The most frustrating part of my job as a trainer is dealing with the people who own the horses. A big majority of them are absolutely clueless about what a horse actually is.

A horse, be it a racehorse, three day eventer, a barrel racer, roping horse, etc., etc., is an athlete. First, they have to be trained to do the job at hand, then they have to be conditioned to a point where they can compete successfully.

Young horses have to be taught to accept the bridle, saddle, and then a rider. They also have to be taught what the bridle is for. It is basically a steering wheel, used to communicate to the horse which direction the rider wants it to go. I haven’t seen a horse yet that did not resist a bit when first placed in their mouth. It can take days before they accept this foreign object in their mouth. 

All of this takes time. Horses, as a rule, object to all of this. Some more strongly than others. They will usually try to buck the saddle off. Once they finally accept that the leather object strapped around their midsection isn’t so bad, it’s time to introduce a rider. Once again, they will most likely make an attempt to be rid of whoever is on their back.  They learn through repitition and it sometimes takes weeks for them to be comfortable with a rider and respond to basic commands.

After several weeks of ground work to teach the horse the basics,  it is time for the rider. This often takes several more weeks before the horse is completely comfortable with everything and considered “safe” to ride out in an open area. When I start a young horse, I want to be sure that it understands that when I pull on a rein, it is supposed to turn, or if I pull on both reins, it is supposed to stop. I also want this horse to accept me as it’s partner and not break in two bucking out on the racetrack. Not only is it dangerous for me to get thrown, the horse could injure its self running loose in a panic and is a hazard to everyone else on the track.

Now it is time to start the conditioning part of an athlete’s life. Just like people, their muscles, tendons, and ligaments have to be in shape to handle the task they are asked to do. I don’t think a weekend jogger would even consider trying to compete in a marathon or try out for the Olympics. Once again, it take months and months of rigorous conditioning to develop adequate muscle tone and build “wind”. After this, racehorses must complete several requirements on the track before they can be approved to start in their first race. One of those requirements is learning to break from the starting gates and running with other horses.

Too many “owners” think that a thoroughbred automatically knows how to race when it is born. Thoroughbreds are bred to be fast. No horse knows what it’s job will be, much less how to do it. Some people can’t accept the fact that some horses are faster than others, which is why there are various levels of competition. I have actually been told that a horse is a horse and therefore, it can race at any level. A horse that can only run a half a mile in 50 seconds won’t have a chance to keep up with a horse that can do a half in 45 seconds. Again, this is why there are different levels of competition.

The most frustrating owners, by far, are the ones who think a horse can be ready to compete after only a month or two of training. They seem to think that horses are no different than machines. They want their horse, who barely knows how to gallop around the track, to go out and compete against horses that have had proper training – ones who have had a year in preparation.

Not too long ago, I took in several horses that were emaciated. I told their owner that they would need about six months to regain their health and be strong enough to compete. Her response was, “I can’t wait that long. They have to run now”.

My mouth just dropped. These horses were about 300 pounds under weight and very weak. Their ribs were sticking out and all of their muscle had wasted away from malnutrition. After just two weeks, she was calling me, demanding to know why I wasn’t taking them to the track for workouts. When I began riding these horses, I found out that they didn’t have a clue what racing was about. One wouldn’t leave the barn, one would go a few hundred yards and buck and another would gallop a short distance, run to the outside rail and stop.

Not only did I have to get them educated, I had to get them healthy. I can do a lot of things, but miracles is not one of them. After about six months, these horses had managed to earn about $30,000. But that wasn’t good enough. The horses were taken away and placed with another trainer. They have now managed to earn about $10,000 in the same amount of time, all the while I was being critisized.

More recently, I had a two year old filly that I started from scratch. When she came to me, she had never been touched by a human. In February I began introducing her to saddle and bridle. Not long after, she got a bad cold. It was about eight weeks before she was completely well. In April, I resumed her training ang began riding her. By mid May, she was going well enough to go to the track. Since she was a baby, I brought her along slowly and carefully, making sure she learned everything properly and wasn’t injured by pushing her beyond her physical capabilities. Keep in mind that it takes about 12 months to properly prepare a horse for it’s first race. It’s mid May when we really get started. Now it is August, only three months since we began, and her owner just pulled her out of my barn because we aren’t ready to run.

I have a good idea who’s barn she is going to (although I didn’t ask) and I know the type of “training” that gets done there. This beautiful, intelligent filly will be whipped and forced to do things she’s not ready to do. My biggest fear is that she will break down, either physically or mentally. 

Persons wanting to get a license to train horses have to pass a test to prove that they are capable. I believe the people who want to own horses should have to go through a similar process.

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Tags: horses, thoroughbreds, training

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 17th, 2008 at 10:35 am and is filed under horses. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.