04/09/2026
There’s a particular vein of content creators who have found their niche in venting to their social media audiences on a few variations of a theme: no one wants to develop their horsemanship anymore, Kristen Kovatch Bentley writes.
This argument has a few flavors: there’s a lack of work ethic in young people coming up through the ranks of equestrian sports. The “barn rat” is facing extinction. No one is teaching or learning fundamentals of riding and horse care, they’re just rushing to the show ring.
It’s not just Facebook horsemen making these arguments, either – even Margie Goldstein-Engle observed that few riders wanted to work to develop young horses, which requires a focus on a strong foundation.
Generally speaking, there are more equestrians that are constantly seeking to learn more and approach their horses from a holistic perspective than many of these personalities might lead you to believe. But there’s a singular community that embraces this whole-horse perspective almost universally.
Let us introduce the “Thoroughbred people”: those who have fallen in love not only with the breed itself, but the process of developing a former racehorse into a sport horse.
As a disclaimer, the Thoroughbred breed contains multitudes: it’s possible to find plenty of slow-legged kick rides that are suitable for all riders almost right off the track. There is a Thoroughbred out there for almost every rider. That doesn’t mean that all riders are equipped with the tools to develop a green-to-sport former racehorse right after its retirement from the track.
Think of a Thoroughbred as a horse, but concentrated: both their slow- and fast-twitch muscles are honed for peak athleticism, selectively bred for centuries to be fast off the line and also to sustain top speeds for a mile or more. Even an unfit Thoroughbred retains a level of athleticism that can be a lot to handle. When shaped and trained for a particular sport, this athleticism makes for an incredible ride, combined with the breed’s drive and heart for work.
As a result of this high-bred athleticism, the Thoroughbred also possesses a great sensitivity, both to its rider and handler as well as to its surroundings. This sensitivity is often labeled as the horse being “spooky,” “hot,” or “wild.” In reality, these stereotypes are often just misunderstood or misdirected energy with no outlet, manifesting through the horse’s sensitivity.
As a so-called “hot blood” breed, Thoroughbreds generally can’t be lunged down; a thoughtful approach to flatwork will get a rider much further when a horse is fresh. That requires the rider to have a thorough foundation of flatwork themselves, and the ability to develop these foundational basics in a green horse with plenty of forward.
Even the developed Thoroughbred can be a bit of a different animal from the conventional show ring breeds. My own horse has been off the track for far longer than he was on it – he’s 17 this year, and raced from age three to seven, and he still comes out each spring after his winter off requiring all of my flatwork skills to keep him relatively horizontal for the first week reintroducing the canter.
In short, the Thoroughbred does not suffer fools: approach the breed with a solid appreciation of foundational flatwork, and a healthy sense of humor.
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