----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2001 10:21
PM
Subject: RC: Stress of racing
youngsters
Caveat : what follows is opinion,
based on limited experience, no reading, and the odd musing. Not meant
to be taken as gospel / to sway opinion, but to encourage debate (ticking off
new year's resolution to be nice on the internet)
I have zero experience with
Arabs, racing or otherwise, but the local riding industry is heavily weighted
in favour of OTT TBs. They come off of the track regularly and
frequently the owner does not want any money for them. Many of these TBs
go on to have careers as jumpers / dressage horses / eventers, despite having
raced.
Not all of these horses "break
down" as a result of injuries sustained whilst on the track or because of wear
and tear.
My take on this is that, much as
we'd like to generalise that using a young horse on the track will cause
damage, it doesn't always. HOWEVER I believe that horses raced by
certain trainers are more likely to have "knocks" than those raced by
others. The trainer is the most important factor in taking a horse
OTT. There are some trainers I won't touch, no matter how good the horse
looks, and some I would take a horse from, sight-unseen.
Many things factor into my
opinion : the number of times a trainer will run a horse, the time he allows
between races, whether he "drugs", the jockeys he uses, the bloodlines he
prefers, his stable management, the handling of the horses when they're not
racing, etc, etc.
That's my take on the physical
aspects of racing a horse from young. But of course, there is more to it
than that. No matter how good / kind a trainer is, horses that come off
the track after a racing career (even a short one) need time to "come
down". They come from a place where they are stabled 23/7, worked hard,
fed a high-energy, high-protein diet (often with "little things" added to it
to increase performance) handled by people who frequently have little idea of
the psychological needs of the horse, or little time to take these into
account, and are the horses are usually just pissed off with
life.
(CAVEAT NO 2: This is my
experience with the SA racing industry and not meant as a reflection of racing
in general. There are exceptions to the rule
everywhere)
It usually helps to turn these
horses out for a few months to "come down" off the track : slowly reduce the
grain and change them over to a lower protein, less heating feed, or cut it
out altogether, up their hay, fix up their feet (racing plates are not my
favourite form of footwear!), give them time to get over their knocks, and
time to learn some ground-manners in a safe, unstressed
environment.
Unfortunately, what usually
happens is that the horse is re-homed and work commences the day after he
arrives in his new yard. The horse goes from doing fast work to being
asked to do slow, more collected work. He is often shoved into draw
reins (yup, gotta get those heads DOWN) / de gogues / chambons and asked to
work in a frame for which he has not built sufficient musculature. I've
seen horses jumping three foot after being off the track only three
months. IOW, he just isn't given the time to alter his muscular-skeletal
system to cope with the demands being placed on him.
And THAT, for my money, is why
OTT TBs "break down" earlier than unraced ones.
JMHO
T