to ride than most ponies and lesson horses, but not so overpowering like warmbloods can be. Especially for most normal riders that don’t train with GP riders and have their horses lunged and schooled everyday. Plus they are way more affordable and therefore easier to access and less intimidating financially.
I have currently 3 TBs in my barn that have a USEF up to the 1.20ms and 1 with many miles in 3’6” eq. And 3/4 are less than 16 hands! And many more with records up to the 1.0m which is really more scope than most people need.
I’m not so involved in hunter eq world anymore but yes the flashiness of the warmbloods is very appealing but idk I feel like all my TBs that did it got scored in the mid 70s - mid 80s when they had good trips in amateur classes and got good placings at a regular, busy week at HITS. Lol tbh I feel like I see a lot less missed changes too with TBs than I do with warmbloods. They tend to do it more naturally.
So idk yes in general they are a lot less flashy and scopey than warmbloods, but they are great at a million different jobs in the h/j eq world and I see them all over the place at every show I go to.
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And there’s probably plenty more not easily recognizable as TBs, plus the ones masquerading as WBs by owners who want the “status” of a WB.
For example example, here’s my late OTTB who fooled a vet who also bred Hanos! 
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I love when people say “he’s a Thoroughbred?!” in regards to my former lease horse.
Yes, he’s 27 and looks this good. No, he isn’t a hard keeper (the only thing hard is keeping weight off him!)
I strongly believe he’s this good because he’s a TB. He’s still bopping around at 27 and won me more tricolors at 25 than I can count. He has strong bone, a short, compact back, and the best attitude ever.
I’ve always loved a TB (COTH oldies will remember my first horse Corky, who graced the back page of Practical Horseman in the early aughts). They’re sensitive, sporty, and will try their hearts out for you 
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Wow lovely horse!!
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I love him and your story warms my heart.!!Are you comfortable sharing his JC name, even in a pm? Thx!
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Absolutely this! As you go up the levels in the jumpers, you really start to want more and more blood. It makes life easier and for me, I feel much safer on a blood horse. I grew up in the 80s and 90s riding TBs, quit to be a grownup, came back to the sport 15 years later to buy a giant dumb WBs to putz around in the hunters and have transitioned to jumpers and moved up the levels.
I’ve gone full-circle because now I would love to find a TB to do the 1.30s with. I would much prefer something modern, smaller, catty, forward thinking and clever. Harder to find, but I keep looking. And I think now that I tend to keep more of my horses rather than selling, the argument that they’re harder to sell has really lost a lot of weight for me.
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He never raced, sadly (though I heard he was quite speedy in his early show days 
) but his show name is Laurel Heights Arnie. He’s very well known in New England for being the best 2’6” and under teacher!
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I did however get to show a horse who raced in the Kentucky Derby! His JC (and show name) was Greater Good. The hack winner, with an adorable jump. He did the Derby in 2005 and placed 13th, but was a double cryptorchid so was sent to be a riding horse. He was the most laid back, chill guy. A very cool experience!
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