Try a Thoroughbred
If you were looking for a new horse and someone suggested you should try a Thoroughbred, what would your reaction be?Yes please? Or no way?
If you've never had anything to do with them, you might be a bit wary. Thoroughbreds have a reputation for being sharp, quirky and temperamental. Not the easiest.
Many people also assume that Thoroughbreds are bred to race, and if they've been in training and raced, that's only going to add to the difficulty in dealing with them.
On the other hand, a growing number of people have discovered over the past few years that a good ex-racehorse is as good as it gets.
If you look at the records of any form of equestrian sport, you'll find the names of dozens of ex-racehorses among the winners. Ex-racehorses have won everything from Badminton to the Best All-Round class at your local pony club.
If you also take a look underneath all their Stud Book credentials and careful breeding, you'll find TBs are a really useful mongrel mixture of all sorts of breeds, which may help to account for the fact that they really can turn a hoof to ANYTHING. (It might also explain why they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. The Derby has been won by horses ranging from 15hh to 17.2hh. Likewise the Grand National.)
You want a top eventer, they can do it. Dressage? No problem. Polo? Endurance? Showjumping? Showing? Hacking? If you choose the right one, a Thoroughbred can take you right to the top.
Naturally, every breed has its stars and its duffers, but TBs seem to produce more than their fair share of gooduns.
Many of us at BEDMAX are TB fans and at least three of us currently own one, so we're obviously biased a little bit. But out in the wider horse world there are hundreds of examples of owners who have taken on a TB - and in many, many cases an ex-racehorse - and fallen completely in love.
There are plenty of opportunities for anyone to do the same. Every year between 3,000 and 4,000 Thoroughbreds come out of training and need a good home. That's a lot of lovely horses.
Many of them go straight to a new home arranged by the owner or trainer (a lot of them free to the right home). Some go to the sales. A very few fall between the cracks and are scooped up by specialist TB rescue and rehabilitation centres.
But all over the UK you'll find thousands of ex-racehorses enjoying new lives in all sorts of guises. We think this is worth promoting.
Ten years ago the British Horseracing Board set up a charity called Retraining of Racehorses (Trained to Run; Retrained for Fun) in order to try and make sure that as many ex-racehorses as possible found good homes and enjoyed a successful second career.
Retraining of Racehorses (RoR) has made giant strides towards fulfilling that aim, but not everyone is aware of their work. The RoR can help you either try an ex-racehorse in the first place OR help you make your partnership a success if you've already got one.
If you're interested in either angle, please take a look at their website. There are some great success stories on the site, including Anna MacDonald and Ben, pictured at the top of this page. Click here to read more...
The RoR site also provides a huge amount of advice, guidance and help on how to go about becoming an ex-racehorse owner, and how to maximise their potential.
If you own an ex-racehorse, the RoR are also desperately keen for you to register with them. Registration is FREE, and can open doors for you to benefit from all sorts of support, including incredibly cheap training with top competitors including Ian Stark, Karen Dixon, Jeanette Brakewell and many, many more.
Please do check them out and register if you're an ex-racehorse owner. There are no catches. It's all in your favour, we promise. We'll be putting more information on the RoR up on our website by and by, but in the meantime please wander over and see what they have to offer.
Click here for the RoR website: www.ror.org.uk
