We all read stories about the people who buy a race horse off the track and a few months later are cantering around a Training level course. My experience is that it takes a bit longer. Sometimes quite a lot longer. It depends on your ability as a trainer, it depends on how much time you have to ride and it depends on the horse.
Freedom is my third OTTB. My first one, a tall gangly chestnut gelding, never was able to overcome his soundness limitations. I sold him to a lady who mostly wanted to trail ride. My second OTTB was a lovely mare but hung her knees over every jump. Not suitable for cross country jumping.
Freedom is athletic and sound, but came to me with anxiety issues. It took me months to earn his trust and months before he would walk under saddle. He did learn to jump around week three. It was the only way I could get him to pick up his left lead!
I can remember one hunter pace where I came on my own. In the warm up area, I asked several teams if they would ride with me. They took one look at Freedom, who was, shall we say, not very calm. They all turned me down. Freedom and I got the last laugh. We won. But he cantered every step of the course.
I thought that Freedom would never make a hunt horse. For the first two years I owned him, when I rode him with other horses he had to be first. If I asked him to go behind another horse he would throw a tantrum. He’d paw the ground, fling himself in the air and basically be a pain in the butt.
It took time. Lots of time. And lots of patience. Eventually he figured out that going first wasn’t everything, even though he was bred and trained to be first. He decided that he could trust me and I learned that for all of the bouncing and posturing. I could trust him.
I started hunting him slowly. At least as slowly as you can hunt. He hilltopped for awhle, then learned to jump at the back of the first field. Turns out he loves to hunt and even more than that, he loves to whip. Thirteen years later, he’s still a handful. But he always tries his best and the time it took to get him there was worth every minute.
the thing i love about ottbs is that most of them can tell us how they’re doing with the transition into the new career, and when they’re ready for a new challenge or when they need to slow down and process. the tricky part is being able to listen and hear them!
My daughter got her first horse, an OTTB six years ago. We love her! But,….she did not push her. Within two weeks after she bought her (she saved her money for years, and bought her first horse at 16) barn friends were already asking when we were going to show her. Imagine their surprise when we told them we didn’t know. It would depend on the horse, and her capabilities. It is not about the human’s time table for shows. It’s not about the human’s riding level. It’s about the horse’s.