In mid-sniff, dab from reading all the TB love and, having been tossed into the dirt more recently than I want to admit, suddenly you reality-check me into serious laughter. Thank you.
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Came for the OTTB conversation and stayed for Blushing Groom.
Love my giant red Labrador BG grandson.
When I showed this Blushing Groom photo to the trainer I work for and ride with, she laughed. My gelding has the identical response to his loose ring snaffle.
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When I see Blushing Groom in a pedigree I remember the three I had the privilege to ride. All were ‘grandkids’, two geldings and a mare. The mare was mine. They had bold personalities but not pushy, big gaits and big hearts. (and all were solid bay)
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Boy, I appreciate learning more about Peanut’s lineage. He is an absolute labradoodlebred. A big dog/surfer personality on the ground but a genuinely game competitor on XC and the arena.
Thank you, @sami-joe, @Aussie_2020!
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I love TB and have no idea why anyone wouldn’t want one? Just like any breed (as so many have already mentioned), you can have the hotter ones or the quieter ones.
Back in the 2000’s I rode the best TB that was 18 years old at the time. He was a stocky guy at 15.3h and I thought he was a draft x at first until I saw he had a tattoo. He was tattooed but had a passport and was shown as a 3 year old in some hunter classes so I assumed he wasn’t a fast track horse up here in Ontario. We got him from a horse dealer so have no idea of his past and couldn’t read his tattoo, so unfortunately didn’t know his history but I leased him for a couple of years and dabbled in the 2’6" hunters with him.
But we did have his passport and his hunter show name so continued to show him under it. He would have been the last horse I rode (I just pretty much ride ponies now) and he was the best horse ever. I would not hesitate to get another TB in the future.
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My horse of a lifetime is a TB. She’s not fashionably bred by sport OR racing standards, and ran dead last seven times on the track, but is an absolute 1m-1.10 superstar. She’s jumped a 1.35 round, though you have to be dead accurate to do that with her. I’ve leased her the past few years and she has been an absolute champion for all of her kids. It’s hard to not jump a clear round on her. She paid for my Masters degree, allowed us to buy a farm, etc. Really I should name the farm after her.
She’s getting closer to be retired, especially after a freak accident last year. I can’t wait to have her home full time and let her live the long, luscious retirement that she deserves.
To answer the question, however, people don’t want TBs because they rarely see nice ones that are identified as such. Like it or not, the people who are most vocal about their TB are also the people riding a skinny, ewe necked horse that runs around the .90.
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One of my favorite things in the world is to go to the backside and buy OTTB. I’ve brought quite a few and my one regret of switching to dressage is the need to ride warmbloods. Not saying I don’t love all the horses currently in my barn (including the drafts, Morgan’s etc) but the OTTB have my heart.
Not sure I will have another horse of my own after my girl now (DHH) but if I do I will be hard pressed to not get a TB.
Trying to upload a few pics here of a couple of my OTTB I have in my phone.
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If there was a market for dressage TB I’d be ALL over that!
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I honestly believe there can be, with the correct representation. I’ve taken mine up to 4th level and peanut is beginning to work 2nd level consistently.
You are right, it is very difficult to compete with specific bred movement. But at the lower levels there is no reason why a TB can’t compete with any other purpose bred horses.
And I say this as a TB advocate competing above the .90m. @Arzny 
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I’m not saying they can’t be competitive above .90. I’m saying the people who generally proudly advertise that they’re on a TB are the people who make you gasp in the jumper ring. I think the take2 jumpers has been helpful in showing trainers that there ARE nice, quiet horses doing more.
Maybe there needs to be a bigger push to getting TB owners to pads or bonnets with a TB logo to show people that there are nice TBs.
I know of at least one TB at GP and you’d never know if you didn’t look at his USEF. That doesn’t even account for the TBs who have been misidentified as some type of warmblood.
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@Guyot Your second pic, the lanky chestnut, is the twin of my friends gelding. She owned him his entire life, her family had racehorses in N CA way back in the day. She did hunters and used ottb’s that flunked at racing. (I don’t remember the breeding)
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Would Dressage ever do anything like the Take2 TB initiative does for H/J world where there are specific classes, divisions, and prize money for TBs?
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I was joking for sure.
You have a good idea. If you zoom in on my saddle pad in the dressage image, you will see it says, “Caution, not really a dressage rider.” I have another pad that shows a horse bucking that says, “Caution, not really a dressage horse.” Other folks in eventing have a Racing TB emblem to advertise we ride TBs.
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I gotta get over to eventing, you guys just seem to have a way better sense of humor.
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You guys have the same concentrating face and it cracks me up. 
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Sorry, one more spam photo of him that my photographer friend took. I need to reiterate that he’s —27–!!
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He’s a beauty all the way but, damn I love that hip! Post as many pix of him as you want 
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@Aussie_2020 awe he was a sweetheart. He was off delaware park if I remember correctly. I only had him a little under a year. His registered name was Fleet de Masion. He actually was schooling all of second level just obviously weak and showing BN eventing when I sold him, truly one of the best boys to teach; such a trier.
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@RAyers oh I agree there is no reason a TB can’t do dressage all the way but for me as a pro to buy show and sell one there just isn’t the $$ in the dressage world sadly. If I ever retire and go AA (and can afford a horse still) I would love to take a OTTB to Grand Prix.
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The fastest growing section of British Dressage is TB dressage. As Britain has finally cracked how to ride dressage, there are more people with a better understanding of how to train TBs for dressage. There are a couple of well-connected organisation that promote post-racing careers such as RoR (www.ror.org.uk) who promote many classes across multiple shows and demand is beginning to exceed available animals. There is a good website “Thoroughbred Dressage” (www.thoroughbreddressage.com) with masterclasses full of suitably inspirational training videos.
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