Friday, January 30, 2009

Training Racehorses

By David ONeil

The definition of a race horse is a horse that competes on the flat at speed. There are no jumps and the horses tend to be thoroughbreds.

The training of racehorses usually takes place in large thoroughbred farms. The farms quite often carry out numerous operations which will include breeding and training. Usually when the horse attains a certain age it will be relocated from the breeding side of the farm and training will commence.

Trainers usually wait until the racehorse is about 18 months old before commencing training as they are still developing. Their legs don't fuse properly until they are about 4 years old and as they are worth a small fortune it is considered dangerous to train them too early.

Training and racing horses is a very organised and competitive business and therefore the horses are trained with an almost military precision. The owners investment will be high and there is no room for error. The young horses will be introduced to the lunge line first. This encourages them to respond to verbal commands and also learn to trust and respect their trainer.

A racehorses mission is to run and they don't need to know how to trot, canter or halt. In fact the first ex-racehorse I ever owned was a classic example of this. He really did only know walk and gallop. Stopping was not even in his mind! During the first part of training the trainer will quantify whether or not the horse is suitable for sprinting or distance running. - 20785

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