The Retired Racehorse Training Symposium at Maryland Therapeutic Riding in Crownsville, Md., featured 13 horses at various stages of post-race training. Steuart Pittman, a Maryland horse trainer who conceived of and conducted the event, focused the audience’s attention both on the qualities and training of each horse and the skills demonstrated by their riders.

Retired jockey J.K. Adams demonstrated on a horse with just seven days of post-race training, that perfect balance and good hands, even in an exercise saddle, make a horse go in a round frame with balance and rhythm. When Pittman asked if he’d ever had a dressage lesson, Adams replied, “A what?”

CANTER, Mid-Atlantic Horse Rescue, and Thoroughbred Placement and Rescue all brought horses that are up for adoption. Riders from each of these organizations shared their training methods and showed that young horses off the track are intelligent and eager to learn, even in an arena filled with a large crowd, video cameras, loudspeakers, and a course of colorful show jumps.

In the second part of the symposium, five riders worked with horses in their first year off the track. Two were young professionals: one from the hunter/ jumper discipline and the other a three day eventer, both of whom are making a business of retraining retired racehorses and selling them. Two others were amateurs who are doing the same work for their own pleasure. Another horse was ridden by Pittman for the owner. These 3- to 5-year-old horses were all further along in their training than most horses who are bred for non-racing careers. The reason for their quick progress, Pittman suggested, was the education that they received as racehorses