Retraining an off the track thoroughbred is exciting and can be a slightly terrifying journey to embark! Your thoroughbred will teach you patience, resilience and most importantly everlasting admiration for these elite sport horses. Every day is filled with learning and growth, just when you think you've achieved something there's always more goals to smash.

Lois, one of our ambassadors, has kindly shared her journey with owning her OTTB!

 

Lois - @loishurrell.sj08

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Riding and training thoroughbreds is such a rewarding thing to do but it’s equally as challenging. One thing I have learned in my experience with OTTB’S is that you need patience and perseverance. In saying this there are times you think I can’t do this, but you need to push through that and figure out what you’re doing wrong because what one horse understands may make no sense to another, so you have to figure out each individual horse and find what works for them. There is nothing like finishing a clear around in show jumping, cross country or having a good dressage test or lesson on the horse you trained yourself. When training horses ground work is the first and one of the most important things to do, making sure they respect you and understand your cues, because then when you’re riding this will help you and your horse.

 

Retraining A breed that is bred to go long distances so fast it’s going to have lots of challenges, not just Riding but the upkeep of them e.g. keeping weight on them with the right amount of everything for your chosen discipline. After having my OTTB for a few months she dropped off and lost quite a bit of weight, so we had to work out what to feed her to get her back to a healthy weight, we ended up changing the hay we were giving her an added copra meal to her hard feed. When you choose to ride them taking it slow and always ending on a good note is important, and helping them gain muscle and top line is also very important so that they can use their body properly, this will help with everything from flat work to whatever discipline you choose. when doing new things always be patient and calm because if you get frustrated or nervous they are going to pick up on that and then it’s a mess, I always set goals but i don't get upset if I don’t achieve them in that lesson as we all have off days and it’s better to end on what you’re both comfortable with then to push them too far and undo the work you have already done. So take your time and enjoy this journey with your off the track. 

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Head over to Lois’ Instagram to follow her  incredible equine journey and to learn even more about her horse.

We want to hear from YOU, let us know what the most exciting and challenging task of OTTB retraining is?

Keep on riding, pushing your boundaries and don't forget to tune into our blogs!