Derek Sturniolo has spent more than 30 years with racehorses: as a jockey, a trainer, an assistant trainer and an exercise rider, and today as a racing official. Barn to Track is where his way of reading a horse gets recorded and turned into tools you can use in your own barn.
Three minutes a day. One printable page a week. Free.
3-Minute Daily Horse Check
| Check | His normal | Today |
|---|---|---|
| At the stall door | ears up, nickers at feed time | same |
| Feed and water | cleans up by 6:30, about a bucket overnight | ate it all |
| Legs | cold and tight, all four | warm, left front |
| Feet | cool, shoes tight | cool |
| First steps out | a little stiff, works out of it | same |
Every time we sit down and record Derek, the same idea comes out of him. It's simple, and it works for any horse in any barn.
No two horses eat, move, rest or react quite the same way. The one in front of you is the only one that matters today.
Write down what an ordinary day looks like for this horse: how he greets you, eats, drinks, stands and moves. That's your baseline.
Small changes are often the first sign something is off. You'll only catch them if you know what normal looks like.
Ask the internet a horse question and you'll get a hundred answers. Plenty of them disagree, and plenty of them are selling something.
We're not going to hand you one feed, one training program or one way to manage every horse. We're going to show you how an experienced horseman thinks about the horse in front of him, and give you the tools to do the same with yours.
Our collection of modules. Each one comes from a recorded conversation or hands-on session with Derek, with the worksheets and trackers to put it to work.
Start here
Build a written baseline of this horse's normal habits and behavior, so a change stands out the day it happens.
Derek's nose-to-tail walk-through: what he looks at before a horse goes to work, and how knowing its normal gives you something to compare against.
What a rider feels from the saddle: hands, reins, movement and reactions, and why every horse rides like an individual.
Understand why everything in the feed bucket is there, write the program down, and build it around this horse instead of copying someone else's.
Next up: conditioning, recovery, legs and feet, evaluating a new horse and more. Vote on what comes next
Nothing here is written from a desk. It starts in the barn.
A sit-down conversation, or a hands-on session like the Facebook Live where he walked through Moose from nose to tail.
What he looks at, in what order, and why. The habits he doesn't even think about anymore.
Worksheets, trackers and checklists you can print and keep by the stall.
Start a baseline, keep the log, and you'll start seeing what Derek sees.
Derek grew up in harness racing, moved over to Thoroughbreds and has spent more than 30 years with racehorses.
He rode races for 25 years, ran his own stable as a licensed trainer, and spent six years as an assistant to Barclay Tagg, where the barn won more than 100 races, two Wood Memorials and the Holy Bull, and went to the Kentucky Derby twice. Today he's a racing official at Lone Star Park and Sam Houston in Texas, and he still gets on horses in the morning.
Barn to Track started when his daughter realized how much of that was only in his head: the horses, the people who taught him, the habits that make him a horseman. So she started recording, and she hasn't stopped.
A free, printable one-page check that teaches you your horse's normal, one morning at a time.
Same time, same order, every day: stall door, feed and water, manure, eyes and nose, body, legs, feet, first steps out. Write down his normal once, then tick it off. When something doesn't match, you'll see it.
Articles, lives and stories from Derek's years at the racetrack.
What "normal" really means for one horse, how to write it down, and why a change matters more than any single number.
Copying another barn's feed chart feels safe. Here's why Derek builds around the horse in front of him instead.
Derek walks through a horse before work: legs, feet, body, behavior and reactions, and what he compares it all against.
The gear, feed-room basics and books Derek actually uses, each with his reason.
This isn't a storefront. If something is on the list, it's in Derek's barn, and it's tied to the lesson where it matters. Some links may earn us a small commission, and we say so right next to them.
No. Derek's background is racing, and some future modules will be racing-specific, but knowing a horse's normal matters just as much for a trail horse, a show horse or a retired pasture pet. Every module says who it's for.
A downloadable guide built from Derek's recordings, plus the worksheets and trackers that go with it. Print them, keep them in the barn and use them with your own horses. Video lessons are coming as we record more.
No. Everything here is about noticing and recording what's normal for your horse, so you can spot change early and have a better conversation with your vet. When something is wrong, call your vet.
A horseman with more than 30 years in racing. He came up in harness racing, rode Thoroughbreds as a professional jockey from 1989 to 2014, trained his own stable, worked six years as an assistant to Barclay Tagg, and has been an exercise rider since 2005. He's now a racing official at Lone Star Park and Sam Houston. Read his story.
Sometimes. Some Tack Room links are affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if you buy, at no extra cost to you. We only list things Derek actually uses, and every link is labeled. Read our disclosures.
Please do. The next modules are being picked now. Vote on what comes next or write to us.