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?
