trainerman

Oh yeah. They are clever bastards. You can often tell when it's time to retire a horse from racing because instead of carrying on the race when they get round the course and near to the stables they will try and pull up.

Hello there!

In the last ten to twenty years there has been an increased push to rehome and retrain as many horses as we as a sport can. I personally try to rehome every horse that leaves the yard to a good home, provided the owner is willing and doesn't want to keep it themselves.

I wouldn't say that selling horses, particularly race horses, for slaughter is common practise here. I haven't encountered any instances personally.

Horses are frequently run aged two or three in this country as well however I think it's wise to mention that while they do work hard it is not in our or the horses interest to overwork or break them down. In our yard if a young horse is showing signs of struggling we will ease off and give them time.

Sadly no! I haven't actually read them and I don't really no why. I probably should however I have heard colleagues and compatriots discuss the subject and I think it's all fairly fanciful.

EDIT: If you want to learn a bit more about welfare and retraining racehorses in the UK let me know as I could probably rabbit on a bit more....

It's to make them go faster, it causes the horse no damage and Jockeys are carefully regulated. Limits are set in place for how much a whip can be used and bans and fines for excessive use are common.

Horses are big animals and the whip is primarily a correctional tool, they are trained to respond to it and it's used to keep them under control. Most schools of equestrianism use the whip in some form.

Hey there! Lovely to see another jumps fan out there.

Not from my yard I'm afraid we are very small operation and train maybe fifteen horses at any one time all of which run at a pretty modest level but if anything improves I will let you know! My family has a long history in racing and chances are you are probably are familiar with some of my grandfathers horses...

I love Big Bucks, he was truly a star and will be sadly missed in his retirement, his record is astonishingly good particularly his World Hurdle runs. Sprinters Sacre is another cracker of a horse, He is the greatest chaser of our time and I only hope we get to see him again.

A current favourite of mine is Fingal Bay trained by Philip Hobbes who won me a few bob at the Cheltenham Festival!

The training of a Racehorse is a long and fairly difficult process that starts even before they are born. They are literally bred for a specific kind of race, wether or not that end up doing that is something else. Some flat horses are started as yearlings so just over a year old generally but national hunt horses generally start much later perhaps left alone until they are two or three.

With a young horse you always start out with short amounts of light exercise. Over working them will break them down and no one wants that. They will be lunged a lot at first and then go on short trots with a very light rider on board. You build up feed and exercise until they start to develop appropriate muscle and just hope to god nothing goes wrong. Some flat horses race as two year olds whereas national hunt horses have to wait until they are four before they can start jumping.

They are the most wonderful animals and they just need to be taught in just the right way by just the right people, especially when it comes to retraining and rehoming.