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oldbrasscat

Hi, I work with our local horse rescue and we are often asked to find homes for standardbreds from the local track. However, this is the first time we have ever taken a horse with this kind of history. (We are not a very old organization, although we are plenty horsey!)

Bandit is 12, he raced until August of this year, then his owners decided to retire him, as he wasn't winning any more. He was winning in the spring for sure. Anyway, there has been some discussion back and forth between the owners and our exec. Director about the condition of his legs. Our ED says he has lots of edema--she's never seen a horse with legs that bad. The owner calls them 'racehorse legs' and seems to think that we are ruining his chances at adoption because we won't guarantee him as more than pasture sound, with a possibility of light trail riding.

My question is: is there a possiblity that the edema is a result of the major change in his lifestyle (i.e. race training to pasture turn out)? Does anyone have any experience on what his future use is likely to be? Has anyone ever retrained a 10 year veteran of the track?

Thanks very much! I'm working hard on his case, because I would love to see him show--he's got a very Morgan look about him and if any horse could convince people around here to try a standardbred as a riding horse, I truly believe it is him. Here's a link to his blog post, if you want to see him (he's not quite so handsome now--going through that 'ugly Ducklin' transition, lol!) http://sadiesplacepei.blogspot.com/search/label/Bandit

BSB · Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2009 11:16 am Post subject:

It would be hard to determine his condition without seeing him.
Is the swelling on rear lower legs or front?
Does he limp?
If he stopped racing in Aug. then he has had a fair amount of rest time.
Some old injuries will leave a big joint. Bowed tendons leave a "bump" . It may or may not effect his performance. There may be arthritis developing.
Many older race horses can have riding careers.
If you have a veterinarian visit, he should tell how much the horse can go.
I had a horse with an old bow bump. He was good to go.
Send photos!

oldbrasscat · Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2009 12:29 pm Post subject:

The swelling is in all 4 legs. Our ED saw him about 2 weeks ago. I'm hoping the swelling will go down with a bit more rest. His owners say he has tendon injuries, although I forgot to ask our ED if he was pinfired when she saw him. The owners are a little cagey about talking about his medical/soundness history and some of their emails are starting to border on manipulative, so I suspect there is more to the story than we are getting out of them.

I'll try to get out to take pictures of him, and his legs in particular, soon. I have to make an unannounced visit, so I can catch him 'au naturel'.

Cindy F · Posted: Wed Dec 02, 2009 10:32 am Post subject:

I dont have anything to say about his legs other then a horse I trained (Secured Alibi), was also 12 and still racing and had fairly large ankles that in the past his owner had kept wrapped due to the edema that had uilt up and would build up if they weren't wrapped.(he was boarded at our barn as a racehorse for a year then while he was still racing we trained him to saddle). We started soaking his legs and removed the wraps over the winter i beleave and although the edema was present for a little while, it did go down(but his ankles were always a little on the large side). He was 100% sound W/T. All we really did was w/t in the ring with Al and a little trail riding(as he was still racing we couldnt begin his canter carieer...).
Again though, prob a good idea to have a vet check out your horses legs and see what they say.

As for retraining an older racehorse- all my experience has really been with the 7-14 year olds and they have all been pretty easy to retrain. No harder then the younger ones. My sisters horse Romeo raced until a year ago and we had been riding him also while he was racing. His canter is coming along GREAT(possibly the NICEST canter i have ever seen from a standy). He was a pacer also.
_________________
My life revolves around my Horse. My horsie friends completely understand; non-horsie friends just don't get it!
~Cindy and Cisco~