Tips for Retraining a Racehorse

A horse that has been on the racetrack will have many attributes to them that other horses that are taught traditional disciplines won`t have. The signals you give to the horse will also mean different things to them and it can be difficult to break some of these habits to make them more suited for other things like show jumping or just for casually riding and taking out for a hack individually.

Although retraining a racehorse is not easy, it is possible if you embark on a few specific things in your retraining journey. Focusing on these things will help you retrain the horse, but it will take time.

Patience

Patience is absolutely key to this whole process. It`s not going to happen overnight and you can`t get frustrated with them because then your horse will get frustrated and no progress will be made on anybody`s part. If you remain calm and confident, your horse will also remain calm and confident and then they will slowly start to pick up on your different cues and signals.

All horses take different amounts of time to learn new skills because obviously not all horses are the same. Similarly, not all horses are challenges. You might find a horse is a very quick learner and another one will take much longer, it all depends on the horse and you having the patience to deal with their situation.

Introduce New Tack Slowly

Racehorses are going to be used to completely different tack than what you`re about to use on them. It`s important to not just immediately start them on this new tack and take them out for a ride because they won`t know what`s happening. It`s like someone coming up to you and speaking to you in German and expecting you to understand, it just isn`t going to work.

Start out by just putting the tack on them one bit at a time and let them get used to it before you even think about getting on. Then get on and just sit there for several days before you think about riding them.

Then when you do start riding in the new tack, do it slowly. This means just walking and doing pole work and easy work before advancing to anything more dramatic to make sure they`re used to the feel of it.

Choosing the Right Bit

Racehorses are used to a bit with a lozenge in the middle and you`ll need to retrain them to respond to other kinds of bits because they won`t be used to how it feels and they won`t know what the signals mean.

Over time you`ll be able to move them to a snaffle or bit less all together.

The key to retraining a racehorse is just doing everything slowly and being patient. Everything else will happen, you just need to not rush the process. One step at a time and you and your former racehorse will be hacking along happily in no time. Perhape the most famous Racehorse to change careers may be the legendry KAuto Star pictured below.