book on exercise rider

Question
hello, can you please suggest me a good book for exercise riders especially for beginners? can you please give me some tips and suggestions on becoming a good work rider. i am prepared for it. i am dedicating my life for horses. i am 22 year old boy, standing around 5feet 6inches and my weight is 65kgs. please help me out!!

Answer
Hello and thank you for your question.  

There is not a book written specifically for racehorse exercise riders, and I believe the reason for that is because the true skill for riding a racehorse is good horsemanship and there are already many good books on horsemanship.  Riding is riding... and you can not learn how to ride a racehorse (or any horse) by reading a book any more than you can learn to ride a bicycle by reading a book. You have to ride in order to learn to ride and basic horsemanship skills are the same, no matter what type of equine sport you intend to do in the end.

With that being said, let me share this with you.  The book (and video companion) Centered Riding by Sally Swift, will help you understand the "building blocks" of having a good seat and how important your balance is in relationship to balance and coordination of the horse. However,  THE BEST BOOK I know of that would give you a mental understanding of what you are trying to achieve when galloping a racehorse as well as help you achieve it the quickest (in my opinion) is an older book by Captain V.S. Littauer called, "RIDING FORWARD: Modern Horsemanship for Beginners" and although it may be out of print, I believe you can find a copy of it on Amazon.com.

Then after you read and understand the basics, the only thing that is going to make you a good rider is to go riding!!  Ride as many different kind of horses as you can, because nothing will ever replace experience...volunteer at a local stable, or if you live near a racetrack, perhaps a person with a pony horse will let you gallop an old pony horse around. I have taught many gallop (exercise) riders on my pony horses. That gives one a chance to learn how to stand up in a small gallop saddle, how to hold the reins properly, and build up strength without having to worry about trying to control a powerful, strong racehorse bouncing around underneath.

But the best place to start if you have no riding experience at all, is at a local stable with basic riding lessons, so you can learn the proper basics of horsemanship and safety. Then once you master the three gaits of walk, trot and canter , try to find a training farm near you that trains racehorses and get a job there starting young racehorses.  You will learn valuable lessons that will help you as an exercise rider at the track, about how the babies are started and taught to gallop at the farm and what it takes to get them ready to start their race careers. You will get to ride all types of horses there and lots of early experience riding in groups with other riders side by side.  Then from the farm, you easily can transition to the track by getting a job with a trainer.  From there you would only have to learn how to handle yourself in track traffic, with horses going at different speeds... which you could do by practicing on a good seasoned racehorse. By then you would have the skill set to know what you could handle and what to do. I would think you'd be off and going by then!

But back to your original request for a book that could get you started.... I think "Riding Forward" as I mentioned above, would be your best bet.  As far as a book about being a racehorse groom, TA Landers writes an EXCELLENT book, "Professional Care of the Racehorse" which you can get on Amazon.com ...but there is nothing in that book about becoming an exercise rider.  The two books together would get you off to a great start as far as book knowledge goes.

I hope that information helps to get you started, and with your dedication, I bet you will have a very exciting and successful career as an Exercise Rider!

Best Regards,

Maureen Millen
www.RacehorseTrainersTest.com