Racehorse to Riding Horse

From the March 2015 issue of The Stable Magazine – www.thestablemagazine.com/march2015

If you’ve been following The Stable for a little while now, you’ll realise that we’re big into Thoroughbreds...

Despite swearing not to own one many years ago, somehow we have two of our own in the team - both retired racehorses, and both much-loved family members we could not do without. We are loving the work that Racing Victoria’s Off The Track program is doing. From sponsorship of local events to offering prize incentives for retired racehorses that have turned a hoof to a new sport or discipline, they are working to highlight the versitility and athleticism of the breed, and they are doing a wonderful job.

We’ve also been privileged enough to attend a couple of talks from the experts (Jonathan McLean and Andrew McLean of the Australian Equine Behaviour Centre) about the re-training of throughbreds off the track, so this particular seminar at Equitana, ‘Racehorse To Riding Horse’ caught our eye when studiously reading the program to ascertain which events and demonstrations to attend.

As we settle in to the grand stand, Andrew McLean is checking on the progress of three groups of Thoroughbreds. One young gelding is being worked with on the ground in the round yard by Monolo Mendez. Jono McLean and Sonja Johnson, along with event rider Nina Clarke have a couple of horses working over small fences and poles, and AEBC Principal coach, Manuela McLean is in the dressage arena with one young green horse, and a lovely more established grey Thoroughbred gelding.

It’s best left for our hosts to do the talking; they were insightful and full of great information, tips and hints, and discuss a great many topics relating to the care and training of retired racehorses... Enjoy! We certainly did!

Sonia:“As you can see the horse Jono is on, this dark brown horse is a very, very inexperienced horse and this is a very overwhelming environment for a young horse. So, probably the first thing you’ve noticed is that when you’re training these young horses; you have to be prepared to change your plan. What we want to achieve with this horse today is to get him relaxed and confident.”

“I had a plan which was the circle, which we were going to trot over and canter over it. Just working on rhythm, relaxation and getting the horse to be confident with rails on the ground.”

ANDREW:“And a little bit of steering too?”

Sonia:“Yeah, and a little bit of steering was definitely on the agenda. But this horse was so overwhelmed that I just said to Jono, “Right what we need to do is just focus on one rail and just keep turning him” so that he had a job. Because I always say that they are a bit like kids. Unless you give them a job they are revolting. So give ‘em something to do – much nicer to deal with.”

“So we started off just in the walk, just turning, backwards and forwards over the rail. The horse does not want to turn right so I went in there and helped Jono with the turn. Reminder to self... When you have to do that, make sure you wear proper boots! I’m gonna have a great bruise!”

“Then once he could do that we put two rails there because the two rails, and then the three rails, really helps the horse to develop the rhythm as well as giving him a job. We were also very grateful we had Nina’s older horse here because it has done a great job of reassuring the young horse that Jono’s on and giving him a lead. Because the last thing we want to do is make this a scary thing for this young horse.“

“Obviously if this was a young horse that I’d just got off the track that I was aiming to turn into an eventer. The first thing I would have done when I came home is things that Nina and Jono have already done. I would have checked that it’s teeth were in good condition. I would have checked it was in good health. If It was a little bit lean I wouldn’t fill it up with high powered food, ‘cause It’s already probably fit and full of itself - so let’s keep it on very simple feed. Enough that it’s got plenty of health, but not so much that it thinks it’s King Kong!”

ANDREW:“It’s pretty interesting Sonia when you look.. It’s a great example here because you can see the older schooled horse he’s really nice and straight in the neck and he turns easy on the jump, he’s an old hand at it, but Jonathan’s has quite a right turn issue and I was talking to Jono a minute ago and he said it had left turn no problem, but right turn doesn’t do it. Because on the race track left turn is pretty much all you need in Victoria.”

Sonia:“Same as Western Australia. I’d suspect they’re different if they come out of Sydney are they?”

ANDREW:“Yeah they are, they don’t turn left there (laughs)”

Sonia:“The other thing that I would love to do lots of with this horse is, I wouldn’t bother to jump it a lot until Jono had the ability to ride it on his line and at his speed. I’m very lucky with where I live, I can hack them out. I love taking them out walking them across little drains, up and down the dam banks. Anything to give these horses a job.”

“First of all preference is so interesting. I said to Jono ‘why haven’t we got a martingale on this horse?’, because I wouldn’t get on a young horse like this without a martingale; I really like my teeth. But Jono said to me, ‘No, I want to be able to put my rein wherever I like.’ So it’s very much personal opinion in that and what you like. So Jono’s done a great job and we will now see if we can actually canter a circle. I think we might start on the left rein.”

ANDREW:“Coming from my background riding difficult horses is that if they tend to rear, it’s a little harder with a martingale, so being able to open the rein it releases the turn. I think that’s his reason. It’s an interesting theme isn’t it that whatever you do be it dressage, eventing, showjumping. In fact any horse sport. It’s always about I ride my horse on my line at my speed. It’s about gaining control of speed and line isn’t it?”

Sonia:“Absolutely. And that’s just what this little horse doesn’t understand. But as you can see Jono’s being very light seated with the horse and Nina is being very helpful with the horse and just saying ‘Come on mate, come with me’. Because they are a herd animal and I’m sure that Jono’s young horse is gaining so much. It’s just gained so much confidence for having her with him.”

ANDREW:“One of the things to think about when you’re looking to buy a thoroughbred or get one off the track, cos that’s the beauty of them they’re usually much cheaper than any other horse, is to think about what you want them for. “

“if you’re looking for a show hack you’re probably better off with a sprinting line because sprinting horses tend to be short coupled, muscular and really beautiful, and most of the top thoroughbreds that make good show hacks tend to have a lot of sprinting background. But if you’re looking for temperament because the sprinters are a little bit hot, often. Well, this is a generalisation - but they often are. If you’re looking more for temperament it’s a good idea to look for a stayer. Ideally you want a horse that hasn’t done too many races, but that doesn’t really matter. If he’s a sensible stayer it’s all good because the great thing about a good stayer is he’s got to learn to stay in your speed until the home turn and then go when he’s told to do it. So there’s an element of obedience in a stayer that you don’t see as much of in a sprinter.”

“one of the great things that’s helped us in Australia is the Thoroughbred. We would never have been able to do it without the Thoroughbred.”

“The stayers are so ideal for eventing. I mean, all our early successes in the Olympic games, and we were back-to-back gold medalists for three Olympic games and previous to that we won also in Rome - one of the great things that’s helped us in Australia is the Thoroughbred. We would never have been able to do it without the Thoroughbred.”

“When we took them to Europe to do their three-day events they just ate the cross-country. Compared to the European warmbloods that just struggled with their breathing, the Thoroughbred is designed for running. So the old days when they had a strong speed and endurance phase there was nothing like a Thoroughbred and eventing was a Thoroughbred sport. I’ve got a sneaky feeling that the Europeans changed the rules of eventing not only for horse welfare to make it shorter but also to favour the warm blood and knock us off the podium in eventing. We’re still there to some extent.”

“So I’ll just go have a chat to Manuela and see what she’s on about. She’s working with a young horse ridden by Katie. And I must say that when I first saw him he was really a hot pocket and a little concerned by the wind and all of things and now he’s looking much more relaxed, we’ve got a bit of a walk happening.”

MANUELA:“He was a bit too tense to do stop and go so we just did lines. The first thing we wanted was that his outside front leg stayed close to the wall. So Katie just used her outside rein to put him there and then she relaxed the pressure as soon as he did it. And then we just introduced a little bit the indirect, which is the inside rein towards the neck and then the outside rein makes it happen.”

ANDREW:“How important is the release of the pressure, say when the horse steps to the right towards the wall, how important is it to get it on time?”

MANUELA:“The important thing is that he actually turns in the beginning, that he puts his outside front leg. What he was doing was he was crossing that outside front leg rather quickly towards the inside. So Katie tried to turn and slow and immediately he did it she just softened her rein.”

ANDREW:“So it looks like the same with what we saw with Sonia’s horse, we’re really controlling once again speed and line.”

MANUELA:“The indirect turn has the effect of straightening the neck. So this is the more difficult rein, she’s about to pick up the trot and we’ll see how we go.”

ANDREW:“The indirect turn is something we are not always familiar of in the Australian, American, English and German world because the indirect turn never really went to Germany when it was first introduced in France two centuries ago, so people can’t recognise it, yet everyone does it. Everybody knows that when they bring the rein to the neck that they want the horse to straighten his neck and even to shift sideways and every horse eventually learns it. So it’s quite important isn’t it to teach it?”

MANUELA:“Very important to teach it and important to teach that the reins mean turn and the legs mean go. So it’s very common to use your inside leg to make them turn out. But Katie’s doing a really good job. He tends to be a little bit hot so the only time she’s using her leg is if he slows down or if he walks.”

ANDREW:“So what’s the problem with using your leg to turn, or what part of your leg are you talking about?”

MANUELA:“Well you can turn with your thighs, like you can put your inside thigh on, and your inside rein towards the neck and you can pull him out, but your lower leg is really your accelerator. He’s actually starting to look a little bit lazy so I think we might just try a little bit of speed control.”

“So what I want you to do Katie, is just give him a wee nudge to give him a longer stride. That’s it. Then if he gets a bit quick you can slow him down and put his shoulders out. So you slow right down, relax and then you can ask him for longer again. So once he gives a little bit of a longer stride you then slow him down just so you can practice it again. We did do a little test of self carriage, which is to put the hands forward and let him travel and he quickened a little bit so we slow him down and we ask him to go back out again because he quickened and drifted and then we try again. We loosen the rein a little bit and see what he’s got.”

ANDREW:“So when you’re loosening the rein to test self carriage, what you’re really doing is seeing if you give the reins away either one or both I presume you’re saying. Then you want to check if the horse changes speed or changes line.”

MANUELA:“Yeah, and often they’re both together so there’s a bit of a change of speed and a bit of a drift to the inside. So Katie can actually slow and turn because it’s rein aids.

ANDREW:“So it’s so much like what the old horsemen have always said; is that you have to control speed and line. ‘I ride my horse on my line at my speed.’ And also separating the aids and making everything clear for the young horse.”

MANUELA:“Now we’re sticking to this end a little bit because it has been our safety zone, but I think we might just gradually go down to the bottom end to the boogieman. Just see how you go Katie. Remember your footing is outside front leg on the line. You can use a little bit of your inside rein and then he says, ‘that’s ok, there’s a few people but I can cope’, and you can gradually get closer and closer. You might even find he falls out, so you can use your outside rein towards the neck and your inside rein can help to turn. He’s a bit nervous, he’s done lots of poos but he’s coping.”

ANDREW:“It’s a bit like watching Jonathan’s horse over there in the jumping because they are learning the lines. You’ve got to remember when they’re on the race track they’re almost going not under full control, in that the jockey often has quite a hold and the horse is not necessarily steered in any direction or another. The legs of the jockey are held high in the saddle and so the horse tends to be more controlled by the herd of the horse race than the jockey completely. Of course this is a generalization because some of them are more controlled than others. So that’s why it’s a little bit of pot luck what you get off the race track.”

Andrew has wandered over to the far side of the arena where Manolo is working with a young horse on the ground in a lungeing arena.

ANDREW:“Manolo are you ok to have a chat? Can you just explain what you’re doing?

MANOLO:“His name is Barry. This horse, he apparently win $5000 in racing. He’s only 5 years old. His muscles are very stiff from racing and the hamstring in the back leg are very tight. With a type of horse like this you don’t want to give him too much work too quick. You need to change the whole system and get him to a accommodate into a very nice supple horse. Because him being for so many years racing and still a young horse we need to try reprogram his mind, his body and everything.”

“I’ve found with some horses who’ve been racing for 7 or 8 years, sometimes you have to teach them to breathe like everything else.”

ANDREW:“Cos often they hold their breath don’t they? The sprinter especially will hold his breath.”

MANOLO:“Yeah, and it’s such an important thing for the horse because they need oxygen inside the body, the muscles need oxygen.”

ANDREW:“So much of our work with a young horse is about teaching them to be ambidextrous so that he can be more even. Especially with a racehorse if he’s raced in one direction he’s going to be very stiff and more one sided even than if you got him before he raced.”

MANOLO:“Oh yes, always that’s what happens. That’s why the job of the trainer is like a good mechanic, tune the horse. Our job is to make the horse level both sides both left and right.”

Manolo went on to say that basically everything you do should be done in moderation. Things like walking on sand, swimming; walking on steep terrain should all be done in moderation and are good if not over done. He also added that different types of surfaces are very important in training.

ANDREW:  “One thing I think is useful to know is that when you’re training an animal you’re basically modifying pathways in the brain. These pathways in a young horse or a horse that is naive are thin and unpracticed. So it’s rather like a big wad of cotton wool. But what you want to do is to make those tiny pathways thicker and stronger through good practice.”

Then it’s back over to Jono and Sonja, with their young horses working over poles and low obstacles...

ANDREW:“Ok Sonia can you tell us the lowdown on this one?”

SONJA:“Well I’m actually really impressed with the job that Jono’s done ‘cause we can now nearly turn right quite often (laughs). I’m really glad Nina’s here because the big horse is doing such a good job. When we introduce this young horse to this small spooky fence I’m a big believer in not actually walking them up to them and halting and saying ‘this is something you halt behind’. As you noticed Jono was walking around it. Letting the horse look at it, but understanding it had to keep staying forward on Jono’s line at Jono’s speed. Because that’s the big thing that these young horses don’t know.”

SONJA:“The little horse is getting tired, and something we have to be really careful of with these young horses is, they haven’t done this work, they haven’t used these muscles. So we need to be smart enough to go ‘well the goal today was to do this’, but actually we had to change our goal because we couldn’t ride in a straight line’. So the fact that the horse will now canter down to a fence that he thought was really scary, that he will mostly turn right when requested now. Sure, I haven’t done all the exercises that I wanted to show you, but we’ve adapted to our horse and that is what we have to be really careful to do as trainers is know where we’re trying to get, but have many different pathways on how to get there so that we’re constantly going the nicest, most friendly way for our horses.”

ANDREW:“All credit to you Sonja, I mean look how far you’ve come with this horse who actually didn’t turn at one point at all. Now we’ve got him jumping over this fence and he’s not looking too bad is he? I mean it’s a good effort for a young horse.”

SONJA:“And in this environment, this horse will probably go home and sleep for a week! His little mind is going to be so overloaded. But it’s all credit to Jono and Nina, they’ve worked as a team and Jono’s been able to stick on top of it when he stuttered. This is something a less experienced person has to be really aware of when they get these young horses, is don’t be too proud to go ‘I really like this horse but at the moment I think it’s a bit sharp for me’. I can tell you I’ve got a young one at home at the moment that I think is gonna be super, but I’m getting too old to ride it with all my injuries, so I have crash test dummies that get on that. They can get the buck out of it and once I’m confident that it’s safe enough for me then I will start riding it. Don’t be too proud to get help. They are lovely animals but they are big and they are sharp and powerful. They are great animals but we have to respect them.”

And with that, Andrew returns to Manuela, who is now working with a handsome grey gelding in the arena closest to the grand stand...

ANDREW:“Ok so now we’ve got Caroline Bentley riding Cape Wickham. Named after the northern tip of King Island where Jonathan and I grew up.”

MANUELA:“So with Caroline, I’ve just been going through the ten aids – actually there’s nine. So your stop aid, which is close your reins for two steps, your go aid. You can do a little bit of a trot walk for that if you like Caroline. So you’ve got a little bit your seat which you use and you give him a little bit of a light squeeze for trot and he’s just gotta go into rhythm. The next little thing she can do is a little bit on the circle or here and there, just changing the bends. So she’s actually introduced flexion into this horse’s training. I think Katie just did straightness, but with Caroline we did a little bit of changing the flexion and changing direction so that we’ve now got bend. She’s using her inside rein towards the neck like an indirect turn, she’s putting the knuckle into the neck a little bit to get a bit of flexion and she’s using a little bit of her thighs and shoulders to turn.”

“So we also need to lengthen and shorten the stride, so we’ve got a different aid for lengthening. We’ve got a little nudge of the heel for longer and that’s associated with moving the arms a little bit more in the walk and in the canter. And then shorter is moving the arms a little bit less and giving a really brief whoa and she can shorten her seat movement as well.”

“Then we’ve also got another two aids that we can use with a more advanced horse and that is the slowing aid, where you make everything go really, really slow because he’ll need to learn really slow legs for passage. And then she needs to make him also go a little bit quicker and that’s just a lighter dosage of the go aid.”

ANDREW:“So we always need a ‘quicker’ button don’t we? Because the thing about training movements is that once you get there it’s quite common that horses give you for example a good half pass, or a good shoulder in, but it’s just not active enough. So you always need a ‘quicker’ button to make it at the right tempo.”

MANUELA:“You certainly do. And if the ‘quicker’ button doesn’t work you can make it a little bit stronger, but usually we change gait to make it a little quicker. The other aid he needs to know is the leg yield aid. And that’s just one leg back and squeezing for two steps he goes sideways if you just relax and sit in the leg yield position. So that’s pretty much your nine aids and with those nine aids you can start to train a horse all the way up to Grand Prix.”

(Sounds so easy, doesn’t it?!)

Andrew and Manuela finished off this part by explaining that most moves are just combinations of all the basics, such as travere and half pass. You join two or more of the techniques that you’ve learned.

ANDREW:“Sonja, have you got anything to say wrapping up on the two horses in your class or anything else you’ve observed about thoroughbreds?”

SONJA:“Thoroughbreds are just such wonderful animals. My very good horse is an off the track thoroughbred. It is a joy to ride. It has a wonderful work ethic. It wants to do what I want. The funniest thing is with him is to put him away is actually punishment. He didn’t get to the World Championships because there was an injury developing, but he’s back in work with my Mum. The funniest thing is she’ll be hacking back towards the stables from around the farm and the closer she gets to the stables the slower he gets. He’s just like ‘no, let’s keep working’. But I think that’s something we have to be careful of, not to abuse, that wonderful work ethic that we don’t push it too hard. Look after their muscles, look after their minds, keep them sound and they will just do so much for us in any discipline and just be a joy to own.”

ANDREW:“Manuela have you got something to say at the end about Caroline’s horse or just a general overview?”

MANUELA:“Caroline’s horse we decided to finish partly because he’d been there for quite a while. He’s not very fit at the moment; he’s been turned out. We could have pestered him and got the changes better and the lengthenings better, but in the end it would have just caused more problems. So it’s better off to say ‘you’re tired, we’ll leave it for another day and we can school those movements another day’. But he did a good job. We wanted to show a little bit of passage but that wasn’t today so it’ll have to be another day. But I was pretty happy with him. He’s a good boy.”

ANDREW:“Again, that’s the whole thing with it isn’t it. If you push these horses that are sensitive over the edge then you lose them because that’s the problem with adrenaline, if it’s prolonged you get cortisol and the horse isn’t home anymore. You can make him do things but his memory is impaired and it doesn’t help for the future. Really keeping them at a certain threshold of calmness is the critical part.”

MANUELA:  “Absolutely! You need a little bit of adrenaline or a bit of pep to learn, but too much causes no learning. So finish on the note that you can, make it calm.”

ANDREW:“In my observation and what I saw with each of the three trainers was that the horses were getting constant rests. The brain consists of all of these pathways, the part of the brain we want to fill with new learned responses, because brain tissue or neural tissue in general is so expensive to run. It takes a lot of oxygen and glucose. It’s a known fact that the brain tissue is ten times more energy expensive than any other tissue in the body and so therefore it gets overloaded easily and a horse tells us this, so it’s very important that he gets rests. It takes about two minutes, maybe one and a half to two minutes for the blood supply to replenish those pathways and then you can go on and do another set, but the rest is a very important thing.”

And on that note, it’s time for both the horses and our wonderful teachers to take a rest, but the ‘Racehorse To Riding Horse’ was a fantastic addition to the Equitana program.

VIEW THOROUGHBREDS FOR SALE ON HORSEZONE HERE

Thank you to The Stable Magazine for this article, which was originally published in their March 2015 issue. Check out The Stable Magazine online now for FREE. Read this article and many more at www.thestablemagazine.com