How to Start Training a Thoroughbred Off the Track

Registered thoroughbred horses can be financially out of reach for the average horse enthusiast, despite the fact that they make wonderful saddle horses. Whether you intend to ride them for ranch work, dressage, reining or eventing, thoroughbreds (TBs) make fantastic mounts as long as you can afford one.

Race tracks offer a huge annual supply of well-bred, young, registered TBs for sale at an affordable price. While some have serious injuries, most were simply not fast enough to win. With proper retraining, most can go on to make great horses.

Instructions

    • 1

      Have your off-track thoroughbred (OTTB) thoroughly examined by your veterinarian and an equine chiropractor. Often, a chiropractic issue causes a TB to not move well enough at speed to win.

    • 2

      Work on suppling the horse through the jaw, poll and neck. Racehorses are taught to hold the bit and run faster. A saddle horse though, should give to the bit and soften. Teaching the horse to supple, whether in-hand or under saddle, is the first step to getting him thoroughly responsive to training down the road.

    • 3

      Sack the horse out. Although there are innumerable things in the racing environment that can frighten a horse and cause him to spook, bolt or buck, there are more in the outside world. The horse that bolts on the track stays on the track. The rider is relatively safe. The horse that bolts off the track, however, has fences, roads and traffic to bolt into. Sack your horse out until you know he won't bolt.

    • 4

      Teach the horse to yield to your leg. The horse should move his hindquarters and/or his shoulder off pressure from a leg cue. He should also be able and willing to yield his ribcage into a circle. The simplest way to teach a horse to yield to the leg is to ride very small circles with inside leg pressure to keep the horse from "falling into" the circle.

    • 5

      Ride your horse! Especially in the "natural" horsemanship community, there is a mistaken tendency to spend too much time on groundwork. As important as groundwork is, no one has ever broke a horse to ride by not riding it. Start out in the round pen and then move to an arena before taking the horse outside. This gives the horse and rider time to adapt to the new, larger environment before being overwhelmed by the "big, scary world" outside.