| Thoroughbreds Try Harder |
Why choose a Thoroughbred to be your eventer, dressage star, hunter/jumper or even trail buddy? Because Thoroughbreds try harder. You often hear comments like: “You need a warmblood if you want to compete seriously in dressage.” Or, “Thoroughbreds are all hot and crazy and only know how to run”. Some people hold the view that the best sporthorses are warmbloods crossed with Thoroughbreds, but in my opinion, you can’t beat a good Thoroughbred and here’s why. Thoroughbreds are bred to be athletes. They come out of the womb all muscled up! They literally hit the ground running and they are born wanting to compete. I honestly don’t think you can say that of any other breed. So, most people will agree that Thoroughbreds want to win and have that intangible attribute often called “heart”. But, the interesting thing about Thoroughbreds is that it doesn’t have to be winning as a race horse. They will bring that massive effort and determination to whatever discipline you choose. In fact, “racetrack rejects” as they are sometimes referred to, are desperately looking for a way to excel. Take my little mare, Lola. She came off the track to me as a 4 year old. She was skinny, stressed and demoralized. She had run in 8 races and placed close to last in all of them. She was built like a sprinter and indeed she would race out to an early lead, give it everything she had and then some, but couldn’t close. It took about 6 months to get her back in shape physically and mentally and she was terrified of being asked to run and lose again. But we introduced her to dressage and she found that she COULD do that and do it well enough to succeed and she blossomed. She was happy in her lessons, learned quickly and easily and retained what she learned. The work changed the way she looked and moved, by building up her top line and getting her off the forehand. She became a happy horse and one that really wants to please. Will she get to Grand Prix levels or win at the Olympics? Probably not, at least with me as her rider. But she has made a wonderful riding partner for her older, amateur owner and provided countless hours of joy and pride.
are inherently unsound and fragile. You often hear that they are bred to peak at 3 years of age and won’t hold up to the rigors of the sporthorse disciplines. While it is true that the downhill build of the sprinter that is prevalent today is not ideal for some disciplines, it most certainly does not preclude that type of Thoroughbred from doing well for an amateur rider as they often make up for deficits in their conformation in other ways. Lola is a case in point. She is somewhat downhill and toes in slightly in front, but she presents a pleasing picture overall and is an elegant horse and she is a lovely mover with a great personality. There are however, many Thoroughbreds bred for the track who are the epitome of the modern sporthorse. I am trying to take that type of Thoroughbred (my stallion is a perfect example) and breed Thoroughbred foals that will excel in dressage, eventing and hunter/jumpers. As for the injuries suffered by race horses? If you took any other breed of horse and subjected them to the grueling lifestyle that is typical for a racehorse, whether they are competing at the stakes race level or just as an everyday claimer, I am pretty sure you’d find that Thoroughbreds are in fact, sounder under stress than any other breed. I have a broodmare who ran in 57 races, retired sound, carried me faithfully on the trails for several years and is still sound after 3 foals. She is 19 years old and looks about 8. I bet she could still run a pretty fast race! This is why I own, ride and breed Thoroughbreds. Thoroughbreds try harder, don’t know how to quit and in my admittedly biased opinion are the most beautiful of all breeds. |
| Thoroughbreds Try Harder |
| Sometimes though, things don’t work out so well for an inexperienced rider and a Thoroughbred. I think that, in most cases, the problem lies not with the Thoroughbred, but with owner/trainers who have little understanding of the breed. I recently read of someone who bought a young Thoroughbred gelding off the track and placed him into a boarding situation where the horse was stalled for most of time and only let out for a few hours when the stalls were cleaned and weather permitted. The owner did not understand why the Thoroughbred became hard to handle both on the ground and under saddle and said: “But, he was used to being stalled for 23 hours a day as a racehorse”. What she had forgotten was that on the track when he came running out of that stall, he got taken to the track and worked hard – very hard. He likely was trotted for a little while and then galloped. Nobody asked him to sedately walk and trot around an arena and then put him back into the stall. Obviously the amateur rider is not going to be able to gallop their ex-racer, but they can provide lots of turnout so that the Thoroughbred can replace that workout with free exercise in the field. I believe that Thoroughbreds MUST HAVE either consistent and strenuous work every day OR access to at least 8 hours of turnout per day. If you deprive your Thoroughbred of an outlet for his energy, you are asking for trouble. That energy is part of their DNA and it is what makes them into the wonderful equine partners they can be and I think it is present even in a Thoroughbred that has never been on the track. |
| Another area where people run into trouble (and I was guilty of this one myself) is in not understanding the sensitivity of the Thoroughbred mind. If a Thoroughbred is not doing what you ask him or her to do, it is usually because they genuinely don’t understand, there is a soundness issue or you are over doing the asking. As with any other horse you need to establish respect for you as being the absolute leader – no democracy with horses. But once you have established that, nine times out of ten your Thoroughbred will be more than happy to try to figure out what you want and do it the best way he or she can. When I first rode Lola, I would squeeze her sides the way I had been taught to ask her to trot. Lola would explode into a canter because you don’t need to squeeze to ask for the next gait up. Lola understood as soon as I shortened my reins and she picked up on my body signals that I wanted her to move out a little faster. When I squeezed, she took that to mean “Mom wants to GO!” The same with stopping or slowing down. Pulling on the reins was overkill for Lola and she had actually been taught to brace herself and go faster! However, by asking her to slow from a trot to a walk by sitting deeply in the saddle and letting out a deep breath she readily understood, “Mom wants to slow down”. Everything you do as a rider on a Thoroughbred means something and initially, I was sending poor Lola so many signals inadvertently, that the poor mare didn’t know what the heck I wanted! So, she reverted to what had always been the right answer in the past: “GO REALLY FAST!” I didn’t learn these things by myself. I had the advantage of a really excellent trainer and this is essential for a novice and a horse coming off the race track, or indeed for a young green Thoroughbred that has never raced. The key is in understanding both the genetics and previous life of a Thoroughbred. |
