Here in Britain the showing season is upon us. (The pictures are of my mare Miraed, the only one of my present ex-racers that I've had any real showring success with so far. I'll introduce her to you properly in a later post) For me the show season is a time of frenzied late-evening and early-morning activity every weekend; bathing horses, washing and plaiting manes and tails, cleaning tack, retrieving the show jacket from the corner of the horsebox and trying to scrub and iron it back into respectability....
All this to get up at some stupid-o'clock dawn hour, drive your now-beautiful horse to a muddy ( or dusty) windswept field, meet up with a lot of like-minded lunatics, and then run up and down all day in driving rain or baking heat. It's a ritual called the Great British Horse Show, and people actually do it for fun. ( Some folks even take it seriously - but ex-racehorse owners are seldom able to do so, because ex-racers have a real talent for making their humans look complete idiots in public. A healthy sense of humour is pretty essential.)
Attending all these shows, large and small, throughout the summer months has always been a great way to accustom young horses to travelling and to riding in different situations. It works well for ex-racers too. Though they are usually good at loading and travelling ( after all, it was part of their former day-job), they benefit enormously in their retraining and rehabilitation process by getting out of a horsebox at a big gathering that ISN'T racing. The first couple of times, of course, the horse will get himself all excited and geared-up to race. He will be confused when you then ask him to do nothing more than trot up in hand once or twice. (In-hand classes are the safest to start off with. It's also best to have someone along to help you if, through nerves or frustration, your ex-racer decides to show you exactly what he used to do for a living.)
Gradually though, over the weeks, the horse will realize that travelling does not always result in racing, and he will learn to relax. He will come to enjoy the long, lolling-about hours between classes, with nothing to do but be petted and fed endless grass, hay and carrots. Eventually he will be blase enough to listen to you when you ask him to walk, trot and canter circles under saddle in the showring. That marks a great watershed achievement !
The biggest drawback to showing ex-racehorses ( for those interested in prizes, anyway) was always that, likely as not, these horses had various blemishes, scars, lumps and bumps acquired during their racing days. This meant they were heavily marked down against the flawless beauties who had never had a hard day's run in their lives. Recently, though, several groups have grown up which, in order to promote the rehabilitation and retraining of racehorses more widely, have begun to organise or sponsor show classes specifically for ex-racers.
Here are some of their details :
ROR - Retraining of Racehorses ( the largest official ex-racer charity in UK.) Presently they are organising the Tattersalls Show Series, the Retrained Racehorse Challenge, and the RoR/SEIB Racehorse to Riding Horse series through shows around the country.
web: http://www.ror.org.uk/ email: info@ror.org.uk
Ex Racers Club - an online forum club that sponsors classes nationwide
Scottish & Northern Ex-Racerhorse Club - Similar to the above, but concentrating on events in Scotland and northern England.
TARRA - Thoroughbred & Retired Racehorse Association - organizes classes in England
web: see http://www.ror.org.uk/ email: petergunn3@aol.com
web: see http://www.ror.org.uk/ email: petergunn3@aol.com
In addition to these, more and more small local shows are now including TB/Ex-racehorse classes of their own in their schedules, so it's always worthwhile enquiring.
I'm guessing that similar things are happening in other countries too. Anyone out there know ?
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