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 Expert
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| For those that have trained horses coming straight off the track what is your typical training look like in the beginning? Do you get on them right away, do ground work first, start from scratch? Just curious what has worked for others.
Also do you look for a horse that naturally sits and turns freely or is that something you just work on in your training process? |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1062
Location: Probably On the Road to the Next Barrel Race! | We are on OTT horse #4...we start ALL ours, OTT or not, the same way: from scratch. Round pen and lunging for respect, yeild hindquarters n forequarters...standard Clinton Anderson training, done Clinton's way. It worked like a charm for the first three, you just cannot get in a hurry. Allow 4-6 months, depending on the horse, to get them ready for sloooow exhibitions. We had one ready in 3, but we still continued to go slow. The first 3 have all turned out to be nice, solid, fast, easy-in-alleyway horses. With way different turning styles, I might add...look for one with a short back relative to underline, a big hip, and strong forward slope to shoulder. Conformation is KEY...if youre not an expert at it, find someon who is, to guide you. Good luck. |
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Expert
Posts: 1261
| Thank you! I just picked one up a week ago and have worked with lots of babies but it's definitely different than your average baby or at least the ones I have worked with. I did have some one who's been successful with several help me chose and evluate them and give me the basics of what she does before getting on. The short back and long underline and shoulder angle were things she really looked at too. I do expect it to be some time before I run her. I usually like mine super super broke before I even start patterning so probably will just be riding and getting her well broke and soft before I think about the pattern. I haven't even gotten on yet but have worked with her almost every day. I ground drove her yesterday and at first there was no steering but she figured it out pretty quick but there was no whoa in there at all lol even though we have it on the lounge line pretty good. I don't really want to get on till I know we have whoa and steering.
I am just curious what other people do to get them going. Every one at my barn is asking me every day if I have been on her yet and if I am afraid to get on her or if she's really broke lol. I am not afraid I just want to set her up to be successful and solid and feel like there's probably some big holes to fill in before I do ride her. |
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 Color Coordination Director
  
| Most everything we have is off the track, ones that we ran or bought right out of race training. If they have a solid foundation on them going into race training they are a breeze normally. Like the above said take your time, teach them slow and correct and let them tell you when they are ready to move forward and then go slow again. I have a 5 yr old that ran as a 2 and 3 yr old, she was turned out for the winter after her 3 yr old year to decompress. She had 90 days of getting a handle on her, pasture riding etc and then we have hauled her everywhere we have been since. She is a little fractious and new places unnerve her- we find a corner and lope circles until she relaxes. She has sat in the middle of team ropers all day a whole lot. She is completely patterned, cruising a good pattern and exhibtioning now and holy cow she is talented but again new unnerves her. We just keep taking her places and the more she goes the better she gets but its not a fast process. Some horses transition like its nothing and others are like her and just need someone to let them have a meltdown and not get upset about it and move on. I can see the talent that seeps from her daily so we take baby steps. I hope by summer she is ready to enter but I am not going to rush her either. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 634
| wishes4kissez - 2016-02-24 4:15 PM
For those that have trained horses coming straight off the track what is your typical training look like in the beginning? Do you get on them right away, do ground work first, start from scratch? Just curious what has worked for others.
Also do you look for a horse that naturally sits and turns freely or is that something you just work on in your training process?
I like to let them be a horse for a couple of weeks and get the routine down of being let out during the day. Most of the OT horses aren't used to being in a pasture or with other horses. They're in a stall and then put on a walker. Then I start with ground work and go into light riding to see what they know. Depends on how they were started, if they have a good foundation and ground manners I move on. Some of them are pushy! Continue with lots of round pen work and make sure they have a good handle at the walk and trot. I start out with an o-ring combo on most and try to be really light handed, teaching them to listen to my legs more. I love OT horses. They're usually not spooky, love to work, and take to the rodeo atmosphere well in my experiences. Good luck!  |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1032
Location: IL | I started my OTTB mare from scratch. She was track broke when I got her so I treated her like she was a 3yr old colt that didn't know a thing. |
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Expert
Posts: 1261
| babbsywabbsy - 2016-02-25 6:29 AM
wishes4kissez - 2016-02-24 4:15 PM
For those that have trained horses coming straight off the track what is your typical training look like in the beginning? Do you get on them right away, do ground work first, start from scratch? Just curious what has worked for others.
Also do you look for a horse that naturally sits and turns freely or is that something you just work on in your training process?
I like to let them be a horse for a couple of weeks and get the routine down of being let out during the day. Most of the OT horses aren't used to being in a pasture or with other horses. They're in a stall and then put on a walker. Then I start with ground work and go into light riding to see what they know. Depends on how they were started, if they have a good foundation and ground manners I move on. Some of them are pushy! Continue with lots of round pen work and make sure they have a good handle at the walk and trot. I start out with an o-ring combo on most and try to be really light handed, teaching them to listen to my legs more. I love OT horses. They're usually not spooky, love to work, and take to the rodeo atmosphere well in my experiences. Good luck!
Thank you! I am excited! She was at a place where she was turned out with other horses every day and had been off since December so I think it's good she had a break and got a lot of time growing up to just be a horse. She's five and just ran 3 races two this past fall and one in the summer.
I know my friend who has had several from the same guy said they usually walk over the top of you and are real pushy but this one almost prefers to walk way behind you than next to you and hasn't been pushy leading at all. On the lounge line she has no idea it wasn't cool to come into my space though lol she wasn't chargey or anything she just didn't understand at first and would walk up and be right in my face lol. So she's been learning to respect my space. I wish I had access to a round pen the barn I am at doesn't have one up right now and the one I know I could haul her to is outdoors in the slick deep mud and it's kind of on an incline. We have an indoor that I have free lounged her in some at least.
I will be glad if she's not spooky! That's my other mares downfall. This one loaded into a strange trailer without even looking at what she was walking into, hauled alone without care and went from her home barn of five to a brand new place with over 40 and people and dogs everywhere without a care in the world. I was shocked but my friend said that's one of the things she likes about track horses they have hauled a lot and seen a lot so it's not a big deal. This guy lives an hour from the track so to even breeze they haul a good ways.
I wish I knew more about what her start had been but this guy sends them out to different people to start for him so who knows. The last trainer he had her at was supposed to get her ready to run and she came back not conditioned at all and has rain rot from the very back of her withers to the base of her ears, down to her knees and between her legs even. It's been awful trying to get rid of it! I spent over an hour yesterday brushing the scabs off and there's more. It's so sad! |
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 Expert
Posts: 5293
| I literally bought my colt from the track. As in he ran a race, they cooled him out and gave him a bath, drank some water and he was in his pen at my house in about 3 hours after the starting gate. He was unique in thats why he was for sale. lol He is SOOOOO laid back. Anyway he was on 14 POUNDS of sweet feed daily and in super ripped shape. He did not go through the same " Cruddy" looking period peole warned me about for track horses. I was very thankful in that he had a great handle on him BEFORE going to the track so I was not behind in his training. Nice head set, decent stop etc. He adjusted well. I did just totally give him a week to do nothing but get used to my place, other horses etc. took him off all grain, just hay for a week ( He had never eaten alfalfa or grazed on grass.) was funny to watch him watch other horses eating grass and look confused. LOL But he did fine and is now a finished barrel horse as a 5 year old. Pretty much a natural. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 634
| FLITASTIC - 2016-02-25 10:10 AM
I literally bought my colt from the track. As in he ran a race, they cooled him out and gave him a bath, drank some water and he was in his pen at my house in about 3 hours after the starting gate. He was unique in thats why he was for sale. lol He is SOOOOO laid back. Anyway he was on 14 POUNDS of sweet feed daily and in super ripped shape. He did not go through the same " Cruddy" looking period peole warned me about for track horses. I was very thankful in that he had a great handle on him BEFORE going to the track so I was not behind in his training. Nice head set, decent stop etc. He adjusted well. I did just totally give him a week to do nothing but get used to my place, other horses etc. took him off all grain, just hay for a week ( He had never eaten alfalfa or grazed on grass.) was funny to watch him watch other horses eating grass and look confused. LOL But he did fine and is now a finished barrel horse as a 5 year old. Pretty much a natural.
haha what a great story. And dang that is a lot of feed! |
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Industrial Srength Barrel Racer
Posts: 7268
| I always turned mine out for 30 days or so - to let them come down from their "supplements," then I started them like a colt. |
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 Straight Shooter
Posts: 5725
Location: SW North Dakota | I've had 2 claimers. One was a little Mr Jess Perry and the other was a Merridoc. Both were pretty quiet. I treated them both the same way- turned them out in a small (30 acre) pasture for a month, then round penned them for a couple days- probably spent a week putzing with them to assess them, then a month or so refining their "brokeness," then ranched on them for 3 or 4 months. Seems the hardest concept for both to grasp was traveling on uneven surfaces, like walking up and down hills, navigating trees, etc. The Mr Jess Perry was kind of a star-gazer. He stumbled a lot, so I took him to one of our semi-rough badlands pastures- thinking he'd figure it out or fall off a cliff. He fell off a cliff. I tore my ACL, but he was a lot better about paying attention to his feet after that. Both of them stayed quiet. Both were actually ratey barrel horses, but neither had the grit to make a decent one. After a couple of years, I ended up selling both of them to family homes, where they do 4-H, playdays and ranch work. They were pretty fun, but I doubt I'll be in a hurry to get another one. |
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 Scorpions R Us
Posts: 9586
Location: So. Cali. | The two I got straight off the track I was on the next day. Love my off the track horses. But yes, basics, ground work, etc. are defiantly needed. We only ever turned one out as he came off the track sore, otherwise mine always went right back to having a job, they seem to like that. |
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Nut Case Expert
Posts: 9305
Location: Tulsa, Ok | I think how you proceed is totally dependent on what kind of foundation the horse has on them and how they have been handled. With the right background they can move forward from day one off the track and never bobble. This is why I feel it is extremely important to know where the horse comes from and who has trained them. There is a wealth of information about the mental status of a horse to be gleaned by watching them in the paddock, post parade and gates. |
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 Namesless in BHW
Posts: 10368
Location: At the race track with Ah Dee Ohs | SC Wrangler - 2016-02-25 2:05 PM I think how you proceed is totally dependent on what kind of foundation the horse has on them and how they have been handled. With the right background they can move forward from day one off the track and never bobble. This is why I feel it is extremely important to know where the horse comes from and who has trained them. There is a wealth of information about the mental status of a horse to be gleaned by watching them in the paddock, post parade and gates.
Exactly |
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  Twin Sister to Queen Boobie
Posts: 13315
Location: East Tennessee but who knows?! | I go back and start them just like they were a colt. Ground work, lightness, moving their body around. I took one in this fall that has been jumped some and the girl did a good job riding but he still had a ton of gaps. I'm completely starting him over. First rides on Colts for me is in a rope halter and bareback -- he's no different. I've had 2 rides him in the pen bareback and he's learning how to relax. He's had all winter off with just occasional ground work. Weather breaks we'll start back. |
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