Many of my horsey friends like to go to the racetrack. Like most people, we take money with us, and come back with an empty wallet. Unlike most people, we also take a trailer with us, and come back with a horse.
While many are shopping for horses in Europe, or scouring sport horses for sale websites, we are supporting the local economy and taking the more direct route to financial adventure. Less money spent on travel and shipping (go ahead, try to stuff a warmblood into a flat-rate box) means more to devote to our extreme Thoroughbred makeover.
When I started riding, Thoroughbreds were the rule instead of the exception—and many jumping horses had transitioned from careers on the racetrack. In recent years, TBs have regained popularity, and a number of organizations now focus on re-homing & retraining ex racehorses.
To determine if the “go shopping at the track” approach is right for you, you have to ask yourself a few key questions.
1. Are you a gambler?
This is sort of a trick question. Lots of gamblers go to the racetrack. But our kinds of gambles don’t involve cards or slots. We wager on “how his eye looks” and bloodlines and race records and gut instincts. The answer is “yes,” we are certified card sharks at the paddock fence.
2. Would you know a good Thoroughbred if it hit you upside the head?
Track horses are bred for a singular purpose: To run. In an ideal race horse breeding situation, runfastX chromosomes and runfastY chromosomes will combine to produce some holysmokem’ runfast-squared progeny. Certain bloodlines are known for producing speed, others for endurance. The exceptional horses are born with a capacity for both.
But as they say, the real proof is in the pudding. (I like that saying, but I don’t pretend to know what it means. The only thing ever proved by pudding is that you should always leave room for dessert.)
A potential buyer will want to closely examine the horse’s racing record to make sure he’s good.
Good and slow.
We don’t want the one that sets the track records. We want the one that runs so far behind the field that the parking lot is empty before he crosses the finish line.
We want the one who walks quietly to the post, rolls its eyes at the other jigging horses and thinks, “Dude, get it together.” Bonus points if he falls asleep in the starting gate.
We don’t want the ones going nose-to-nose in the photo-finish picture. See that other one? The one that looks like a tiny, indistinguishable dot in the background? That horse still making its way around the first half of the track? The one that, if you zoom in real close looks like he’s only trotting?
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We want that one.
Show me a horse that runs last most of the time, and I’ll show you a signed check with your name on it.
That’s not to say that the speedy horses never make good show horses. Two Thoroughbreds in our barn (now retired) went on to successful careers in the hunters after winning many races. I just personally prefer a horse whose lazy factor out-expresses his speed quotient.
3. Do you like blind dates?
Another challenge when you purchase a horse straight off the track is that you don’t get to try it first. Sit with that fact for a moment: you don’t get to try it. You can look it over and ask all the questions you want. You might get to observe it jog in hand, watch it exercise on the track or see its racing videos.
But you can’t ride it. Not that day, and possibly not for a while.
You can tweet photos to 300 people and take a vote on it. Play rock, paper, scissors. Flip a coin. Blindfold yourself and play pin-the-check on the racing program. Ask Siri. However you want to do it, you must make a decision to buy the horse without ever being able to sit on it.
It’s an act of faith equivalent to marrying your blind date before you ever leave the restaurant.
4. Are you willing to wait?
To say that Thoroughbreds sometimes come off the track a bit jacked up is like saying that the Hindenburg was a little bit flammable. Getting a recently raced horse can be like getting a kid who’s been on a steady diet of chocolate frosted sugar bombs. They need time to decompress physically, chill out emotionally and transition to their new environment.
Kind of like your trainer after a horse show.
This can take weeks, or months. Only then will they be ready to start learning their new job—and unlearning their old job.
A number of confusing new notions must be reconciled in the 4-year-old OTTB’s brain. For example: The round pen is not a smaller version of the racetrack. Cantering a circle to the right will not make your head explode. There is a whole ‘nother gait between “trot” and “gallop.”
Running like a Jack Russell on Red Bull, something you were once encouraged to do, will now scare the bejesus out of your new owner and must be eliminated from your repertoire. Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings; it does not take off so fast it leaves skid marks. The stock trailer is not a mobile starting gate. You do not need to shoot out of it like a hairy torpedo every time the door opens.
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Some of them get this right away. Some take a bit longer. Refer back to No. 1.
5. Do you have a steady paycheck?
While buying off-the-track can seem “cheap,” the universal truth of horse ownership is that you can spend money now, or you can spend money later—but you’re going to spend it.
The money and time you save by not buying an older, more educated horse you will invest in training, whether it’s you or someone else doing it. For your intents and purposes, your 4-year-old knows very little beyond steering and brakes. In some parts of the world, 4-year-olds are already schooling sizeable fences.
6. Do you enjoy surprises?
Remember, that “little” TB you bought off the track is still growing. Horses aren’t like catfish, which get only as large as their environment allows. Trussing L’il Grey Buddy into a 78” blanket isn’t going to keep him from busting out another couple inches if he feels like it. You better not get attached to that name, either, as in a few years you may find Big White Dirt Magnet more fitting.
Along with his ultimate size and coloring, it may be a long time before you find out how naturally suited he is for what you’d like him to do. Nothing screams “box of chocolates” like an OTTB. Not every one may be to your taste. Once in a while you may find some nuts. But mostly, there’s a lot to love.
7. Are you looking for heart, spirit, intelligence, and true partnership?
OTTBs are beautiful blank slates waiting for you to write the next chapter of their lives. Find the thing they love to do and no horse will do it better. They are cow horses. Trail horses. Foxhunters. Eventers. Dressage horses. Hunters. Jumpers. Devoted friends and partners who take pride in a job well done.
The process isn’t necessarily fast, or easy. TBs require a sensitivity and degree of commitment that simply cannot be faked. They demand that you participate as equals—no passengers. They are smart and athletic enough to rise to any task. In the end, we are often the ones who must step to their level.
Give them that and they will give you 100%. Where else can you get that kind of return on your investment?
After years of trying to fit in with corporate America, Jody Lynne Werner decided to pursue her true passion as a career rather than a hobby. So now, she’s an artist, graphic designer, illustrator, cartoonist, web designer, writer and humorist. You can find her work on her Misfit Designs Cafepress site. Jody is one of the winners of the Chronicle’s first writing competition. Her work also appears in the annual Amateur Issue print editions of The Chronicle of the Horse.
