Talking to consignors about how getting yearlings ready for sale has changed over the last twenty five years

The art of yearling preparation in thoroughbred racing has undergone remarkable transformations, yet has always kept the same golden ideals when preparing the world to see the next crop of elite equine athletes. Yearling preparation, as many come to find it, marks the start of a horse’s journey to create themselves; and along with that ideal, create an impact on anyone that lays eyes on them. 

Where once young thoroughbreds were given very minimal handling before they were sent off to the sales ring or showed off to buyers, today’s modern equine athletes are blessed with the technology of advanced balanced nutrition, state of the art biomechanics, measured conditioning, and even mental training. They are handled everyday as newborn foals to prepare them for what they are to face in yearling preparation. In a way, many could say that yearling preparation can even start at birth. 

With the growing influence of data analytics and advances in veterinary recommendations and technologies, today’s yearlings are sculpted for not only physical conformation, but also for the earliest of maturity and trainability. This has caused the bar of the overall buyer expectation to be raised higher than we have ever seen it. A shift like this has certainly reflected the industry’s heightened competitiveness, and the ever-increasing demand for horses who are ready to perform the second that the hammer falls. It has always been what buyers have aspired for, but the definition on what it should look like has changed significantly over the years. 

Prepping a thousand pound, elite athlete that can reach speeds of up to forty miles per hour is never an easy task. In fact, the yearling prep game has developed much more on the individual level simply because we have the technology to do so. The goal to create a profile that ‘checks all the boxes’ for buyers is the same goal no matter what level you are in the business. Denali Stud, a leading consigner at every major yearling sale, has set an example of what equine excellence should look like. 

Denali is responsible for bringing some of racing’s best, like Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom, Kentucky Oaks heroine Malathaat, and champion two year old colt and top sire Uncle Mo. Perhaps there is a method to their madness, as Yearling and Sales Manager Donnie Snellings has integrated an articulate schedule for his horses to be at their best when they are presented to the world for the first time. Since joining Denali in 2009, his process of using modern day techniques to prep Denali’s star studded yearlings has brought generations of success. 

His watchful eye of forage intake, joint evaluation, and overall development of confirmation is prominent throughout the season. Fillies are more so in groups, and colts are put in individualized paddocks due to temperament. Snellings adds that the colts are a bit more active than the fillies; who in contrast tend to immediately start grazing as soon as they get turned out with their group. “There’s always the one you’re trying to get the belly off of, so I may swim those. Those with bad confirmation I usually will walk only. Some will walk, and some will jog. It is all based on what I see in them every day on the farm”. 

This individualized look into using modern exercising technologies is prominent in the current yearling market. The patterns of walking and jogging either by hand or by machine, along with swimming in equine engineered pools polishes Denali Stud’s yearlings to look their best at the sales. 

That is quite the contrast of what yearling preparation used to be. “About forty or some years ago in the early eighties, not a whole lot of prep went on at all. Horses were still groomed of course, but there was never really an exercise program at all. The physical demand wasn’t as great as it is today. Mostly, they were kept in until the sale”, Snellings says. 

 The contrast between these two eras of yearling prep is driving the new vision that we see in these young horses at today’s sales. Even back then, there were always your million dollar yearlings by Storm Cat or Mr. Prospector, but the physical expectations of what those individuals should look like has clearly raised the bar for adding more steps to prepare these yearlings for the sales ring. 

An inside look at the industry’s leading consignor for more than twenty five years further clarifies the strict agenda that is put on today's yearlings to look their best. Taylor Made Sales Agency has been setting the bar in their preparation to bring out the best within every individual equine athlete. 

President and CEO Mark Taylor has said “I feel like we put more emphasis on the individual than ever before from nutrition to exercise. We are trying to grow our yearlings naturally while helping them become the best version of themselves.” He also feels that the biggest change in how yearlings are prepared at Taylor Made Farm compared to thirty years ago is that the process has become much more ‘customized’. 

To further incorporate customization into a thoroughbred’s work schedule, Vice President of Boarding and General Farm Manager Logan Payne explained that they follow a consistent six day work schedule that is specifically designed to bring out the full potential of each horse. Two days of machine walking is followed by two days of strictly handwalking in paddocks going about twenty minutes each in two different directions. 

After those four days of muscle and bone building is completed, the yearlings will then move on to two days of ring walking where they will walk over rows of PVC pipes that are about five feet apart to get them into the habit of striding out for future inspections. “Some yearlings may be picked to swim depending on what they have going on. Maybe five out of one hundred will swim at a given time”, Payne adds. He is referring to the individualistic look into the close monitoring of the joints that are strained during the duration of yearling prep. 

Wanting to restrict the straining of certain areas of yearlings during their transformation has become very common with the modern exercise schedules we have today within yearling preparation. Aqua treads and coldwater swims are becoming a lot more prominent in the industry with this task, given that a lot of farms and consignors use them. 

However, maybe the biggest reason why yearling prep has changed over the years doesn’t quite start behind the gates of the farms. If we fast forward to the sale itself, we will quickly notice the rapid growth of precise radiograph technology. Behind the vast scrutiny of every bone and muscle in a horse’s leg at the sale, x- rays and ultrasounds have gotten into a horse’s profile more than they ever have before.

 The best buyers and owners are vetting their horses to the absolute maximum, and every flaw or malfunction that these horses faced in their preparation for the sale will be brought into light. 

When raising horses to meet those standards, Taylor Made’s Director of New Business Development Frank Taylor states “ We’re so focused on horses x-raying and scoping good, that it affects how we prep these horses”.  

The minimal handling and veterinary technology of yearlings twenty to thirty years ago would simply allow such flaws to go undetected. Knowing this, the growing concern for sesamoiditis has such a strong influence on how yearlings are prepared that it dictates not only the method of preparation for each individual horse, but also the intensity of exercise they can undergo. “These images are getting more precise, and are showing more and more, which causes you to really watch how you're prepping your horses”, Payne says. 

Just like the precise vetting that dictates the value of a horse at auction, the preciseness in an exercise program for the individual horse and its needs is equally at high rise as well. With this information, I believe it is safe to say that prepping schedules are becoming as precise as the radiographs themselves.

 Back over at Denali, Snellings has said “My thoughts would be with the use of your veterinarian, and the advances in x-ray. I think that we are all better equipped now to make good decisions on which horses fit into which program. And also, I think the surfaces that we have to work with now are so much better than what we had even 20 years ago.” 

This shows how important it is to find the best schedule or program that fits each horse individually, so you’re not overdoing or falling short of unlocking a horse’s full potential before the hammer falls. In other words, you can’t work a yearling filly with a weak hind the same way you work a yearling colt with a strong shoulder to get the same result. Their bodies will clearly respond in different ways and will withstand and give out to ailments along the way. The recovery period to those ailments is when you start to run into problems.

 The journey from farm to consignor showcases the everyday hard work and dedication that goes into knowing these horses individually to get them to their full potential before a sale. The sale reveals the finished product. 

All and all, it seems the yearling market has both changed and balanced itself out when preparing the next generation of athletes for the industry’s greatest sales. The golden rule to follow, as Frank Taylor puts it, “Our goal is to raise athletic racehorses that are marketable as yearlings. So when we’re prepping a horse, we’re focused on getting the horse looking good and trying to get it very presentable so it will sell the most at the sale; but we’re also doing that with the idea that we do not want to do anything to detrimentally affect the horse’s racing career”.  

Overall, yearling preparation has evolved from a more generalized approach to one that is highly individualized and responsive to every horse’s unique needs. Advances in conditioning programs, targeted exercise, nutrition, and veterinary technology have led to more customized care. Buyers come to the sale for one reason and one reason only; and that is to buy an athlete. In modern day, a deeper respect for the individual horse meets with a broader commitment to their future success on the track.