Let’s talk about a few of your options for finding your off-the-track Thoroughbred. It really depends on your comfort levels for both budget and riding. The less comfortable you are with starting a Thoroughbred yourself, the bigger your budget should be. It takes time and money to reschool an ex-racehorse as a sport horse.
Option One for the Boldest Buyer
So you are a confident rider. This is not your first rodeo. You can sell a horse that is not right for you. These buyers are comfortable buying a Thoroughbred from a website that lists horses for sale from the track for trainers/owners such as CANTER, Dreamhorse, or EquineNow. These websites are the new version of the classified ads that used to be in the newspaper. The owner of the website lists horses with the information gathered from the trainer/owner. They do not stand by anything in the ad. They know little to nothing about the horse. You contact the trainer/owner yourself to determine if this horse is a match. The race track trainers have gotten much more in tune with what buyers want and there is no guarantee that what they are telling you is accurate. They want to sell the horse fast and they know what buyers want to hear. If the trainer/owner sells you a horse that turns out not to be what you expected, guess what? He/she ghosts you. Buyer beware.
Option Two for the Price-Conscious Buyer
The least expensive Thoroughbreds are often found at one of the many Thoroughbred rescue websites. Rescue sites have the best deals on Thoroughbreds and their horses need a new career the most. Many have been rehabbed and retrained and you might even be able to go see them and ride them. Unless you are an upper-level competitor, a rehabbed rescue horse might be the perfect match. Many injuries that a Thoroughbred received during racing can be healed and may never be an issue in the future. There have been horses that have gone on to serious competition after injuries like a bowed tendon if they are properly rehabbed. Some injuries might require a less stressful career like trail riding or dressage instead of a jumping career. Be realistic about what you want the horse to be able to do, and don’t discount the rescue sites. They often have totally sound horses whose owners just needed to get them off-the-track and did not have a place to keep them or a way to sell them. Rescues can get overwhelmed and drop prices to make room for new horses coming off-the-track. You can find some deals if you have a limited budget.
You might find an individual that wants to just give you a FREE horse. Let me tell you, a free horse might be the most expensive horse you ever own. You might spend thousands of dollars in vet bills to find out why the horse was free. Maybe it is that it has an injury that can be healed with time off or special treatments. If you are paying board, and it take six months until you can ride the horse, figure that into the cost of the FREE horse.
Option Three for the Cautious Buyer
So you want a Thoroughbred but you are not so sure you can start one yourself. You don’t want to be the first one to get on the horse. You are worried that the horse might be too hot for you.
There are many Thoroughbred resellers available that have gotten the horse off-the-track and may have started the retraining. There are costs involved with this and the price of the horses reflects the costs that the reseller has incurred. The horse may or may not have been vet checked at the track. The reseller then needs to transport the horse to their farm – another cost. Then there is the feed and the cost to have training done. The horse may need vet work like dental or chiropractic adjustments. All of these things drive up the cost of buying a Thoroughbred that someone else has started.
Just because the horse has been started, does not mean it does not need more training. If you are not comfortable with the training process, you should not be buying an off-the-track Thoroughbred. It takes more than 60 to 90 days of training to make a horse. It is a many years’ experience and journey. It is fun and rewarding. Someone can start the horse for you if you think you can’t, but, you need to be educated enough to continue the horse’s training.
You might also buy from an individual who is selling their personal horse that already has a lot of training. The question is WHY do they not want the horse anymore? If the seller told you the truth, you might not want the horse either.
Both the professional reseller and the individual are incurring costs until that horse is sold. They want it gone ASAP and will push to make that happen. That push may be getting a young, right off-the-track, horse jumping before for it has a solid foundation. If the horse is jumping the price goes up. But the downside of that is the horse might be pushed too hard and you will have to untrain the mental or physical damage done by pressuring the horse too quickly.
You can go too fast with the training and scare the horse (or yourself) but you can never go too slow.
The best way to buy a horse is from someone you know and trust and you have followed the horse for years and know the REAL reason it is being sold. Time is not on the side of resellers. Horses may be pushed harder than they should to get those jumping photos. Do not ever trust a reseller’s pre-purchase or x-rays for your buying decision. You should always do your own vet check and never use previous x-rays. I have seen sellers use x-rays from different horses and represented them as from the horse they were selling. Do your own research. The best way to buy a horse is from someone you know and trust and you have followed the horse for years and know the REAL reason it is being sold.
Research?
Yes. Do not trust anyone to tell you the truth. I don’t care if it’s Bits & Bytes Farm or some other seller or rescue. Do your own research. Do your own pre-purchase. Do your own x-rays.
Do your own research. Do your own pre-purchase. Do your own x-rays.
Every racing thoroughbred has a permanent record of what it has done. This is kept by the Jockey Club and you can get the information on their websites. The Jockey Club website www.Equibase.com will show you the horse’s last racing contacts – owner, trainer, jockey, and who bred it. It will also show you the race records by year, money won, and you can even see the charts of every race the horse was in.
The racing charts show you how each race went and where the horse was at different points in the race as well as the final results. The notes in the charts are also another source of information. I once had a trainer, whom I did not know, tell me the horse had never had an injury. I did my research and looked up the race records and found that the horse had been ‘vanned offed’ multiple times. This means the horse was unable to finish the race and needed to be put in a trailer and taken off to the stables. Needless to say, I did not buy that horse and we never would ever do business with this trainer or any trainer that misrepresents a horse.
Look at www.predigreequery.com to see the five-generation pedigree and follow the Thoroughbred’s breeding all the way back to the 1700 and see which of the founding three Arab lines the horse comes from. You can click on the dam’s name and go to reports to see other foals she had. There is a wealth of information on these two websites and you should take the time to learn how to use them for research.
Also, research the seller and visit their website. You will see how they start a horse off-the-track. Do they take their time? Do they push the horse too fast? Do they honestly represent what you found online? Do they stay in touch with the buyers of their horses? Do they have good online reviews? No seller is going to have perfect reviews but read and see if the comments about them are reasonable and if have they been answered by the seller.
Option Four for the Educated Buyer – Buy a Thoroughbred from Bits & Bytes Farm
- Bits & Bytes Farm is not a ‘classified ad’ site. We do not take payment from sellers to list horses for sale.
- Bits & Bytes Farm is not a rescue. We are not a non-profit rehoming Thoroughbreds. The Thoroughbreds we represent are horses that we feel can go on to a great second career as a sport horse.
- Bits & Bytes Farm is not a reseller. We do not go to the track to buy horses to bring to our farm to resell.
. . . from Bits & Bytes Farm
Bits & Bytes Farm is unique. We only represent owners and trainers, of Thoroughbreds, who we know and trust and have built relationships with over many years. They are open and transparent with us about the horse’s history and medical records before we will list their Thoroughbreds on our website. We do not own the horses you see for sale directly from the racetrack. We act as a broker to find and represent the horses you see on our website. We have partners at the track who check out the horses for us.
We ask all our buyers to do a pre-purchase exam to verify the information and make sure the horse is as represented. We also have the buyers sign an agreement that they will stay in touch and provide us with photos and an update at least once a year. We have a Facebook group for Bits & Bytes Farm Thoroughbred Buyers where they can post photos and share their successes with others. We have a website www. ottbsuccessstories.com that documents some of the horses we have sold in the last twenty-plus years. The reports we get from our buyers allow us to verify that the horse was as represented and that the seller was honest. The owners and trainers we sell horses for want to have us represent their horses because they do care where they end up. We have decades of working with the same breeders, trainers, and owners. If they are not truthful, we will not sell their horses. Our agreement with the buyers and the sellers is that we will always help find a new home for any horse we have sold if that were to become necessary. We never charge for this service and do not make any commissions when we help find a new home for a Thoroughbred we have sold. The sellers know they will not have to worry about the future of their Thoroughbred. Buyers know they will have assistance in placing their horses if life gets in the way.
We are not incurring daily costs. We are not feeding the horse, paying board, or doing a vet check. This is why we can sell Thoroughbreds for less.
We can tell you the temperament and what kind of rider might be the best match. We can do this because we know and trust the people who are caring for the horse and who know the horse’s personality and quirks. They want us to sell their horses because they want the best for them. We do not want you to get a horse that is not a good match or that has an undisclosed injury. Our contract with our buyers is that we will find the horse a home if you don’t want it. We don’t make money doing this. It costs us money. So we honestly represent the horses that we sell. We know what we are selling. We don’t want to have to find another buyer because you got a horse that was not truthfully represented.
Bits & Bytes Farm does not sell 200 or 300 horses a year right from the track. These kinds of sellers cannot possibly know what they are selling. They are just listing horses or grabbing cheap horses from owners who need to get out from under the daily training bills. They have no idea what the horse is really like but they will also tell you what the market wants to hear. Buyer beware.
If you are unsure about that first ride, we are happy to start a Thoroughbred you purchase from Bits & Bytes Farm. We have had buyers send horses to board and train with us at our farm for a few weeks to a few months to have us get the horse started. We will not sell a horse that we would not get on. Period. No dangerous horses. Some horses are dead quiet right off-the-track and some have more get up and go. We usually know which type we are selling and will tell you if the horse is a match for what you want. And no, we will not restart or train a Thoroughbred that you purchased from someone else. We are not willing to take the risk of riding a horse we know nothing about.
So these are your choices. Which one works for you?