Healthy Strides: WinStar Sends Stallions for a Spin Under Saddle

[Wandering Eyes]

With breeding sheds opening last week across North America, farms have been quietly preparing stallions for the demanding months ahead of them. All jokes about them having the best jobs aside, stallions are in for a marathon during breeding season. It's not simply a matter of bringing stallions up from fields and expecting them to be ready to cover a full book of mares over the ensuing months. Perhaps that may work for small operations where a stallion covers a handful of mares all season, but for the elite operations in Kentucky, stallions require a certain amount of fitness in order to perform not only all season long, but at peak fertility.

Major farms use varying methods to get their stallions ready, but WinStar Farm near Versailles–currently home to 14 active stallions on the roster–uses the time-honored tradition of riding their stallions under saddle.

“We've done it for 15-16 years probably, maybe a little bit more,” said WinStar's stallion manager, Larry McGinnis. “Mr. [Bill] Casner started it when he was a part of the farm, so that's how long it's been.”

Anyone fortunate enough to be in attendance as WinStar stallions are sent through their paces on a small jogging track near the stallion barn sees not only healthy, but happy horses.

“We want them to have their ears up, be bouncing around, be happy,” said McGinnis. “We just want to get them a little bit of exercise and be happy about it. If they want to fight us or don't like being ridden any more, we won't do it–then we'll put them on the walker or do something different with them.”

Life Is Good under saddle at WinStar | Sarah Andrew

Most of the current horses on WinStar's roster are Grade I winners–many of them multiple Grade I winners–with a Breeders' Cup winner and a Dubai World Cup winner to boot. Most have campaigned at the very top of the sport over multiple years. Like in any human sport, a horse performing in the highest levels at peak fitness over multiple campaigns eventually may sustain some wear and tear.

“Some of them have injuries that might keep them from exercising, like a little ankle or something,” continued McGinnis. “They're elite athletes and they've been through a lot to get to me, so some of them don't do anything [extra]. They'll just get turned out at night.”

Among those who are ridden at WinStar are one of the sport's top sires, Constitution, as well as four-time Grade I winner Life Is Good and new-for-2025 Heartland, all 'TDN Rising Stars' during their race careers.

New retiree Heartland is among the stallions ridden at WinStar | Sarah Andrew

Alvaro Quinteros is the man in the saddle at WinStar. He splits his time between WinStar's training center and the stallion barn. While he breaks a lot of babies and has ridden horses at all stages of training, the Guatemala native said his very unique position aboard the stallions holds a special place in his heart.

“I love the stallions,” said Quinteros. “I've been riding them for four years. I love my job, especially these stallions. I've been working here for WinStar for six years and with the stallions for four years. I was an outrider before.”

Other than the obvious, is there a difference between riding stallions and riding young horses?

“It's much different,” said Quinteros. “These horses mentally are so different.”

He adds with a smile: “Constitution is my favorite.”

Constitution at WinStar | Sarah Andrew

Depending on the horse and the stallion's needs, Quinteros uses either Western or English tack. He said he often uses a Western saddle on the younger ones, especially when a horse is newer to the farm. As horses let down and adjust to farm life, they may switch to an exercise saddle as he likes the extra contact it gives him with the stallion. With some horses, he said, the type of tack used makes no difference.

The stallions work hard during the breeding season, so McGinnis said they're only ridden during the off months.

“After breeding season, we give them about a month off just to let down a little bit and relax. Then we'll start [under saddle] probably middle of July. It's just weather dependent every day. If we get a lot of rain, we're not going to do it. As long as it's safe for them to go out, we'll jog a couple of times and come in.”

Heartland heading to exercise | Sarah Andrew

He continued: “We usually do it until around November. It just depends on when we start getting snow. Our little track gets pretty wet, so if it's consistently raining, we won't ride them. And if there's bad weather while we're riding, we're not going to do it then either.”

While WinStar may be one of the few American farms these days to utilize stallion riding as a form of fitness, they are not the first. Three Chimneys famously did it during the Seattle Slew years. Photos occasionally surface from the other side of the world of stallions ridden in Japan. The most legendary stallion by far, however, ever to be ridden during his sire years in America was undoubtedly Man o' War.

Historian Dorothy Ours, author of “Man o' War: A Legend Like Lightning,” points to several newspaper and magazine articles that reference a tremendous workout regimen during the great horse's retirement.

From the Lexington Herald-Leader in 1929: “Although his racing days have been over for nine years and he will never set foot on a track again, unless for exhibitions, Man o' War must stay in condition and daily, about 7 o'clock, he is saddled and taken for an hour's exercise at a jogging canter… In that hour, Man o' War will cover at least eight miles.”

Man o' War in retirement with John Buckner up | Keeneland Library/Jeffords Collection

In 1940, when Man o' War was 23, the same publication wrote: “Concerning his daily exercise, the priceless equine is going only five miles under the saddle these mornings as compared to eight and 10… His five-mile workouts now consist of walking and trotting, while eight years ago he was galloping the entire distance.”

The game has changed in the century since Man o' War was a young horse. His under-saddle exercise was reported to be from October to June, with the summer off, while the WinStar stallions aren't ridden during the breeding season.

Alvaro Quinteros and Life Is Good | Sarah Andrew

It must be noted the great Man o' War was allotted 15 mares in his first book. Top stallions today can cover that many–or more–in a week. Obviously, veterinary advancements have changed the breeding game tremendously. A century ago, even a few decades ago, mares were often given multiple covers during a single estrus cycle in order to 'catch.' These days, ovulation can be pinpointed down to mere hours for an optimal cover providing the best chance for conception. Ideally, mares will be covered just once in modern days, whereas in Man o' War's time, each mare often got multiple covers over a series of days.

Ours is aware of other significant horses being ridden while at stud, including Man o' War's Triple Crown-winning son, War Admiral, who stood alongside his sire at Lexington's Faraway Stud. The son of Man o' War's celebrated groom, Will Harbut, was among War Admiral's riders at the farm. Ours also said Seabiscuit was ridden during his stallion years in California, including for “low-speed trail riding and cattle herding.”

A Courier-Journal article Ours shared alluded to other legends that one of Man o' War's farm exercise riders had also ridden, presumably on the farm, including Domino, Peter Pan, and Colin.

Stallion tack at WinStar | Sarah Andrew

Although horsemen a century ago would most likely be amazed at the sheer vastness of stallion operations of today, they'd feel very much at home with good, old-fashioned horsemanship. While each farm has its own methods of ensuring stallion fitness, WinStar's approach would surely be approved by horsemen of yesteryear.

“We're one of the few who do it now,” said McGinnis. “We just think it's good for them and it shows.”

It does show.

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