Re: RC: race track to trail

[Rides 2 Far <rides2far@juno.com>]

  Sooo, my question is -
>what are your experiences in taking a horse from the track to the
>trail?  Is this a worthwhile venture or does it take sooo long to
get>them trail worthy that is is too time intensive. 

I got my first "off the track" horse at age 17.  He came home (2 yr. old
stallion) and I rode his aluminum racing plates off on the mountain.
(actually they held up better than I expected).  My family raced
Appaloosas at Pompano Park, FLA. for a few years and I got to be around
the business a little.  

If they're sound, I think ex-race horses are great choices.  They've been
handled 7 days a week by people who knew what they were doing.  They've
been hauled, feet handled, put on a hot walker, hosed, clipped, learned
to handle scarey stuff like crowds and starting gates.  They've been
handled very methodically and have more experiences than most horses that
age.  Now, I'll admit I've never spent much time on a horse that was a
"successful" race horse.  Of our two, one spent his 2 yr. old summer at
the track, and the mare was there at age 2 and 4.  A horse who actually
raced for years might be a different story.

The only training problem *can* be that they're taught to lean on a
snaffle bit to race, so sometimes taking a hold on them can mean "go
faster".  My first two off the trackers didn't go well in a snaffle but
were light as could be in a grazing curb.  The Arabian that I have leased
for my niece right now was on the track and he's so shy of any contact
that the slightest snaffle will stop him, so they don't all end up that
way.

Very little of a race horse's time is spent "running".  They put in days
and days at just a nice canter with 3 horses side by side and just easing
them up to the front, back and forth to give them the idea of racing. 
Funny thing about Ben Amil the ex-racer we have here now.  He'll dog
along behind you all day, but if he gets beside you he'll put a move on
you and hit another gear for the pass.  That may be his race days coming
back.

Even when you take your horse to the track, it's amazing how hard it is
just to get drawn to race.  If they run hard once every other week you're
lucky.  Seems like there were always too many horses trying to get drawn
for the race ours needed to be in.  As a matter of fact, my stallion
wasn't all that racey when he came home.   I made him that way racing all
the neighbor kids.  An ex-racer is probably a heck of a lot calmer than
an "ex-17 year old's mount".

It's very expensive to keep a horse at the track.  When one gets an
injury that needs to recover for one month, and the trainer isn't going
home any time soon, they sell them cheap, fast.  Just be really careful
about what the lameness is.  There's an endurance rider in Georgia whose
father is a TB trainer in Kentucky.  He warned me to always get x-rays if
you buy off the track... seems like it's the left fore you want to be the
most concerned with, since they run counterclockwise...(so I guess it's
right fores if they're imports :-)

I'd feel a lot safer trail riding on an ex-race horse than somebody's
backyard pet who'd never left his field before.

Angie

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