Thoroughbred Logic, Presented by Kentucky Performance Products: Loose Schedules for the Win
“Thoroughbreds (like all horses) have a good time-keeping system, and if we let them get strictly on a schedule, they know when we miss the mark.”
Welcome to the next installment of Thoroughbred Logic. In this weekly series, Anthropologist and trainer Aubrey Graham, of Kivu Sport Horses, offers insight and training experience when it comes to working with Thoroughbreds (although much will apply to all breeds). This week ride along as Aubrey shares her logic on having Thoroughbreds on a loose schedule.
I decided a number of years ago that a little gentle chaos goes a long way in the land of horses — especially Thoroughbreds. Changes to and around the farm, changes in what is happening while you ride (or where you ride) and even changes in stalls and turnout make a big difference in creating flexible, accepting horses who stay calm when things don’t go as always expected.
To this point, there has been a fantastic thread recently about all the “fun” things neighbors and husbands have gotten up to while Thoroughbred-focused trainers are trying to put rides on their young horses. Pressure washing boats, firing up the truck at ill fated moments, and even sliding roofing metal off the barn during rides have made the list. My barn is no exception to the general chaos. Building stalls, moving the skid steer, rolling the fields all while putting first and early rides on the young TBs has been more the norm than the exception.
CC (Coragescontender) wanders around unfazed while the guy who helps around the farm fired up the skid steer and began moving things around. Photo by Laura Pollock.
The great part is that for the most part the horses don’t care. As I have mentioned in probably half of these articles, these guys have seen so much at the track that my little farm operation rarely makes them so much as blink. Instead of the screaming “the wheelbarrow is in a new location!!!” and letting their tails show off their Arabian heritage, the horses practically roll their eyes and wonder unconcerned at what new ridiculousness I’ll have brewing today.
The same is true for their schedule — both in terms of riding and feeding. I think I mentioned in the Four Rides a Week article that I try to shift what order/time of day I ride each horse. Again, that just ups their ability to roll with things (and not try to buck me off in the process). But feeding is a whole other important can of worms (as an aside, where did that saying come from?!?)
A decent moon made for a decent representation of how laid back the “outside boys” are at feeding time. Photo by author.
This second half of the year has been utter madness at Kivu Sporthorses. I have moved farms with no less than a dozen Thoroughbreds not once but twice, and moved my personal residence three times. Hell, half of my art is still sitting in the first place I camped when I moved up from Georgia to New York. To say that it has been stressful and chaotic would, of course, be quite the understatement. Thankfully, the dogs, horses, and even the cats have rolled with it quite well.
The relative insanity of moving, setting up on a farm that has not had horses on it for years, and also training off-site, running a clinic series, etc., etc., etc., means that even with the best intentions, nothing happens on a regular schedule. Feeding and turnout are no exception. I feed anywhere between 5:00 AM and 9:00 AM, and feed and bring horses in anywhere between 5:00 PM and 9:00 PM.
Neil (Lute’s Angel), Indy (Star Player) and all the inside-at-night guys don’t really care what time I get to their grain as long as they still have alfalfa to pick at. Photo by author.
This four hour window is probably more than I’d do if I had a more regular life and more regular help. However, I can tell you that, bar-none, it keeps my horses from becoming neurotic about their day-to-day schedules and needs. Also, it helps that they have hay or grass in front of them at all times, so if they’re hungry, they’re not staring down a sterile stall and empty net. Instead, I will drag the heavy barn door open at whatever time I manage to hoof it down there and they all blink up at me unconcerned: “Oh, hey human.” They’re still picking at their alfalfa, blinking at the lights and stretching from the night, whether it is 5:30 or 8:30.
And then you have some of them who are just patent weirdos, regardless of what time I show up. Good boy, Alfredo (Making Amends), but no, you can’t have my coffee. Photo by author.
I have walked in many barns where it is 6:02 PM and at least three horses are melting down because their dinner was not served exactly at 6:00. I have seen horses work themselves up into a near colic state over late food and strict schedules. Worse, I have also seen them nearly go through the fence, or run until lathered, if they weren’t brought in at exactly the predicted time.
Thoroughbreds (like all horses) have a good time-keeping system, and if we let them get strictly on a schedule, they know when we miss the mark. Hell, my parents’ Golden Retriever even is hard-wired on a 5:00 PM dinner schedule — where she’ll come find them and whine and paw until there’s food, literally beginning on the exact 5:00 PM dot.
Littles looking quite proper, but also waiting for me to hurry up and finish up in the barn so we can all go inside and eat — not because it is past five, but because it’s way late and everyone is hungry. Photo by author.
Schedules happen in barns for many reasons, but mostly because we need systems and help to run these operations and markers to normalize the chaos of horses. When I’m in charge and probably doing too much of the work myself, the equine schedules end up being flexible (and don’t ask my dogs — they eat when I do, which might be midnight). When I have more organized help on board, sometimes we err in the more orderly direction and the timelines and expectations of the horses tighten and also key up.
It’s interesting… when I was at the barn in Bath, NY, things were done relatively like clockwork on a schedule that was convenient for the folks working there. The horses would come off their feed and leave a bunch in the tubs as everyone would start shifting feet and looking to the fields as soon as the first horses went out. They didn’t do a bad job, they just did a job that made sense for the people working there and the horses were expected to figure it out.
Sailor (never registered Thoroughbred) has packed on the pounds since coming to Lansing, due in part to my strange, non-schedule schedule. Photo by Lily Drew.
Now that they’re back to flexible, less predictable schedules, they’re back to packing on the pounds, hoovering the last morsels of grain, settling in quietly to whatever semblance of a routine I have that day. The best part is that that little bit of chaos — the un-fixing of the time and the action — allows them to actually relax into the expectation that everything will happen … at some point… and it is all OK until then.
CC has taken a minute to settle off the track, but now that he’s figured it out, he fits right in on the non-schedule and with all the other odd-balls here. Photo by Sarah Hepler.
And it’s the little things like that that make Thoroughbreds who are not lunatics. It’s the kind consistency of handling, the clear boundaries, and operating through all the mess and madness that is running a barn mostly single-handedly. And so in that line, it is now 6:30 AM and I’ll head off to throw on cold weather gear and tromp out to break up ice in buckets and get these kids fed early today, knowing they don’t actually mind if its now or in two more hours.
Go ride folks, and maybe embrace the chaos and all its silver linings.
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