Mental training

Question
Hello,
My father has trotting horses (on an amateur level)and he sold a foal to a neighbor of ours.This guy didn't take her training very seriously although she had real talent he wasted her two year season as well as this season. Since we live in Sweden she still has lot's of time on the race track since we usually start a bit later and race until they are 10 to twelve years old. She has an injured leg according to our neighbor so he decided to put her down to make room for a new horse.I got mad and bought her back. Now for my question if we can get her healthy and into shape again we still have one problem. She gets  a little hyper at the race track before the race. Is there any method that you know of to help a horse to relax in a stressful environment like that? She is not hard to handle in that situation it is just that she wastes so much energy and gets so tense. Is there a way for me to help her?

Answer
Hyper is good for the most part. The mare who just won for me, {and posted 2 seconds in a row after the win) goes to the paddock like a wild woman. She has to walk at least a mile like this since the barn was at the furthest possible point to the paddock. This actually is a good warm up for the horse, since most race horses are not warmed up properly. Some horses just seems to get themselves warmed up. Unless the horse is obviously stressed and seems to fear the upcoming event, this is a good thing. Most trainers think this is wasted energy. This is totally not the case. The horse needs to have the heart rate elevated to a certain level to get the blood flowing properly to all the working muscles. This ensures that the oxygen is readily available to fuel the athlete from the very start of the race. Walking over a "cold" calm horse is not ideal. I personally like to see the horse a little sweaty after warming up. I tell the jockeys to "warm them up until their veins are popping out". The veins are dilated and rich with oxygen after a proper warm up. This is an indicator that the heart has reached a performance level.

If you believe the horse is in fact stressed and fearful, then I would treat the horse for ulcers. Ulcers decrease performance and are exacerbated in a horse that seems to be nervous leading up to an event. If your horse suffers from gastric ulcers, then controlling them should make a huge difference in how the horse handles the event.

Good luck!

Christopher Crocker

Crocker Racing Stable Inc. and Thoroughbred Horse Racing Partnerships

http://CrockerRacingStable.com