@retrainingexracers

What we’re all about. .

Irish amateur rider (Clara Kavanagh) & her two exracehorses, Chili (Farrier Fury) & Ace (Acapulco Gold) pictured above.

“Passionate about the journey of retraining racehorses into riding horses”

After purchasing an ex-national hunt racehorse in 2018, Clara decided to begin focusing on building a career in the rehabilitation and retraining of exracehorses.

Clara quickly learned that racehorses often being retired from racing often have a variety of musculoskeletal issues which need to be assessed by a veterinary professional and qualified equine physiotherapist before retraining can begin. This is the first priority to ensure any issues the horse may have can be correctly managed on an ongoing basis to give the horses the best chance of a successful transition to their new career as a riding horse.

Based from her yard in Co. Wicklow, Clara has a BSc (Hons) in Equine Management and is currently undertaking professional development courses in to pursue a career in Equine Massage and Support Therapy.

External Link

A holistic approach to Retraining:

A brief description

#1 - Assessment

Before retraining can begin. Any horse coming out of racing should have a vet check, consultation with a qualified physiotherapist and visited by farrier. This will help determine if there are any issues that need to be treated, rehabilitated or possibly managed for the lifetime of the horse before starting their new career. The horses diet, routine management and behaviour should be taken into consideration to assess if any considerations or changes need to be made regarding their retraining.

#2 - Groundwork

Similar to starting a young horse, groundwork is the foundation to retraining exracehorses. Lunging, Long-reining and Double-lunging is invaluable in the retraining process to allow the handler to assess the horses movement from the ground and encourage the horse to work into the bridle and improve core strength before having to support the weight of a rider. Once the horse is capable of working into a basic outline the horse can progress to next stage of retraining, ridden work.

#3 - Riding Away

After the horse is established in their groundwork the horse can be ridden away. Hacking is a great way to help the exracehorse relax into their ridden work while building up fitness including road and hillwork, strengthening tendons and ligaments over a variety of surfaces and beginning to introduce some lateral work. Time riding the horse in the arena is increased. Traveling outside the yard and competitions can then be considered once the horse is happily schooling away with the rider.

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