15 minute read
Understanding the mental health of racehorse trainers
Simone Sear, Racing Welfare’s director of Welfare, has recently completed the Thoroughbred Horseracing Industries MBA run by Liverpool University.
Her paper “Occupational Stressors for Racehorse Trainers in Great Britain and their Impact on Health and Wellbeing” looks into an area that Sear and the charity believe is little understood.
We have reprinted an abbreviated report of some of the key aspects of Sear’s paper, outlining the stressors experienced by trainers (most of which won’t be news to trainers) as well as the industry recommendations Sear puts forward to help racehorse trainers deal with occupational stress and mental wellbeing
Background
The role of racehorse trainer has received little to no academic attention yet it is a role that places many demands on the business owner/manager.
Their businesses are often rurally based and family owned/managed, and racehorse trainers often struggle to balance their books against juggling round-the-clock responsibilities caring for high value, unpredictable animals, looking after racehorse owners, land and buildings, prize-money, a demanding racing calendar, complex racing regulations and ensuring there is a reliable and skilled workforce.
Sear has used a qualitative research approach in order to gain an understanding of a phenomenon about which little is yet known.
A sample of six licensed racehorse trainers participated in the research and they ranged in business size, age, experience, gender and geographic location. The mean age of participants was 52 years and the mean size of business had 46 horses.
Unstructured, anonymous interviews were audio recorded in which participants were encouraged to speak freely in order for the researcher to gain a deep understanding.
Findings
The analysis identified seven repetitive “higher-order” themes which were sub-divided into 41 further codes to represent “stressors” relating to dealing with people, caring for horses, working hours and patterns, business issues, performance, job tasks and harassment and image.
There were four higher-order themes and 19 codes identified that related to the impact that stressors had on health and wellbeing.
This identified a wide range of mental health and physical health issues, which were either a result of occupational stressors or that were existing conditions exacerbated further by stressors.
What are the stressors?
1. Dealing with people
Pressure around racehorse performance, often something out of a racehorse trainer’s control, was felt personally by participants on behalf of the owner as they would experience guilt, disappointment or blame if a racehorse failed to perform on the track.
All participants mentioned that managing owner expectations was a specific stressor.
There was also evidence of a lack of personal and professional boundaries between trainers and owners when participants described taking phone calls during unsocial hours or when busy with other important tasks.
Participants told how owners would want to speak with them as early as 7am and others who had taken calls as late as 11.30pm.
Owners can call expecting to speak with a trainer during precious family time or when the trainer needs sleep and rest.
Explanations were that for an owner, racehorse training is a hobby whilst it is the trainer’s business and so owners will often want to have a conversation during their leisure time, at weekends, for example.
Whilst most participants accepted this is part of their role there was evidence these expectations were a strain which if left unmet would result in the loss of owners and which in turn would impact negatively on business.
Participants felt loyalty from racehorse owners could be unreliable and precarious as all had experience of having horses removed from their yards at haste.
There was a consensus that a racehorse owner’s expectations have changed over the decades and that today’s owner wants a very different leisure experience from those of previous years.
Two participants felt that owners’ experience had changed in the last decade from those who tended to be stock people and who would accept that horses would suffer illness or sustain injury.
Most felt that today’s owner expects quick results from a trainer despite the fact that the performance of a horse, to a large extent, is likely to be out of their control. As one participant was warned:
The health and wellbeing of employees was also a stressor, in particular worry about injury and fatality risk from riding accidents and for one participant this felt as though they were:
Most participants felt pressure to do the right thing by their staff and the ability to pay wages, conform to external pressure around employment law, regulation and bureaucracy were stressors.
Some expressed feeling additional pressure from industry bodies such as the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), Racing Welfare and National Association of Racing Staff (NASS) and at times felt trainers are unfairly portrayed as “bad” employers.
Others felt a double standard exists with pressure on trainers to do right by their staff, yet the same standard does not appear to exist for themselves.
All trainers recognised how important their staff were to them, often had close relationships, were heavily reliant on and many cared deeply about their welfare and wellbeing.
2. Caring for horses
Caring for racehorses was a stressor identified as being most out of a participant’s control.
Horses suffering illness, injury or fatality were of particular concern and all spoke about virus or disease which could run through their livestock and decimate their businesss causing significant stress:
The same participant explained that when their horses were sick, they were sick too and that this had impacted negatively on their mental health.
Sickness in livestock also impacted on racehorse performance as well as on a participant’s performance and results which in turn brought with it the threat of loss or the actual loss of horses.
The impact of a virus running through a yard was not only immediate, but would have a long-term effect as one participant explained how it takes a long time to rebuild the business following a virus.
Participants all felt the constant threat of losing horses, how to find and retain good horses and the actual loss of horses as a stressor.
One trainer described how just getting one thing wrong could result in the loss of horses and how this was felt as a constant pressure that weighed heavily on their mind.
3. Work hours
Relentlessness and long work hours were a recurrent theme throughout the interviews and cited as a major stressor for participants. Evidence demonstrated that most were working extremely long hours over seven days per week with little or no time off.
Early mornings combined with late nights made for typically a 12-14 hour working day for the majority of participants, which often left them physically and mentally shattered. If participants had sick horses or other emergencies to deal with then days could be longer.
If there was a quieter day some said they would spend this catching up with emails, paperwork or speaking with owners. A lack of time to do everything was cited as a significant pressure and added to this was the
of it all which many said felt as though they were never off duty.
Whilst most expected to work long hours, participants said the ever-increasing fixture list was an additional pressure and that a radical re-think was needed in this regard.
One participant explained how the impact of the increasing fixture list and evening racing combined with racing seven days per week over 364 days per year results in no time for a break for either trainers, staff or horses.
Another described how going evening racing twice in one week had left them “flattened” leaving the racecourse at 9pm, arriving back at the yard with the horse at 12pm and eventually getting into bed at 2am, only to be up at 5am to start all over again.
Time off and holidays for participants were rare and when any did take leave there was a price to pay.
One participant had only taken one day off in the last year, and even then had been contacted to say a horse had been taken ill. Participants who had taken a holiday confessed to working whilst they were away and needing to work twice as hard when they returned in order to catch up.
Participants had never had a complete break away from their work and one reiterated that it is the fact that you
as being a major cause of stress in their role.
Two participants had also experienced owners not wanting to pay their training fees if they were away on holiday which had resulted in guilt and additional pressure.
Long work hours and patterns resulted in a lack of any work-life balance and in the main work and home life were intrinsically linked and intertwined.
Participants were either running the business with their spouse or partner resulting in the whole family also being immersed in the daily routine.
The relentlessness and lack of routine also meant there was little or no time to commit to doing anything recreational for social or leisure purposes.
4. Business issues
Cash flow and finance issues were stressors identified by all participants as most struggled to balance the books or make a living from the training business alone.
A sudden loss of income from the impact of losing horses left participants with a lot of empty stables and one participant explained that even losing one horse could skew the balances.
Late payers or those who leave without paying impacts on a trainer’s ability to pay their supply chain and one participant described their direct debits as “eye watering” and a major cause of stress as the worry about how to pay bills caused frequent insomnia.
There was consensus that charges for training fees are not enough to make the economics “stack up”, although with so much competition it was felt there is always someone else willing to undercut you.
Another participant felt the financial reward was not enough compared to what you have to put in and that “it’s crazy that only 8-9 per cent of trainers are able to make a living out of the sport”.
Some said they knew trainers who should have given up years ago instead of struggling on, while for others the responsibilities and debt were too great to walk away from.
An unexpected finding was that every participant was supplementing their training business with either another business (or two or three), another job or through a reliance on a partner’s salary, skills and experience. This added further pressure to the participant’s already busy schedules and home lives.
Their training business would struggle to survive without these additional income streams or skills yet at the same time participants were already stretched to capacity and did not have the time for additional work.
5. Performance
The highs and lows of operating within an elite sport bought additional stressors.
Highs came with success on the racetrack and certain perks which some said made it unique in comparison to other jobs or business.
Working outdoors combined with the thrill of elite racehorses were cited alongside the elation of winning.
However, elation could quickly turn to disappointment especially when winning plateaus as:
This type of disappointment is experienced personally.
One participant described the excitement of their first big win, but how this quickly waned and now how a win is more a sense of relief due to the pressure to perform.
For most pressure hinged on having good runners because when racehorses fail to perform the business suffers. It was, however, the publication of results and how wins and losses are reported that was felt acutely and caused stress.
One participant explained how a winner in a class 6 race would bring pleasure yet the press would report the win as being insignificant and probably due to a lack of competition or such as the favourite falling at the last fence. Such reports would then sow doubt in the mind of the owner who would often see or hear about it before the trainer.
With any elation lost the trainer must then pacify a disappointed owner and convince them their horse is still worthy of winning. One participant explained the impact: “So it destroys trainer’s self-esteem at the time and in the future, it destroys their financial model, creates havoc with their business, but it is much more than that because your heart and soul goes with every horse, because you kind of hope this is the one and even if they’re not very good they all matter.
Competitors were also experienced as stressors as there was a consensus that every other trainer would take your horse “at the drop of a hat”.
More than one participant spoke of the disappointment and hurt of losing a horse to another trainer, who would then go on to do well and win races with the same horse and how owners would remove horses that were underperforming in their quest to win.
One participant explained that usually a horse would “come right” if left where it was, however, many owners were described as too impatient to wait and so would move, often seeking out a larger and, in their view, more successful trainer.
One participant said this was particularly upsetting when they had done all the “donkey work” only for another trainer to reap the benefits.
This was described as not only hurtful but as being damaging to a trainer’s reputation.
Competition also caused isolation as one trainer described not being able to talk to fellow trainers when things were going wrong for fear of exposing their failures or that other trainers might repeat what they had heard to their own clients.
6. Job tasks
Work overload combined with too many tasks was the stressor that generated most data. This was further exacerbated by delegation issues.
Whilst it was an issue for all there was a view from the participants with smaller enterprises that things were probably easier in larger training yards, although most then changed their view to conclude that in reality the tasks were probably just multiplied.
A lack of routine was an issue caused by being totally flat out all of the time and jumping from one task to another.
An acute pressure point in the day was around 10am when declaring runners, which could not be avoided regardless of what else was going on. One participant who used to ride out recalled hanging off a horse doing their declarations at the same time.
Travel was another major stressor, either travelling to and from the races or for smaller trainers driving the horsebox there and having to then do everything themselves once back at the yard, with the amount of travel and mileage taking its toll mentally.
Participants spoke of there being no let up and one said with so many different aspects to keep on top of they felt their head might explode because the pressures were so bad. Another mentioned switching from speaking to owners to unblocking drains, mucking out, feeding horses.
For another participant attending the sales whilst attempting to buy new stock with customers and vendors in one ear and the phone ringing about what was happening at home in the other, reported that it was “manic”.
Delegation issues exacerbated things further as participants either could not afford additional staff, staff were unreliable or there was no-one to trust with certain tasks, so much so that one participant described the pressure as continuous with every single task reverting back to them.
Delegation did appear to be a significant issue for the smaller to mid-tier trainer, however even participants with larger yards reported struggles to find, replace or afford a good assistant trainer or senior staff.
If staff arrived late for work or not at all this would have a knock-on effect affecting the outcomes for the whole day.
Being able to trust staff and having the time to check on their work was also a pressure, even down to checking if the right equipment had been put on the right horse correctly being an issue.
One participant talked of a vicious spiral that can occur around staffing issues:
Participants also said they were often the only person an owner would speak with, even when there were other staff or a spouse available who were able to talk to them. For one female trainer delegation and “doing it all” was felt to be further exacerbated by trying to be a wife and mother at the same time.
Regardless of gender, size of business, age or experience the sheer hard graft of it all created pressures so much so that some were unsure about how they keep going or questioned how much longer they would be able to sustain things at the current manic pace.
6. Harrasment and image
Participants all knew of and had experienced some form of abusive message, phone call or email either from punters or owners which were often attributed to advances in technology and social media.
One participant had received an abusive voice mail message within a minute of their horse passing the post calling him “filth”.
Other messages received used highly derogatory language from contacting a participant to call him”a paedophile” because a horse had failed to win, to abusive language being screamed down the phone, being called crooked and messages saying: “I hope your family die of cancer and your horse breaks its leg”.
These were viewed as an expected and inevitable part of the job and most likely to be the work of warped or ill people. Most participants, whilst admitting this was unacceptable and even hurtful, dismissed it in most cases as ridiculous or laughable.
All felt their contact details needed to be public in order to run their business so could not see an alternative to this growing problem. There was agreement that the BHA were taking action to deal with abusive messages and most claimed that jockeys probably received a whole lot worse.
The portrayal of trainers, resulting in what some felt was an unfair image, did appear to cause pressure. One participant felt the media portrayal does not reflect trainers well.
Others felt the media portrayal of trainers to be poor and that they are often reflected as people who treat their staff badly and that this was in fact far from the truth and there needed to be a reality check.
Another participant had experienced their performance being debated on live TV and how this is now always on their mind and felt personally. Another recalled how it had been heart-breaking to watch the public demise of a now-deceased top-class trainer and was left wondering how a person could be expected to cope mentally with that.
Another felt the governing body view trainers as people who complain all the time and perhaps think they are not important to the running of the sport.
Some felt as though they did not have a voice at the right meetings and perhaps they should as ultimately the sport is reliant on them.
Conclusions
The findings demonstrate that racehorse trainers based in Great Britain experience a variety of stressors in fulfilling the multitude of roles involved in their work.
There is evidence to suggest that racehorse trainers perform a high level of emotional labour, experience a relentless “time famine” resulting from long work hours and work overload.
Moreover, that operating within the context of an elite sport places them at risk of psychological distress and harassment with regards to their own performance, the performance of their horses and scrutiny from the general public, punters and the media.
In addition to this racehorse trainers are subject to the highs and lows of entrepreneurship, but more often experience the lows as they face stressors common to other small-medium size business owner/ managers, intensified by a low level of financial reward and success rate.
There is evidence that stressors simpact negatively on a racehorse trainer’s physical and mental health and secondary data suggests that they are more likely to suffer injury, chronic illness, emotional and physical exhaustion, mental ill health and addiction.
Occupational stressors for this group are also likely to have an impact on business and productivity and ultimately on the wider horseracing industry.
Participants were passionate about their work, cared deeply about their horses and the people to which they hold a responsibility but this passion is at risk of being eroded from the constant demands and pressures involved in this role.
The findings show there are risks to physical and mental health and overall wellbeing from the constant exposure to stressors.
The horseracing industry has a moral and ethical duty of care towards these key participants in the same way that it does towards jockeys and racing staff.
Therefore, funding should be sought in order to conduct wider research and to provide bespoke services that will provide the appropriate support and more importantly this should be done in consultation with the trainers themselves.
Recommendations
1. Conduct further research of the wider racehorse trainer population in GB in order to test these findings and determine to what extent they are representative. Any such research should also include a deeper examination of the appraisal of stressors and coping strategies.
2. Further investigation should be conducted into the finance, economics and sustainability of racehorse training as an occupation as the need for additional income streams to supplement training is likely to undermine health and wellbeing.
3. A bespoke, confidential support service for racehorse trainers should be designed in order to support this workforce to gain insight and build resilience. Any such service should be designed in consultation with the NTF and its members and given the findings will need to provide support across a range of issues such as; mental health, physical health, sports psychology, business management, HR and legal advice, financial assistance and time management.
4. Consideration given to making improvements to education and training beyond initial trainer modules; a mentor programme, continuous professional development and regional training that is both accessible and achievable with funding and support made available to enable those who wish to attend management development courses.
