Retraining - It Works

A retired racehorse, properly retrained and transitioned into a new career, can provide many wonderful years of enjoyment to the right adoptive folks.  Cabin Creek Rescue's Retrain Horses for Adoption program provides ex-racehorses with the additional skills needed to participate as pleasure, trail, dressage, event, or show horses.  These enhanced job skills make placement of our retired horses into safe, caring homes possible.

Retraining Helps Horses Succeed In New Jobs.

Preparing a horse for the right job leads to placing a horse into the right home with the right folks.  We have many retiring Thoroughbred horses that can still enjoy life as a pleasure, trail, dressage, event, or show horse.  Several key factors contribute to the success experienced by our retired horses in their new, non-racing careers:

• Experienced Equestrians Retrain Our Horses - We only utilize seasoned riders with strong equestrian skills to help rehabilitate and retrain our retired horses.  We monitor each retiree's progress.

• Rest or Lay-up Is Important - Most horses come to us directly from the race track. Many are sound, but sore; others need lay-up time to heal an injury. We take whatever time is needed to rest or lay-up our retirees prior to any retraining. Only those retirees sound enough for new jobs, will enter our retraining program.

• Rehabilitation First - Even the most skilled rider can not easily manage a horse placed directly from the track.  Many failed adoptions are the direct result of "too much horse to handle."  We take steps to reintroduce a horse to more relaxed daily experiences. This rehab helps our racehorses "come off the track" both mentally and physically.

• Learning About Our Horses - We learn as much as possible about a retiring horse so we can make the right decisions regarding his future. And we only take ex-racehorses from trainers, owners, breeders, and track associations that we have worked with in the past.  We have had personal contact with most of our retirees during some earlier period in their life.

• Time To Evaluate - We actively evaluate our horses' physical condition, natural ability, movement, and potential limitations before and throughout the retraining process. We learn as much as possible about their past experiences, soundness, mental attitude, and desire. This helps us identify the right retrainer, the right job, and the right folks for each horse.

• Time To Teach - Retraining develops physical ability and teaches understanding needed to help each horse succeed. Retraining refreshes the basics, identifies talents, enhances performance, and adds skills.  We encourage our retrainers to take as much time as needed to properly retrain our horses.

• Time To Transition - Even the most talented horse needs to be carefully transitioned into the new routines, sites, and sounds surrounding a new career.   We encourage retrainers to handle our horses on a daily basis, trailer them, do ring work, take them for trail rides, attend horse shows, and participate in other equestrian events with them.  Retraining provides the perfect opportunity to introduce our horses to the same types of situations they will encounter in their new adoptive homes.

• Adding Value - Retraining turns an ex-racehorse into a valued and skilled Thoroughbred horse desired by many riders.  Based on this added value, our retrainers are able to recover costs associated with retraining our horses.  Many retrainers also provide extended board, short-term board with additional training, personal instruction, event support, or transportation to adopting individuals on a continuing basis.

• Finding The Right Folks - Our newly retrained horses are not meant for inexperienced or younger riders as their first adoptive home.  We ask retrainers to network contacts and attend equestrian events to find the perfect individual to adopt a horse. We ask retrainers to carefully evaluate adopting individuals and have them sign our Adoption Agreement.  We have found that a clear understanding of the commitment made by folks when adopting a retired racehorse is important. 

• Guaranteed Return Policy - We have an open-door return policy for all of our retired horses and encourage both retrainers and adoptive individuals to return any horse to Cabin Creek, no matter what the situation, no questions asked.