Equestrian
I've had Murat or 'Mattie' as he is affectionately known for just over a year now. He is a son of Useful and was a pretty expensive yearling bought by Peter Deal and trained by Martin Pipe under rules.
Injury and immaturity stunted his progress under rules but eventually he got back on track and won between the flags a couple of times in the North West. He is a super jumper and brave as a lion but by the time I got him, physically he was all over the place. After plenty of physio and lateral work, my instructor (Marcia Wakeman) and I, have got him going nicely, so well in fact he was 2nd in our first dressage test. We're all signed up to the ROR and will be competing in our first retired racehorse classes too; definitely ones with a jumping element. My ambition long term is to event Mattie but re-training him has taken longer than I thought but I have loved every minute of it!
I would definitely encourage any competent rider to re-home an ex-racehorse because they make the best general riding horses. They're intelligence and versatility means they can turn their hand to any discipline. A good place to start if you're looking is HEROS. They do an excellent job in finding the right horse for the right person and most importantly they re-home hundreds of retired racehorses.
A few of us family and friends have placed a horse with Lawney and Alan Hill; he's called Adamo and has some decent bumper form behind Cue Card but has been off a while with an injury. It's great having him close by as I can go and visit him and the Woodway Farm team as often as I can. I have been known to ride out and who knows I may even commit to another charity race, but they would need to find me a steering job!