Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Barrel racing OTTBs

I was kicking around on Kickstarter the other day and found a group that's training off track thoroughbreds to barrel race, The X Project. Here's their opening paragraph:

In the past three years, over 70,000 Thoroughbreds have been registered as foals, according to Jockey Club statistics.  After their career on the track is over, these horses need to find a second career. The lucky ones find their way into rescues or trail homes.  Other lucky smaller ones into polo homes and the taller ones into hunter/jumper/dressage homes.  However, the Thoroughbreds standing 15.1 to 15.3 hands tall, the smaller/stockier build Thoroughbreds, seemed to fall through the cracks and a dim future awaited them until the Dreaming of Three's 100 day trainer challenge barrel race (Proceeds from this Event went to CANTER & Bright Futures Farm)!  

I backed this project with a bit of a knee-jerk reaction. People finding alternative uses for OTTB and keeping them from slaughter always seem like a good idea to me. Especially when they could save cuties like Stone Broke that are currently available from CANTER.


She's 15 hands of adorable, too bad my husband is adamantly against me having a third horse.

The thing is, I know nothing about barrel racing, much less whether a thoroughbred would be suitable for it. It seems like they should be, they're fast and most nowadays are bred for sprints anyway. But do they have the temperament and the bone integrity for it? What do you all think?

24 comments:

  1. She could be a clone of my mare Dawn, who was 14.3 when she came to us at age 3 and grew to be 15.1. I like her look too but I'm too old for a young TB now. I don't see why they couldn't barrel race, but would want to rule out the ones who are being retired due to injuries that might indicate leg problems. Most of the barrel racing QHs have a lot of TB - my Red, who was bred to barrel race, is at least 35% TB, the performance QHs also tend to have a more sensitive TB like temperament.

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    1. Good point, they are young and will keep growing for a while. My Quarters have quite a bit of TB in them too, Gwen more so, and she definitely has a more sensitive temperament.

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  2. I'm sure she wouldn't have to barrel race, she could do anything from hunter jumper to dressage to trails. Size doesn't really matter in my opinion, it's how she's trained for a certain discipline that matters. She might be on the small side for huge jumps but we once had an Arabian at the barn who wasn't even 15 hands he that little sucker could take a 4 ft. fence with no problem

    I looked on their site and she's adorable. What a sweet face. I understand that your husband wouldn't want you to get another horse but it would make perfect sense. I mean when you took one of the quarters out for a spin the other would still have company. She may even be good for a child's horse eventually after she was trained. You're welcome for these arguing points by the way. I have a million of them, that's how I wound up with 7 horses!

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    1. I like all your arguments for getting another horse but truthfully I barely have time for the two I have right now, hopefully when the little dude is older he'll ask for a pony and then my husband will have to give in ;)

      If I were really in the market I'd get an arabian between 14.2 and 15.2, a nice versatile kind of horse.

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  3. This mare is not one I would pick to start on barrels. She is too long in the stifle (a bit weak) and high and straight in the hocks. That is primarily the downfall of TB's in the barrel racing field. It's not that they can't become a barrel horse...Anything can be taught how to run around 3 barrels. And even a horse that has this conformation weakness (by barrel racing standards) who is trained properly, properly conditioned, used judiciously and supplied appropriate care (this usually means stifle and hock injections), can have a decent career and provide a lot of fun for people.

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    1. I see what you mean, I think she'd probably make somebody a nice amateur eventing horse. I picked her to feature because she just popped up on my Facebook feed while I was thinking about this project.

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  4. I know nothing about TBs, but that one is kinda cute. Grey Horse does have some excellent points. . . :)
    And I think any breed could barrel race, not high level, but locally. My friend barrel races with his 17 year old Clyde and they beat saddle horses in the local shows.

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    1. That must be a sight to see! I agree with you that any horse can run barrels, but I think these folks want to see TBs on the national circuit. It would draw more people to them and get more adopted off the track.

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  5. I LOVE TBs and think they can do just about anything any other breed can do. I've seen TBs with more natural cow sense than some quarter horses. As for barrel racing, I've talked to a few people who know more about barrel racing than I do and have actually done it lol and I've told them that my big 16.3hh TB would never cut it as a barrel horse, and they said "You'd be surprised! Sometimes those big horses make excellent barrel racers." I think if they have the heart for it they would do great, much like any other breed. For a lot of them it's not necessarily the speed, because they USUALLY have that, but they have to want to do it. And I say USUALLY have the speed because both of the TBs I have had don't like to go faster than they absolutely have to...
    It also seems that a lot of barrel racing quarter horses are basically tbs anyways. Lots of TB blood in them. But I would love to see more TBs competing at professional level. They are just such great horses.

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    1. There is in fact, very little TB blood in the vast majority of barrel horses. It is not a common practice in the barrel horse breeding industry to outcross to TB's because there are so few that can produce top-notch, winning, long-lasting barrel horses. It's quite a tough sell.

      The most successful cross to produce barrel horses is still the run/cow mix. Racing QH's with cow-bred. There are a few lines that are fairly consistent at producing good barrel horses, independent of the run/cow mix, but for the most part, unless a TB stallion has proven that he can produce winning, long-lasting barrel horses, no serious barrel horse breeder is going to breed to him.

      Where you WILL find a heavy influx of TB breeding to the QH is the show world. Western Pleasure, Hunter Under Saddle, Any of the English/Jumping classes. Those people LOVE breeding to TB's, the bigger, longer and leaner the better.

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    2. Oops! You are right! Got my info mixed up! Around here seems like there are a few folks running appendix qhs. But none of them have their rooms booked for Vegas yet, so that says something.
      I still have a lot to learn about barrel racing and other western events...

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    3. LOL on your Vegas comment KK!

      Okay cowgirl, let's see if I get this right:
      TBs and quarter horses are bred to race, so both tend to be downhill- which is advantageous for racing. The difference is that quarter horses have been bred to go from 0 to 60 in 1 second while TBs have been bred to go for the distance. There's a big difference in the hind end for that. Also the cow horses are able to get really low on the front end while having a lot of power in the rear to snap them around, which I think would help quite a bit when powering around a barrel. That's a trait that I don't think would go very far at Belmont.

      Long story short- a TB owner can probably have fun at their local shows but they don't really stand a chance to go national. Is that about it?

      Last time I saw an AQHA HUS class not a one of them looked like a quarter horse...

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    4. That is a very astute summary. The being able to get low to the ground is what promotes soundness as well. The ability of which has surprisingly little to do with actual height. It's more about how much and how well a horse wants (or can be promoted to) using their hindquarter to get 'in' the ground, reducing the height of their center of gravity. :-)

      Now, to completely contradict myself, there is one TB stallion that I know of that is producing consistently nice barrel horses and one of them has made it to the NFR, twice. The TB's name is, Red and the mare he produced that is an NFR barrel horse is Xtrared. Xtrared's dam side is literally a who's who of AQHA race horses, with nary a 'working' line in there.

      Red himself looks like an exceptionally nice QH. Much like Three Bars did. He's a stunning stallion!! And I have actually contemplated breeding my Lady Bugs Moon/Leo bred mare to him. It's an excellent cross and without a doubt would produce a barrel horse extraordinaire. (I drool just thinking about it). So it's not impossible, just not exceptionally common.

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    5. Is that this horse?
      http://www.vgbra.org/bsp_stallions/Red.htm

      If I saw him in person I would think he's a quarter horse.

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    6. Yes, that's him.

      Here's Jill's website...

      http://www.jilllaneqh.com/

      I think he is rather magnificent. :-)

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    7. If you take a look at this page http://www.rbperformancehorses.com/reference-sires
      and scroll down near the bottom, you will see quite a few TB stallions whose names are familiar in QH barrel horse pedigrees.

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    8. There are some nice stallions on that page, all the TBs look like quarter horses to me- I can see why their get would be good at barrel racing.

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  6. I have no idea about barrels, but that size range is perfect for me!

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    1. Me too, I don't get why so many people want those giant monsters. I heard somewhere that a horse is easier to ride if their stride length matches your own; I've got short, stumpy legs.

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  7. How interesting... I didn't realize it could be parsed out that way according to height, I thought it would parse out more based on what I tend to look for OTTB: soundness (no bows), good head (not fried), and conformation...pretty helps too :)

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    1. Those all seems like great qualities to me too and personally I think the smaller horses tend to be better using horses, but nowadays the fad seems to be having a gigantic horse.

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  8. This is a very interesting blog. It would be great if you can provide more details about it. Thanks you Thoroughbred Analytics

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