The Thoroughbred has always been known for its agility, speed, and stamina. Unfortunately, they are also often seen as hot-headed, strong, and difficult to work with. But people close to the breed say that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Besides their most common use as race and steeplechase horses, Thoroughbreds have always been very present on the eventing scene and it’s not uncommon to find a few of them scattered throughout the hunter/jumper circuit in North America.

Retired and Rehabilitated

An off the track Thoroughbred (OTTB) is a horse that has been retired off the racetrack for any number of reasons, including injury, age, or lack of success. These horses are either bought directly off the racetrack or sent to a rehabilitation and rehoming agency where they are retrained and available for adoption to the general public.

Morgan Chapman is the office administrator at LongRun Thoroughbred Retirement Society, a Thoroughbred rehabilitation centre that works closely with Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto. Chapman said their organization takes in Thoroughbreds that are retiring off the track, rehabilitates them and re-homes them. The horses are adopted out for a maximum fee of $500 – a very low price for a potential show horse.

A Class of their Own

Over the past few years, Thoroughbred associations and rescue societies have been creating and sponsoring new Thoroughbred-specific classes and series at horse shows across North America. The LongRun Thoroughbred Hunter Classic is a Canada-wide series sponsored by LongRun where off-track Thoroughbreds compete in four different height divisions, from pony to professional. In order to show in the series, the horses must also be competing in another division at the participating shows.

Stacey Krembil spearheaded the LongRun Thoroughbred Hunter Classic; her family owns Chiefswood Farm, where they breed racing Thoroughbreds. Having owned Thoroughbreds her whole life, Krembil wanted to find a way to give back to the breed and show people what they’re capable of. “I saw it as a way of helping promote the Thoroughbred,” she said. “It’s a way of showing people these horses have more use than just sitting in a paddock, and more uses than just racing.

“They have a lot of heart, they’re very well-behaved, and they can do almost anything,” she continued. “The series was a way to show the trainers on the show circuit that [OTTBs] are very good in the show ring.”

Krembil said she wanted to create a friendly, “east versus west” type of competition. This year, she contacted an adoption agency from British Columbia called New Stride to see if they would be interested in pairing the LongRun series with one to be held on the west coast. The two series are now run in conjunction in British Columbia and in Ontario. In each region, there are three classes in the series worth $1,500 in prize money, and one final class worth $3,000. Throughout the series, horses receive points for their placing in each class. At the end of the season, the horse with the most total points in either region is crowned the series winner. The classes are held at Caledon Equestrian Park in Ontario, and Thunderbird Show Park and Milner Downs Equestrian Centre, both located in Langley, BC.

Chapman thinks the Thoroughbred-specific classes are a great way to remind people how versatile and capable thoroughbreds really are. In the 1980s, a lot of horses on the North American showjumping scene were Thoroughbreds. When the show jumping world began to grow more competitive and people in North America began buying warmbloods from Europe in order to keep up, Thoroughbreds got left behind. “[It’s about] convincing the general riding public that they’re still good horses,” she said. “Thoroughbreds used to be the desired horse, and now we’ve transitioned to warmbloods.”

OTTB Successes

In 2013, the horse that won the LongRun Thoroughbred Classic series was Dublin, an OTTB who went on to be crowned champion of the Children’s Hunter division at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto. Sandy Mason is the owner of Dublin, known as “Tony” in the barn. She said that winning the LongRun series was especially important for her daughter, 17-year-old Lindsay Mason, because it is an open division in which pros compete. Lindsay and Tony finished with impressive scores when they won at the Royal, receiving an 84, 86 and 86 in the three over-fences classes.

Mason said that Dublin was not what they expected when they came upon him. “He’s so relaxed,” she said. “You’d think Thoroughbreds are uptight, hard to work with, and high-strung. He’s so opposite to that, he’s so quiet … he’s a special one. Even if he was out of work, we could take him to any show and hop on him and he would do great.”

Dublin is completely bombproof, and Mason admits that while this was her first experience with an OTTB, they couldn’t have found a better horse. Lindsay had a lot of fun showing Tony, because he’s easy around the courses and takes no prep. “Nobody believes me, but we don’t walk the ring,” she said. “He jumps better if he’s never seen it before. He’s never stopped at anything and he jumps anything. He trusts you implicitly. The derby had crazy jumps and he just went. He’s so trustworthy.”

Mason said that her favourite thing about the breed is their keenness to work. “His work ethic is very good compared to warmbloods. He just wants to please you,” she said. “It’s a lot about his willingness to do the job. He’s such a hard-working horse, but we didn’t think he’d be able to do this at all. Last year we thought maybe he could do the children’s. Compared to the warmbloods, he floats through the lines effortlessly and gets the distances bang-on. The overall impression of him is that he’s the hunter of the past, and they were always Thoroughbreds.”

Speed, Athleticism, and Courage

Thoroughbreds are not as uncommon in the eventing world as they are in the showjumping realm. Stephanie Rhodes-Bosch, a Canadian Olympian based out of the US, used to training Thoroughbreds on the track in Florida, and has had the unique experience of working with both on- and off-track horses.

Rhodes-Bosch found her late mount Seahawk while working at the track and bought him directly from his trainer instead of through an adoption agency. “I met Seahawk as a two-year old,” she said. “He was one of the horses on my list to ride every day. He was this happy-go-lucky, never-do-anything-bad type horse. He learned his changes on the first day as a two-year-old and he had the best balance in the trot and canter that I’ve ever sat on. When we got him out on the track, he didn’t switch on and kick into race mode like most Thoroughbreds … he had zero of that. Most of the horses I rode would try to take you places on the track, but he would just look around and try to play around.

“In his first year of showing, he finished in the top three in all novice and beginner novice. When he upgraded to training level, he completely switched on to his job,” she said. “I was so excited about him, because he had all the pieces and was such a joy to work with.”

Seahawk tragically passed away in late 2013 after breaking his pelvis and stifle in a turnout accident, but Rhodes-Bosch said he was so brave and stoic through the whole process. “There were no days where he gave any inclination of wanting to give up at all,” she said. “He was just that horse. He wanted to be with you and he wanted to do what he thought he was supposed to do.”

Rhodes-Bosch also had success with a horse named William Don’t Tell, an OTTB who won the preliminary at Waredaca Horse Trials in 2011, scoring an unheard-of 15.7 pp in the dressage phase (equivalent to 84.3%). She’s now riding an up-and-coming six-year-old OTTB named True Bellamy, who will compete in preliminary level eventing this year. “Trubie” was named the Top Placed Novice Horse under the Jockey Club’s Thoroughbred Incentive Program.

The Jockey Club’s Involvement

Perhaps the largest industry move that is helping Thoroughbreds find their way into other disciplines is the Jockey Club’s new Thoroughbred Incentive Program (TIP). The TIP encourages people to retrain retired racehorses and take them on into a competitive career.

Kristin Werner Leshney is the coordinator of the TIP and said that the program, just entering its second official year, has been overwhelmingly successful. “The program was a pilot program in 2012 and was renewed in 2013,” Leshney explained. “We had over 400 shows in the United States and Canada in 2013, with over 4,000 entries. We have given out over 5,200 TIP numbers.”

The Jockey Club committed $100,000 to the program for horse show sponsorship and awards. Leshney said the program offers sponsorship for Thoroughbred-only classes and divisions, Thoroughbred awards at open horse shows, annual performance awards, a young rider of the year award and a Thoroughbred of the year award. The Jockey Club is also involved in many Thoroughbred aftercare programs. “We are proud to be a part of the Thoroughbred movement,” Leshney said. “Thoroughbreds are versatile athletes and they excel in many disciplines beyond the racetrack.”

Any Thoroughbred registered with the Jockey Club or any foreign Thoroughbred registry is eligible to get a TIP number, and it can be done online. Eligible horses collect points for competing in eventing, hunters, jumpers, English pleasure, Western, in-hand classes, and polo.

Affordable Athletes

“I think people have begun to recognize the value of Thoroughbreds, and the breed is being talked about more,” Chapman said. “The industry itself is getting behind these horses in their new careers and putting a focus on the successes they have when they’re done, and there’s more support and information coming out.”

Another selling point is that Thoroughbreds tend to be easier on the pocketbook. “With the economic downturn, a lot of people started realizing that all of a sudden that goal to have warmbloods was slightly less attainable,” she said. “Thoroughbreds used to be very desirable, and people are starting to think that if they could be competitive mounts before, they bet they still can.”

Chapman works with the horses that come off of the racetrack at Woodbine and thinks that Thoroughbreds are most valued for their minds. “They think, ‘this is where I take care.’ They have that heart, and they so love being with people and having a job.”