The Thoroughbred: the Original Sport Horse

The Thoroughbred: The Original Sport Horse

Our guide to finding an off-the-track TB for dressage

By AmBer HeintzBerger

38 July/August 2012 • USDF ConneCtion he natural athleticism and refined beauty of the Toroughbred horse have been valued for centu- ries in horse sports. Warmbloods may dominate in today’s dressage world, but check the pedigrees tof many successful modern sport horses and there tends to be a great deal of Toroughbred blood running through their veins. over the years, some full-blood Toroughbreds have excelled in the dressage arena, even after successful racing careers. And prior to the development of the warmblood sport horse, Toroughbreds were the sport-horse breed—and they continue to dominate in certain disciplines, such as eventing. Toroughbred enthusiasts prize the breed’s stamina and “heart.” Although Toroughbreds fell out of favor for dressage for many years, some dressage riders are beginning to realize that the modern, refined warmblood is not necessar- ily so different from a nicely built Toroughbred—and that Toroughbreds often can be had for less money. Toroughbreds come from all walks of life: small inde- pendent breeders, large-scale racing breeders, and successful and failed racehorses alike that are retired and ready for new careers. Some tBs come to dressage from other disciplines. Te hunter ranks may reject a good-moving horse that’s not a great jumper, for instance; or a prospective event horse may lack the bravery needed to go cross-country. in this article, we’ll explore the Toroughbred’s history in dressage, and we’ll offer some expert pointers on finding a suitable tB for the sport. Success Stories Toroughbreds that make it to the grand Prix level in dressage tend to get a lot of attention these days. one of the most famous Toroughbred dressage horses of all time is the legendary Keen (money Broker – mabel Victory), a 17.2-hand chestnut gelding who, deemed too big to race, found his career niche with Californian Hilda gurney. Te pair earned a team bronze medal at the 1976 olympic games and made their final olympic appearance in 1984, when Keen was eighteen. in 1997, Keen became one of the first two horses inducted into the roemer Foundation/USDF Hall of Fame. (Te other was Carol Lavell’s partner gifted.) Fast-forward to 2011, when a 2001 off-the-track Tor- oughbred (ottB), Sea Lord (Sea Salute – graceful glory), brought down the house with a grand Prix Freestyle to the

Digital Edition Bonus Content

POST PARADE: Te oﬀ-the-track Toroughbred Sea Read the Roemer Foundation/USDF Lord’s freestyle with rider Silva Martin at the 2011 PVDA Hall of Fame tribute to Keen. Ride for Life featured (ﬁttingly) a racing costume and a bugle call to the post CHRISTINA DALE/PHYXIUSPHOTOS.COM

USDF ConneCtion • July/August 2012 39 nOT CLOWning AROUnD: Melissa Creswick and her Grand Prix- LEgEnDARy PAiR: Hilda Gurney and Keen at the 1976 Olympics level OTTB, Mi Payaso, in 1983

music from Secretariat at the Potomac Valley Dressage As- was seven years old and was gelded at eight. sociation’s ride for Life show in maryland. rider and train- “He was owned by mrs. Lois Stephens in ossining, new er Silva martin, West grove, PA, donned jockey silks; and york, and trained by gordon miller to Prix St. georges, who the seventeen-hand gelding, owned by Charish Campbell, sold him to study at Princeton,” gribbons recalls. “i trained easton, mD, sported blinkers and a racing saddle blanket. him to grand Prix and earned my [USDF] gold medal, “if you get a Toroughbred on your side, they’ll do any- which was at that time hard to get. We went to the olympic thing for you,” says martin. She should know: Her husband, trials in 1976. He was a phenomenally intelligent horse.” Boyd martin, competes the 2012 USeF international Horse gribbons’ second dressage tB was a big black gelding of the year, neville Bardos, also an ex-racehorse, in event- called Ad Astra (“stars” in Latin), who had raced successfully ing. Sea Lord himself was an event horse before the martins until he was six. trained to Second Level when gribbons be- discovered his aptitude for dressage. gan riding him, Ad Astra went all the way up to grand Prix. Another dressage notable with a soft spot for Torough- “He was very smart and he learned very fast, and was breds is Anne gribbons, of Chuluota, FL, an Fei 5* judge almost double-jointed, he was so athletic!” gribbons says. and the US equestrian Federation national dressage techni- “once you get a Toroughbred organized, it’s like riding a cal advisor. of the many horses that gribbons has trained Ferrari. you think it and it happens. i love warmbloods who to the grand Prix level, two were ottBs. have a lot of Toroughbred blood; they love to work and Based on new york’s Long island in the 1970s, grib- tend to be very athletic.” bons was first paired with tappan zee, a seventeen-hand melissa Creswick, of Clovis, CA, taught and trained for chestnut gelding by royal Charger who had raced until he 30 years and now has a private facility. She is a USeF “S” dressage judge and an “r” sport-horse-breeding judge, and she has served as a USDF region 7 director and as a Califor- nia Dressage Society president. Her first grand Prix horse was a 16.2-hand chestnut ottB named galway Pub (racing room – Bally Dugan), who had been a teaser stallion. “He simply fell into my hands because i couldn’t afford anything better,” says Creswick. “i rode him for eleven years and took him to grand Prix in the 1980s, before warmbloods were prevalent in this country. He had very sound conformation, even by today’s standards, though i didn’t know it at the time. i didn’t really know what i was doing, but i kept on trying and working at it, and we had a trainer in the area. it took about eight years to get to grand Prix.” Creswick rechristened her mount mi Payaso—“my clown” in Spanish. “At the time, all these horses were coming over from europe with fancy names, so i thought, ‘Well,

EARLy PARTnER: Anne Gribbons and her oﬀ-the-track Toroughbred, hell, i’ll show him under something and they won’t know

Tappan Zee, in 1976 what it means!’” she says. USDF ARCHIvES; COURTESY OF ANNE GRIBBONS; COURTESY OF MELISSA CRESWICK

40 July/August 2012 • USDF ConneCtion Where to Look for a Thoroughbred Suitability and Temperament Are you interested in purchasing a Toroughbred? you can one area that your expert can help to assess is the horse’s go the conventional horse-shopping route and search clas- suitability for dressage. For starters, to be happy in your sified ads—tBs abound in many parts of the country—or desired discipline, the horse should enjoy the routine of you may be attracted to the idea of rescuing an ex-race- arena work, says Anna morgan Ford, director of the new horse. outraged by stories of cast-off ex-racers being sold Vocations racehorse Adoption Program in marysville, oH for slaughter, tB enthusiasts across the country have estab- (horseadoption.com), and author of Beyond the Track: Re- lished adoption agencies and strive to promote “recycled training the Toroughbred from Racehorse to Riding Horse. racers” as riding horses. “Tis might sound odd, but we have found that some ex-racehorses can be purchased directly off the track or ottBs do not thrive with arena work and get frustrated,” via a racehorse-adoption program. Te adoption route may Ford says. “Tese horses are a minority, though; most do well entail an approval process, and you may have to agree like the structured routine that dressage has to offer.” never to sell the horse and to return him to the program gribbons loves the Toroughbred’s sensitivity and am- if you decide you can no longer keep him. However, some bitious nature, but she cautions that “it can be a problem good sport-horse prospects have been found through these that they can get so ambitious that their brains begin to programs, and they may already have a good start in mak- cook! you can’t push them or they will self-destruct.” ing the transition from racehorse to riding horse. Te high-pressure, unnatural racetrack environment Before you sign up with an adoption program or head leads some Toroughbreds to develop vices. Some, such as to the local racetrack to pick up a young dressage prospect, cribbing, may be difficult to break; other times, perceptive consider a few key points. if you are inexperienced with trainers recognize the reasons for the behavior and are able Toroughbreds or with selecting a horse in general, you’ll to eliminate the causes. likely save time, money, and frustration by asking a dres- Creswick’s ottB, mi Payaso, “had a biting problem sage professional or an experienced friend to help you with that i had to stop. i gave him a towel to bite, and he ended your search. up doing that until he got more secure in his training. Ulti-

USDF ConneCtion • July/August 2012 41 mately he became very confident. you had to be very fair or Ford and other experts advise giving any ex-racer plenty he’d freak out. He was very insecure; he loved the ring but of time to adjust to his new life and career. Doing so also al- he couldn’t stand to be out in the open.” lows any substances that may be in his system to be flushed Creswick advises against choosing a “neurotically speed- out. As an example, a gelding may have been administered oriented” Toroughbred for dressage. “if they can’t focus, anabolic steroids, whose side effects include stallion-like they’re not going to be a good riding horse,” she explains. “At behavioral tendencies. in the case of a newly gelded horse, the sales, if the horse is watching his handler, you’ve got a pret- it can take time for his hormone levels (and corresponding ty good idea he’ll be clued in to the alpha horse or whoever is behavior) to settle down. on top. i want the horse to be accessible, or trainable. An easy way to test them is to get in their line of sight, then step off Conformation and Gaits to the side. Do they follow you or ignore you? if they totally Although there are always exceptions, Toroughbreds bred ignore you, your chances of getting them clued in are slim.” for racing tend to be “hot” and sensitive, with thin skins and it took Creswick a long time to teach mi Payaso to focus lighter builds than the typical warmblood. From there the on his rider. “it’s a long journey,” she says. “if they’ve been similarities end, with ottBs coming in all shapes and sizes. on the track, it’s even harder because they’ve been geared to your job as a buyer is to separate the dressage types from run. if you buy a yearling that’s never raced, the job is half the individuals whose conformation and movement stamp what it would be with an ottB.” them as better suited for another discipline. Te typical Toroughbred temperament plays a key role most dressage riders who adopt ottBs look for “up- in determining the best way to school him and to warm him hill” conformation (withers higher than croups) and shorter up at shows. Creswick says that the more she did with mi backs, Ford says: “Horses that are built downhill and/or are Payaso, the hotter he’d get, so she would give him frequent long-backed have a harder time with many of the dressage walk breaks between exercises and would mix things up in movements. Adopters tend to pay more attention to the the work. hindquarters than the front, in that the horse should not be “Tat’s how i’d warm him up at a show, and he waited naturally weak behind and should have a decent overstep.” for me,” Creswick says. “i had half-halts, not pulling contests.” (overstep, also called overstride or overtracking, refers to She adds: “i still have a lot of Toroughbred crosses. i like that the desirable tendency of the hind feet to land in front of the little bit of fire, but i’m a quiet, grounded rider, so it works out hoofprints of the forefeet as the horse walks.) well. if i was a nervous rider, we’d go into next week!” Creswick finds that Toroughbreds tend to be a little bit leaner and longer in the back than warmbloods. “Sometimes they are too long in the back, and sometimes they don’t have Are You Right a lot of neck,” she says. on the up side, “most have a won- for a Thoroughbred? derful canter and a good walk, since walk and canter are related. Te trot, of course, is the only gait you can improve.” n considering the purchase of an ex-racehorse, the suitability issue goes both ways. Not only “if someone wants to train a Toroughbred, he has to Idoes the horse need to be able to handle the have a better trot than the average warmblood,” says grib- demands of dressage; but the rider also needs to bons. “Tey can get tense about the walk, but the canter is possess adequate skill, tact, and patience. usually good from all the galloping they do at the track.” not “Thoroughbreds can get very tense, and at a surprisingly, however, “you do have to teach them about certain point they can’t stand pressure,” explains ‘brakes’!” top trainer Anne Gribbons. “You have to be careful if possible, watch the horse move at liberty, Ford suggests. how much you push the buttons. If you get one off you’ll get a sense of how he naturally carries himself—im- the track, expect to take more time with him; they portant to remember when you start riding, as newly retired anticipate a lot.” racehorses tend to shorten or change their movement when Some Thoroughbreds are naturally very quiet, under tack during the first month or two in their new careers. defying the stereotype of the fire-breathing race- “it takes time for them to be able to relax and move freely horse; on the whole, however, a horse fresh off the under tack,” Ford explains. “Seeing them loose will give you track is best paired with an experienced rider. Ask a knowledgeable instructor if you’re a good prospec- a good idea of how they will eventually move with further tive match for an OTTB. time and training. Tey should naturally engage and drive from their hind end, and they should have clean movement

42 July/August 2012 • USDF ConneCtion with no interference. i see dressage as equine ballet, so most Anna Ford’s OTTB [dressage] adopters are looking for a horse that is light on their feet and athletic.” Evaluation Checklist As in any horse purchase, you’ll want to arrange for a nna Ford, director of the New Vocations prepurchase exam before you write a check for an ottB— horse-adoption program, offers this list of preferably by a veterinarian who’s familiar with both typical Aquestions to ask yourself (and the trainer racehorse issues and the demands of dressage. Certain types or the adoption representative) when you try a of injuries, such as bowed tendons, are common in racing. Thoroughbred off the track. An experienced veterinarian can help you to determine if an ✔ Does the horse naturally bend and respond to old injury is likely to cause a problem in the horse’s new ca- leg pressure? reer. But if the horse held up under the demands of racing, ✔ Does the horse like to work? Does he get hot- his history bodes well for his future soundness. ter with work? ✔ Does the horse enjoy working in an arena, or is The Classic Choice he happier outside the arena, hacking around the farm? “Unfortunately i haven’t ridden a Toroughbred in a while, ✔ How long has the horse been off the track? but i’d never say no if someone oﬀered me the ride on a ✔ When was his last race? fabulous-moving Toroughbred,” gribbons says. “Tey are ✔ How much turnout has the horse had? intelligent, quick-thinking, and beautiful; and i’ve had good ✔ How much under-saddle training has the horse experiences with them.” s had? ✔ Did the horse stay sound while racing? Any old Amber Heintzberger is a freelance writer and photogra- injuries I should know about? pher and the co-author of Beyond the track: retraining the ✔ If the horse is a gelding, how long ago was he Toroughbred from racehorse to riding Horse. She lives in gelded? New York City with her husband and two children. S&S Stables Karen Lewis Afton, Virginia, U.S.A. www.usprehorse.com 540-456-8520 or 540-256-1878

SS Stables specializes in breeding Iberian Sporthorses. Our blood- lines originate from Ejica, Spain, from the farm of Aquilino Moya and home of Juan Mañuel Muñoz Diaz. Our mares are registered in the Stud Book of Spain and bred to Stallions of Quality in the Unit- ed States. We produce movement for the competitive Dressage arena and the Iberian willingness for the professional or amateur rider. Curiosa (2007 bay mare) will be in Lexington, Virginia, for the 2012 FEI 5-year-old test and 1st level classes. Spanish registry: ANCCE inscribed & revised. Call Visit us and our horses at Dressage at Lexington, July 12-15 for more information, video, and Barn 6, Virginia Horse Center, Lexington, Virginia, for wine, sale price. tapas, and demonstrations of Spanish equestrian skills.

USDF ConneCtion • July/August 2012 43