1. Give him some time off to learn to be a horse and work all the steroids out of his system.
2. Visit exracers.com - lots of helpful info.
3. His training will have to start at square one - lots of ground work.
I got mine last Sept and he was plenty 'jumpy' - I couldn't get him to walk around the outside of the barn without being spooked. Now we're doing a little showing (walk/trot classes), and he's pretty good out on the trails as long as we go with another 'seasoned' trail horse. Be patient and teach him to trust you. They make wonderful mounts and they're personalities are to die for. Enjoy!!
I discovered that my older off the track thoroughbred did very well in town, so I could ride him around the neighborhood and around traffic with no problem. That's where I did most of my riding to develop his trust. He wasn't fearful of garbage trucks or people and dogs, like a lot of horses. This is probably because he'd been exposed to this kind of environment during his track years.
I could eventually ride him down the canals backed up against rows and rows of fenced in yard, with unseen dogs barking and kids jumping on trampolines, and he was as calm as a cucumber. We spent a lot of time on ground work, at first just walking the neighborhood with him on a lead. When he did spook, it was all pretty much predictable; he never ran off or did anything stupid. He just seemed to make a lot more noise about it than his quarter horse buddies. We didn't do much trail riding because I didn't have a trailer at the time, but when I did go out on trails with him, I always went with a seasoned trail horse and a few horses at a time. He was a great teacher and always honest, which I appreciated after having been out of horses for 20 plus years and still learning the ropes myself. One other thing I discovered: never to feed him 'hot' grain, not so much because it made him wired, but because he got a little cranky. Hope that helps.
Yes give him some time off caz racehorses r cooped up in a stall just about all day and nite!
