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Promoting racehorses
and supporting their retraining
Promoting racehorses
and supporting their retraining

Already four structures accredited by Au-Delà des Pistes For the retraining of Thoroughbred

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01 Aug. 2017

For the past month, the French Charity Au-Delà des Pistes has launched a procedure of referencing and accrediting structures that practice the retraining of thoroughbreds to other disciplines, with the approval of France Galop.

The objective of this approach is to make the placement of retrained racehorses more fluid by providing owners and trainers with a panel of organizations throughout France whose professionalism, competence have been scrupulously checked by Au-Delà des Pistes.

The structures - orgazinations or professionnal facilities - wishing to be accredited by Au-Delà des Pistes as a retraining center must first fill in an application file and provide letters of reference drawn up by at least one owner and a trainer who has already entrusted them with a horse to retrain, a rider having bought them a retrained horse, and the veterinarian in charge of tracking the horses of the structure. A member of the Steering Committee of Au-Delà des Pistes then visits the site to inspect the yard, observes the work done on horses, after-sales follow-up, etc.

Aliette Forien, host of the Haras de Montaigu and President of the French Charity Au-Delà des Pistes explains: "The first aim of Au-Delà des Pistes is to promote the potential of the Thoroughbred to be adapted at the end of their racing career in any type of discipline. This is to retrain more and more ex-race horses every year. To do this, the link between the equestrian world and Racing Industry must be made more visible and accessible. It is in this spirit that we decided to create this yearbook of retraining structures, organized under an accreditation system, in order to allow all professionals and riders to place and find a horse with confidence and as easily as possible . "

Today, four structures have already received the accreditation of Au-Delà des Pistes and are referenced on its website www.audeladespistes.fr.

Ecurie Seconde Chance is the oldest of the organizations dedicated to the retraining of racehorses in France. Established in 2009 by Sylvain (Former Gentleman-rider) and Amélie Martin, pioneers in this field, it has since seen 1,000 ex-racehorses, who have been resold to improve after careful and methodical work in disciplines as varied as the Show-jumping, eventing, dressage, polo, horse ball, endurance etc. Ecurie Seconde Chance can welcome 50 horses. Gérard Augustin-Normand, Nicolas Clément, Myriam Bollack, Al Shaqab Racing, Patrick and François Monfort, Aga Khan Studs etc... regularly give them horses. It is based on a professional approach and two distinct and complementary activities to open the doors of "classic" riding:

  • chevaux reformes selectionnes.com : The horses of this 1st activity are selected on criteria of model, mental and health. They are worked daily by 2 professional riders to learn the basics of their new job under good conditions. These horses are sold with an on-site test for a good horse / rider fit.
  • Sauver un cheval.com : this category is for horses that do not meet the selection criteria for the first activity (pathology requiring rest, age : less than 3 years or more than 9 years, horses not broken for example) . These horses are sold for a nominal fee to people wishing to offer them a new start and agreeing to give them more time.
This system of selection and organization allows to propose permanently a varied panel of horses.

Ecurie DH, hosted by Robert and Eugénie Danloux, became known during the first Retrained Racehorses Day organized by Au-Delà des Pistes in Deauville in August 2016. Eugénie Danloux, a dressage rider, did there a very remarkable demonstration with the former champion of Henri de Pracomtal and the Doumen family, KASBAH BLISS. Since then, the calls to entrust her horses retrained from racing have multiplied so that the Ecurie DH has already converted more than 40 thoroughbreds and AQPS for recreational riding, outside riding, dressage, eventing, show-jumping etc.

Eugénie and Robert Danloux, himself a former golden whip of the gentlemen-riders, are based in the Orne and can accommodate a dozen horses.

Cœur de Course is an association created in July 2015 by Ludyvine Crépeau, art photographer and training rider at the amateur level. Falling in love with thoroughbreds and their ability to adapt, she now enjoys 20 boxes on the Cagnes-sur-Mer racecourse and welcomes horses retrained during the winter meeting (Julien Phelippon, Didier Prod'homme, Patricia Butel etc.) but also from Marseille (Jean-Claude Seroul, Frédéric Rossi, Keven Borgel, Fabrice Vermeulen, etc.).

The horses retrained by Cœur de Course are destined to be resold for horseback riding or equestrian competition, but can also be valued by Ludyvine herself in order to publicize the versatility of thoroughbred in the equestrian world. 59 thoroughbreds have already been welcomed by Cœur de Course, which plans to develop a partnership with another structure in the Southwest to meet more demands.

The Ecurie de La Béchère is a very young structure founded by Franck Cochain within the Haras de la Vayrie, center of balneotherapy, care and fitness based in the Sarthe, at Viré in Champagne. Riding instructor, former physics trainer for the horses for a rider of the Show-Jumping France team and former student of the national training coach of Eventing, Franck Cochain embarked on the activity of retraining of the racehorses at the beginning of 2017 and has already reformed just under ten horses. The Ecuries de la Béchère, of which 4 boxes are intended for the reception of Thoroughbred, also has access to the balneotherapy center in case of necessity.

More on Au-Delà des Pistes:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/audeladespistes
Twitter: @audeladespistes
Email: marine.thevenet@audeladespistes.fr
Project Manager: Marine Thevenet - Tel: +33 6 79 59 97 49

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