OTTB: ODDS-ON FAVOURITE TO WIN HEARTS

There are more than 33,600 ex-racehorses in the UK – some of whom are living their best lives off the track with new owners.

In a six-month-long census – funded by The Racing Foundation and conducted by Hartpury University – the details of 8,256 former racehorses were collated revealing how versatile these extraordinary horses are.

The activities that ex-racers had turned their hand to included dressage (11%), showjumping (8%) and eventing (8%), while the majority simply enjoyed leisure riding, hacking, and unaffiliated competing (36%).

Helena Flynn, from census partner Horse Welfare Board, said: “It is often misperceived that thoroughbreds who are not successful in racing are discarded as they are unable to adapt to other roles, however the census results showcase their incredible versatility and their ability to thrive in a host of new careers.”

All well and good.

But while the census managed to reveal the amazing versatility of these incredible athletes, it failed to touch on what is perhaps the greatest thoroughbred superpower of them all – that of unconditional LOVE.

MumsHaynet spoke to three ex-racehorse owners to correct the balance.

SUZANNE AND STORMI (STORM GIRL)

Suzanne Blakley-Taylor bought Stormi in 2022 as a ‘kneejerk reaction’ to being told by two independent vets not to buy another horse she was first set on as he would “break your heart and your bank balance.”  As it turned out, eight-year-old Stormi was also going to cost Suzanne dearly, but the rewards she received in return were worth every penny spent.

“Stormi raced for only two years and only 11 times. She was awful, absolutely terrible, even though her great-great-great-grandfather is Secretariat. So, she comes from very good blood. She was just no good.

“Sadly, since I’ve had her she has been treated for glandular ulcers twice. We put her on a long-term treatment powder to prevent them recurring, but when we started work with her, we realised there was an issue with her canter transitions.

“We did all kinds of investigations, scanning of the suspensory ligaments, X-rays, checking for kissing spine, and ultimately decided it had to be her sacroiliac joint.

“We also found a hairline fracture on her rear left cannon bone, which she may have done racing, but the thermographic imagery had showed up an awful lot of heat around her bum and the SI area.

“Steroid injections into the area followed and within three days she couldn't walk. She got laminitis.

“Honestly, this girl has cost me a fortune, with only some of it paid by insurance.

“So, she was on a month's box rest, which the vet was adamant about. Thankfully, when they X-rayed her feet, her pedal bone, at this point, was unaffected.

“Now, she is clear of laminitis and we’ve recently brought her back into light work.

“After spending so much money on her, I am very conscious about bringing her into work the right way so I have a physio who comes once a week, and I have been doing ground exercises in between those visits.

“We started ridden work about three weeks ago, but only in walk. Once the physio sees her next week, we'll assess whether she can move up to trot.”

Although Suzanne rode as a child she only returned to equestrian life when her daughter, Jorja, was 10 and began riding lessons. Watching her daughter’s passion grow, Suzanne also decided to take lessons.

Then, when Suzanne and her husband Joe bought Jorja her loan horse for her 19th birthday – another ex-racer called Velvet – Suzanne knew that not only did she want her own horse, she wanted a thoroughbred.

“Velvet was always such a lovely girl, so sweet, affectionate, clever, willing, just the most amazing horse, so I knew I wanted a thoroughbred.

“Thoroughbreds are different to other horses. I'm trying to verbalize why, but it’s very difficult. There's simply something about them. They're special. They’re clever. They're easy to train. They're willing. They're adaptable.

“Yes, they can be high maintenance and they do need more care than some of the other hardier horses, but what you get back from them is worth it. They are incredibly affectionate.

“I won't know whether Stormi’s SI issue will be better until we try cantering again and that's at least six weeks away, but if she continues to struggle with the canter transition, I will retire her. I will retire her, but I will keep her.

“Stormi will stay with me forever. I love her. She has my heart.

“When she nickers when she sees me, or I call her and she comes cantering up the paddock, that’s enough for me. Those moments make everything worthwhile because I love her so much, and I know she loves me.”

EMILIE AND CLOUDY (CLOUD CREEPER)

Cloudy was one of five horses that Emilie Hardy rode on a daily basis while working at Philip Hobbs’ racing yard in Minehead, Somerset. Then, when his syndicate of owners decided it was time to retire him, Emilie ‘snapped him up’ knowing beyond all doubt that he was her forever horse.

“Cloudy was one of my daily rides when I worked in a racing yard so I'm lucky in the sense that I got to know him quite well. He was a very, very good chase horse.

“Cloudy started racing as a three-year-old in point-to-points in Ireland, and then he was brought over to England. When he came to Hobbs’ he was about seven, and he stayed there for two years until he sustained a tendon injury, aged nine, and I brought him home.”

Despite being an “incredible ride,” Emilie says Cloudy was a nightmare in the stable and she had a gut feeling that he would be an infinitely happier horse out in the field.

Her instincts proved to be correct and today Cloudy lives outside 24/7, thriving on the space and the freedom that life with Emilie has afforded him. And what a life they have had in the eight years they have been together.

“Cloudy is simply the most genuine horse. He has never put a foot wrong and he has always wanted to please. I just knew that because he was very good at what he did, racing wise, he'd be easy to retrain.

“It also helped that the guy who ran the syndicate that owned him – Mick Fitzgerald, who was a really good and famous jockey in his day – used to take him home during the six weeks off they have in the summer and his wife would ride him, which really helped his education.

“When I brought Cloudy home, he was on box rest for six weeks because of his injury. After that I turned him out, waiting and hoping for his leg to heal.

“When the scans finally showed the tendon had healed, I brought him back into work. I never actually had a plan other than to see how we got on and when I saw that he could withstand the training, we aimed for point-to-point. In November 2017, we did our first race together.

“I'm not going to lie to you, it was quite scary. I think 12 people started, and only four or five of us finished. People fell off all over the place, but Cloudy really looked after me. I just clung on for dear life and hoped to get round.

“The plan after that was eventing, which we did for a couple of years.”

Now in his 17th year, Cloudy has taken a step back from competing, partly due to age and partly because 34-year-old Emilie is six months pregnant with her first child.

“These days, we just bumble around and do a little hack occasionally. He's just my horse.

“When I think of how much he's given me, it’s incredible. He has literally done every single thing I've ever asked of him, from point-to-point, to a charity flat race at Newbury, to county level showing, and team chases. I have literally thrown everything at him including the kitchen sink, and he’s gone with it each time.

“Cloudy is my best friend, and as much a part of my life as my dogs, and he has given me freedom.

“When you’ve had a rubbish day, you get on the back of him, and he takes you away from all that. 

“For me, thoroughbreds are incredibly intelligent, loyal, and brave. They try their hardest and will really try to do whatever you ask of them.

“Some can be a bit hot, so you have to sit really quietly and listen to them and feel them, if that makes sense - although I always joke that Cloudy is a cob in a thoroughbred body because he's absolutely bomb proof. He’ll give me three working days’ notice before he's about to spook at something.

“But this is Cloudy, and he’s become a part of me. I'd struggle to get another horse, I think, because they would always have so much to live up to.”

MAX AND DUSTY (BATTLE DUST)

Max Welsh lost her beloved thoroughbred Rusty in a traumatic stable accident last October when he was only 14 years old. Unable to cope with the scale of her loss, Maxine looked for another horse to fill the void, and came across an advert for Dusty. Max and her daughter Hollie decided to buy him without viewing, just knowing he was the one. Unfortunately, the horse that turned up on their doorstep was a shadow of the fit athlete they had been expecting.

“When you lose a horse, you're left with a huge hole in your life. It's obviously the loss of the horse, but also the routine you had. Your whole life seems to come to an abrupt halt, and you’re stuck in never-ending sorrow. So, when Rusty died, I needed to get another horse.

“Eventually, after a couple of weeks of moping around not knowing what to do with myself, I had a look on Facebook and saw Dusty advertised. It just felt right.  

“He was related to Rusty, he looked like Rusty, and he was the same age as Rusty. I do act on impulse quite a lot, but I was also very emotional, and I knew I had to get him.”

Dusty had been advertised with a dealer in Norfolk after his previous owner found she was more suited to cobs than ex-racehorses.

“Dusty had gone to this dealer in August, 2023, and he had clearly come from a home where he'd been fed. In the photos he was in very good condition. We didn't get him until November 23.

“We live in Formby, on the northwest coast, some 200 miles from the dealer, so I never went to see him and the horse that walked off the trailer was absolutely nothing like the horse I thought I was buying with Hollie.

“He was skin and bone and covered in rain rot. He was also completely shut down.

“The dealer had said that if I wasn’t happy, I could send him back within seven days. But I didn't do it. I couldn't have done that. It's not the type of person I am.

“After some digging, I found out that this was quite a common occurrence. It seems these horses are bought and thrown in a field among a big herd. They’re not fed hay, they’re not fed hard feed, which is fine, but some horses don't manage in a field in a herd. They're all individuals, and Dusty was clearly a horse that couldn’t manage on poor grass with no hay.

“He was in a horrible condition. The picture I have of him at his thinnest was actually taken six weeks into my ownership of him, so you can imagine what he looked like when he stepped off the trailer.

“Of course, the first thing we had to do was get on top of the rain rot. It was really extensive, all over his back, all over his rump, and down on his shoulders. It took four weeks of antibiotics to cure and get rid of. We also had to clip him in the middle of winter, which obviously we didn't want to do with an underweight horse, but it was the only option we had.”

Wanting to know more about her horse in order to provide the care that he needed, Max managed to track down his old racing owners who were horrified to hear of the condition he was in.

It transpired that Dusty had been sold to a 21-year-old girl, who had then sold to him to an older woman after running into financial difficulties. The girl had been assured that Dusty would have a home for life, which wasn’t quite the case, until now.

As well as Dusty, Max has another thoroughbred named Todd, a large Irish hunting cob and a traditional gypsy cob, but she says it’s the thoroughbreds that have always held a special place in her heart.

“They have this kindness about them. They’ve got such a kind heart. They're so willing to please and willing to learn if you teach them in a correct way and you're always kind to them.

“And once you've got a thoroughbred’s heart, it's like no other. I find it difficult to explain as it's quite an emotional response.

“Thoroughbreds are so intelligent, so extremely willing, and they've paid their debt to society. A good home is the least they deserve. It's hard to put into words how special they are without it sounding like you're trying to write a poem.”

It took Max six months before she started seeing a clear improvement in Dusty who, according to her vet, has put on 100kg since being in his new home.

“He's doing wonderful, absolutely wonderful. People say a picture paints a thousand words, and it really does with him.

“We are slowly bringing Dusty into light work with the hope that he can manage a little bit of showing and maybe see if he can twinkle his toes with a little bit of low-level dressage and hacking.”