Chris Irwin By Chris Irwin

Wherever I go, at almost every clinic, I’ll find a rider or two struggling to get along with a thoroughbred “off the track”. It’s not a secret, but the unfortunate truth is that far too often the retired race horses have earned a reputation as being too difficult and dangerous for the average equestrian to handle safely. In short, despite their incredible heart and athletic ability, thoroughbreds from the track are notorious for being unpredictable and volatile.

One of the biggest challenges facing anybody who wants to transform a race horse into a riding horse is that while a race horse has been ridden it has not necessarily been “schooled”. What I mean by this is that while it may be easy to put a saddle and bridle on an x-race horse it will not likely be easy to get it to stand still for mounting. And, when the rider, or a friend on the ground, attempts to “hold” the horse still long enough for mounting, the race horse usually starts to get more stressed and become either pushy or flighty. I’ve found that all too often, race horses have huge issues with people being “in their face” asking them to stand still.

Another common issue of retired race horses can be the use of the whip. A trainer working with a horse on the lunge line may need to reach out with the lunge whip and gently ask a horse to move his or her haunches “out” more on the circle, so that their hips are better balanced as they travel on the same track as their forehand. Or perhaps to send a gentle push “out” to tell the inside shoulder to not fall into the circle. While most horses will indeed speed up a little before moving their haunches or shoulders out into a better balanced and more comfortable way of moving, most thoroughbreds from the track are simply going to start galloping and get themselves more stressed as soon as the whip is brought into the picture.

Then there are the trot poles. While thoroughbreds are, in fact, generally very bold horses (the fact that 3 day eventing is dominated by thoroughbreds should speak volumes as to just how willing and brave thoroughbreds can be) it is almost comical the way so many race horses react the first time they see a trot pole laying on the ground. They are so conditioned to running on a clear surface that the first time they are asked to trot over the pole, wow, you’d think those poles were the biggest rattle snakes in the world!

Race horses are accustomed to wearing a saddle and a bridle but they are not at all familiar with the expectations that English riders bring to the saddle. The horses are often inverted, with little or no concept of working relaxed through the topline, well rounded, level headed or long and low. They do not bend from an inside leg into an outside rein and they will often think that a half halt means “I’m talking hold because it’s time to run faster”. As soon as you take contact with your seat, legs and reins in an attempt to channel the forward movement of the horse “between your aids”, the typical race horse will either brace its body and speed up, get strong and try to push its way through your aids, or become slippery and evasive in an attempt to wiggle their way out of your aids.

Another common issue with race horses is that they can often be “anti-social” towards other horses. So many of them lived in stalls without turnout time with other horses, and their only exposure to other horses was during the high anxiety of racing in a pack. Many race horses will feel competitive around the other horses, and they are often either aggressive towards, or easily frightened by, working around other horses in the arena.

The bottom line is that these horses need trainers who can aid them in making the transformation from their reality of ADHD – attention deficit hyper disorder – into becoming calm, confident, focused, trusting, willing, reliable partners. And just because you’re an accomplished rider this does not necessarily mean that you have the ability to help these horses change from racers into jumpers or dressage horses. We’ve now returned to the theme of my last few columns – “training before schooling”.

I’ve seen it happen so many times that a dressage rider gets on a horse off the track and tries to ride it “forward into the bit” so that the horse will “round out”. It seldom works. The dressage concept of simply “ride them into the bit and they will round out” comes from Europeans riding baroque horses. Sure, ride a Friesian, Lusitano, Andalusion, or just about any warmblood, or even most Morgans and Arabians, “into the bit” and these breeds that came out of the womb with a conformation that was “born on the bit” will most likely live up to the dressage ideal of “rounding out” when sent forward into the hand. However, drive the average “inverted” race horse forward into the bit and it only becomes more braced, more inverted and more stressed. What most track horses need is a significant amount of time working with their topline stretching “long and low” in order for their muscles and their mind to relax before they are asked to work “level headed” and then, eventually, to be worked into the bit to begin to round out their frame.

Another example of schooling before training is when people try to ride a race horse in straight lines. A horse needs to be calm, supple and focused, content to stay between the aids, before it is asked to work in straight lines. To try to ride a horse in a straight line while it is still challenging your ability to keep it between the aids is a very common mistake and it especially backfires on riders who try to ride race horses straight. If we know how to “massage” horses with our aids while riding them in gymnastic bending lines, straightening only for those few strides between working our way from one bend into the next, then we are able to relax and supple them sooner rather then later. Once a horse is truly supple and staying between the aids on bending lines then it is time for straight lines. It is easy to keep a supple and willing horse straight. However, trying to ride a pushy or evasive horse straight is setting both the horse and rider up for failure and frustration that more often then not results in a tug-of-war or battle of wills between the horse and rider. And when horses are whipped and spurred to “stay between the aids” they never truly become calm, supple or willing.

Whether the race horse is intended to become a trail horse, or go round in the dressage court, the jumping arena, or cross country, the thoroughbred off the track will need extensive “retraining” to assure that the horse is in the appropriate frame of body, mind and spirit before the horse is asked to go straight down the center line, bend deep into corners, or stay round and rhythmic to a fence with an elasticity and willingness to allow its stride to be lengthened or shortened by the rider. In short, training before schooling means that the race horse will need to “learn how to learn” before it is schooled for a specific discipline.

The race horse will need to be shown that it can trust that a whip does not always mean “faster”. To be calm, focused, and willing to stand still for mounting. To trust people to work with his or her head, mouth and ears. The race horse will need to become supple enough in training to discover that it can indeed bend throughout his or her spine and also travel straight while staying relaxed. The race horse will need to be shown that it is “okay” and “feels good” to move forward into the hand without needing to be “behind” or “above” the bit. And, most importantly, the race horse will need to know that there is someone who is capable of showing it these concepts in a user friendly, assertive, but non-threatening manner.

So, for the sake of providing some insight with practical training tips as to what the unique needs are for a thoroughbred to be able to enjoy a productive life “after the track”, I have teamed up with the Secretariat Center at the Kentucky Horse Park, home of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation out of Lexington, Kentucky, and also with The Long Run, the Thoroughbred Retirement Society based out of Woodbine race track in Toronto. During the coming months I will be writing a series of columns on practical solutions on how to work through all of the common problems that are encountered in retraining race horses. The focus of these training tips will be: “training before schooling – ask not what a race horse can do for you – ask what you can do for a race horse.”