just an idea: retired racehorses.

​If you like to have a tear in our eye, I suggest a visit to the website of ‘Retraining for Racehorses’, the best initiative to have come from the B.H.A. since – well, ever. Love of the racehorse can get lost amongst all the other elements of the sport; the personal stories of people who have taken an ex-racehorse under their wing to retrain in another sphere of equine competition are both heart-warming and inspiring, and displays our great sport in a light that requires to be transferred into other media outlets.
A sound, happy racehorse can, with patience and expert tuition, go on to lead a happy life in the show-ring, eventing, dressage, show-jumping, polo (I suspect size does matter in this particular discipline) endurance riding, horseball (I’ve seen pictures, it looks crazily hairy for the riders – hanging head-down from the saddle in mimicry of a Hollywood stunt-rider to pick up a ball while in motion!) hunting, trekking, hunter trials and a discipline new to me, polocross. 
I am aware that event riders are becoming more enamoured with the thoroughbred for its natural speed and athleticism during the cross-country phase of a three-day-event. I suspect the ex-racehorse may never become a big name in dressage but that does not mean it cannot be retrained to become proficient in the lower divisions of dressage, as son of Frankel and relation of Dubawi, UAE King, formerly trained by Roger Varian, is proving. Who would have thought it, a son of mighty Frankel turning up at a minor-league county show or affiliated event!
The retraining of racehorses is an organisation British racing can be proud of and I hope and pray that the stranglehold presently being affected on racing by government restrictions will not result in a drop in funding for the charity. In fact, the B.H.A. should consider a weekend of racing dedicated to raising extra funds for the charity, with a headline race-day at somewhere like York or Cheltenham and with fund-raising at every meeting over the designated week-end. Every equine retraining and rescue centre should be helped through horse-racing to raise funds in appreciation of the safety-net they provide. 
As a sport we may consider the owner to be priceless, the jockey indispensable, stable staff the lifeblood of the sport, the breeder the production heart, but in fact without the horse, the sacrifices and bravery of the horse, we, the human enthusiasts, are nothing. The sport is called HORSE RACING, after-all.
One aspect lacking, if that is the right word, in the racehorse retraining programme, and this is in no way meant as criticism as the idea I am about to put forward might be as tricky to overcome as the third last at Cheltenham used to be, is that once retired, apart from special occasions when they lead a parade or put in a personal appearance on a day when there is a race named in their honour, the racing public lose sight of former equine legends. Although what I propose is for all ex-racehorses, great or small in achievement. I also put forward this idea as an additional way to attract extra funding for the R.o.T. and all equine charities.
I have had it in my head for a long time for a team event for ex-racehorses that I have now termed ‘Optimum Trialling’. I’d imagine if someone has spent hundreds (or more) hours patiently coaxing the racehorse out of the ex-racehorse to a state of calm acceptance of a life less pacey, ‘Optimum Trialling’ will come as a big ‘Not on your Nelly’. It certainly will not be to the taste of all riders, nor will it be for all ex-racehorses. I shall take all criticism on the chin in the hope that someone of greater equine intelligence than myself will recognise the grain of an idea worth further exploration in my suggestion.
What I propose, as an hors d’oeuvre (an appropriate term given it translates as ‘outside the work’ and because of the sheer proliferation of French-bred horses with French language names) to a race-meeting, as pony racing is occasionally used, is a team relay event in which there are five elements each with an optimum time allotted for each – 3-furlong ‘race’ comprising one hurdle – remember the idea is not to be the fastest but to achieve the optimum time at the point of hand-over – this is a relay event. Similarly, a 3-furlong ‘race’ comprising one steeplechase fence, followed by a 2-furlong ‘crawl’, I suspect, comprising a show-jump of some description, followed by three-furlongs comprising a hunter trial jump or combination of some description, ending in a three-furlong dash to suit the retired ex-flat horse.
The above is simply a working plan to give an overview of my proposal. I have no doubt it requires much thought, tweaks and trial and error if it is every to come to fruition. As well as sponsorship, of course.
Many jockeys rehome horses close to their hearts and I would hope they, and ex-professional jockeys, would give this idea their support, even if they leg-up their aspiring-jockey children rather than ‘risk’ embarrassing themselves. 
Much of the work carried-out by the R.o.R. is out-of-sight of the racegoer. I suspect not every racegoer even knows of the existence and brilliant work of the R.o.R. ‘Optimum Trialling’ would be a way of connecting all the dots – a regular light shone on equine charities, reminding racegoers that racehorses do not fade away into far-flung fields (or into the dog-food chain) once their names no longer appear in race-cards; raising important funds, and on a more mercenary note, swelling racecourse attendance. I’m not suggesting this will ever happen but what if Sprinter Sacre were to pop-up in Optimum Trialling or any of our equine legends, wouldn’t that add a couple hundred people to a race-meeting?
As virtually no one reads these blogs on a regular basis – not complaining, it is a vanity website after-all, my own personal therapy – I will relay this ‘article’ to the R.o.R. in anticipation of it receiving a less than savage response.
On this site, again sheer vanity and point-scoring on my part, there is a page dedicated to possible horse-names owners can adopt as a name for a new horse in hope they will donate £25 to an equine charity. I mention this as a sort-of nod-wink-nod-wink-if-you-know-what-I mean (allusion to a Monty Python sketch, in case you are wondering) for anyone reading this to do likewise.