What is the education to be a Thorougbred Racehorse Trainer?

Question

I'm young and I really want to train Thoroughbred Racehorses and really be sucessful. I was just wondering what I would need to know in school and colledge. PLEASE ANSWER!!!!!!

Answer 1

Learn by doing.

The first step would be to get a basic education in riding. This could be from anywhere at all.  Even if you don't have money for lessons,  many barns will trade work /chores for riding lessons or at least riding time.  

You'll need to feel comfortable around horses and be skilled enough and confident enough to ride the most 'difficult' horses in the barn.  This can take many years.

The next step would be to move into the racetrack industry. If you're a fearless, competent rider, you can probably get a job excercising racehorses. Maybe not at a track right away, but at least at a racetrack training facility.

Once you're there, you can absorb a lot about how the horses are trained.  To get jobs with the better trainers and facilities, you'll have to really prove yourself as an exceptionally hard worker and eager learner. Equine sports are a difficult industry because horses are just freakin expensive no matter how you look at it.  People either buy their way in, or they sweat their way in.

It's really not the prettiest industry.  To make it, you'll have to not only be a really freaking hard worker, but also be thick-skinned enough to deal with watching horses regularly break down, become injured, get sold off, or sent to the slaughterhouse.... you'll witness a lot of abuse, and take a lot of **** from old guys who think they are horse gods.

Answer 2

Pretty much be around horses a lot.  If you can, go hang out at a TB racing barn and ask a trainer if you can watch and learn and stuff.  I don't know of any colleges with a horse racing program, but there are colleges that have equestrian programs with everything from barn management to show riding classes...  the 2 big ones in Ohio are University of Findlay and Lake Erie College.  There's a lot in Kentucky too...  I know UK has a program...  not sure about them all.  Going to Kentucky for college would probably be a good idea...  it's sorta the center of all things horses.

Answer 3

The majority of personnel at tracks do not have extensive formal education - they learned by doing as Sherryn explained above. But for the most part that has more to do with a lack of opportunity for formal education, not because it is the best way to do it. In recent years, the number of schools that offer equine-racing themed majors, minors and internships has grown quite a bit. The benefits of learning through a school (rather than through a mentoring relationship) are many. First, no matter how good your mentor is, they don't know everything. All trainers have their strengths and weaknesses, when you study different theories in school (whether it be training theories, therapeutic options, etc.) you study theorIES. Sometimes what works for one horse won't work for another, but the more you know the more options you have. Second, being a successful trainer often has more to do with your business and communications skills than your training skills. "Boring" classes like agricultural economics can mean the difference between a barn at Churchill Downs and one at Thistledown ;) Third (but certainly not last) you are still young. If you go straight to work at a track and decide that you don't enjoy it as much as you thought you would your job prospects aren't nearly as good as if you give college a try. If you choose an equine school you will get a taste of things but still have many options. You may decide you would rather be a journalist writing for the Daily Racing Form, or a track announcer, etc. and will be in a position to change your focus very easily.

While it is certainly not the only college that offers a racing program, the best and most famous program is the University of Arizona's Racetrack Industry Program. I know several people who have gone through the program and all have raved. Famous grads include Todd Pletcher and Bob Baffert. If you are serious about a life in the racing industry I strongly recommend looking at that school.