Originally Posted by
str
Q. Is it typical that lots of bottom rung jocks will try to make a few extra bucks working horses? (guessing yes)..
A. While they are riding, they offer their services to work a horse or some horses for free in hopes of being used by that trainer when a rider is needed, like a late rider change or an entry or whatever. So while riding, their work is usually for free.
Galloping is a different story. Many jocks cannot gallop a horse worth a darn in that the horse will often go too fast in the gallop or whatever.
So just to understand, horses gallop most days they train. A slow or medium pace almost always. They might also jog for a while prior to breaking into a gallop. A gallop is about the speed of when the horse is coming back to the groom after a race. A work is quick as you well know, but happens every 5-7th day or whatever the case may be. So workouts for jocks, sure. But a jock galloping my horse, no thanks.
Exception might be if a rider needs to get fit again after an injury but even then, I would be very selective in who I might let the jock gallop by choosing a very easy horse to gallop. One that quite frankly anybody could gallop with a shoe string instead of a bit. Maybe one in 8-10 are like that. Most are tougher than that but not real tough, just tough enough that it is not worth the risk of having the horse run off 2 miles and screw up the schedule to say nothing about running down( burning the back of the ankles with friction burn) and allowing a bad habit to creep in or any of the other thousand things that can go wrong.
About 2-3 out of 10 are varying degrees of very tough to gallop. Some just have certain quirks and some are like wrestling a bear. No way a trainer lets a jock get anywhere near those types. And male or female doesn't matter. I have had males that were easy and females that darn near pulled the riders guts out every day. Just like us, they are all a little different and each , their own individual selves.
Q. Is this a good or as good a path to becoming a trainer as starting out as a hotwalker or groom ? would have to think working horses would be a great education for learning the game
A. From all that I saw, many more trainers too be, were the ones that stayed on the ground and learned without ever galloping a horse. Maybe because that was the typical way it happened, I am not sure.
Some former riders have become very successful trainers so to generalize might be unfair. I think that what a groom to trainer loses by not ever feeling a horse under them out on the track, they more than gain by what they saw in the stall. A rider will need to learn a ton of stuff on the ground to catch up with a groom. And while both can happen, I guess the majority of trainers come from being grooms . Being as that is how I came up, I am sure I am biased towards that.
In Rudy's case, he was Rick's asst. for a long time. And because Rick had so many horses, it was like learning at 5 times the speed of others because of the volume. Volume of problems, decisions, ways to handle situations, you name it. You can learn much more than most, in a shorter period of time because of the volume. (That is what helped me get started so young).
And most importantly was the Rick factor. Now I know that a lot of people think a lot of things about Rick, and he is ruled off and if you believe everything you read, a terrible person who cheated to win. And while Rick has brought a ton of problems on himself for the way things were handled, from where I sit, just like the Bill Walsh or Mike Holmgren coaching tree in football or the Wayne Lukes trainers tree , the Dutrow training tree starting with his dad and carried on by Dick's sons, is impressive as any of them. Simply put, Rudy, who I have met but don't really know at all, learned from one of the best horsemen I ever knew. Same as his brother Tony, and of course their father , Richard Sr. who taught his three boys (Chip, the youngest, never had his potential realized but is a very good horseman in his own right) as well as many aspiring trainers that went on to win countless thousands of races over the years. It is no surprise too me that Rudy is as successful as he has been. And while I am sure he learned plenty while riding horses, what he learned from Rick, in the shed, in the stall, and the managing process as well as the attention to detail, work ethic, and a ton of subtle signs that many would not recognize , but not a Dutrow taught trainer, I promise you, is what has helped Rudy put it all together.
Again, there will be those that might be offended by what I said in light of Rick's problems, or think that it is illegal drugs or whatever they want to think, but Rudy is as good as Rudy is, because he learned from one of the best. A lot of what was said about Rick is just not true.
Yep, Rick was crazy and wild and flamboyant and anything else you want to call it. But the last thing he was,was a drug trainer. Nor was his dad or others taught by his dad.
Probably hard to believe with all that has been said, and I won't blame anyone that is forced to draw a conclusion based on what they have heard. But either you know the real and whole story, or you have heard what is deemed to be the real and whole story. I am fortunate enough to know it without hearsay. I lived it.
Thanks for the soapbox format JBEX. I will hop off now. Lol.
Hope that helped answer the Q.'s