To be honest, I'm a warmblood person and have always favoured the non-Thoroughbred types for event horses. In saying this, I think the New Zealand Thoroughbreds have proved to be world class event horses, and would always be my first choice as a cross for any warmblood or heavy breed.
After the loss of my much loved Stationbred gelding I was offered the ride of 'Moose' - an old-fashioned type Thoroughbred who had been in race trials, and was at the time recovering from an old injury. As I was without a competition mount, I agreed to take Moose on for a while and provide some training for his future as a racehorse.
It's been quite some time since I've dealt with racehorses on a daily basis, and the first few rides with Moose took me back to track riding in my teenage years. I was suddenly reminded of the extra work involved in retraining the racehorse.
Breedism aside, I've enjoyed my first few weeks dealing with Moose. He stands at a whopping 17hh, and still very much the baby physically and mentally, so needs to be reminded of his size at times. We've got through most of the early 'teething' problems and he's settling in really well. We've got to the point now where we can happily school in an open paddock, and go out on a farm ride with the horses horses at a slow, respectable pace.
Moose's improvement over the last two weeks has really impressed me. I look forward to the next two weeks...
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