Posts Tagged ‘trf’

Do you know an individual or organization who you think we should consider for an upcoming “Good News Friday” feature? Then please e-mail info@paulickreport.com with the name of the individual or organization and a brief description of why you think they should be featured. Additionally, we’d like to thank Rob Whiteley and Liberation Farm for encouraging us to bring to light some of the industry’s positive stories and for sponsoring this exclusive Paulick Report feature.

By Ray Paulick
I attended my first Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers’ Club meeting in 1988, shortly after moving to the Bluegrass State to go to work for the Thoroughbred Times. The club’s monthly meetings typically offered a banquet meal of overcooked chicken or beef, a guest speaker of varying interest, and the latest gossip about horses and the people who work with them. I seldom went home hungry for food or information.

It wasn’t until many years later, however, that I learned the KTFMC is a lot more than a social club offering continuing education for its members. It is, in fact, one of the most charitable of Central Kentucky’s Thoroughbred organizations, spreading its generosity among many horse industry and community groups. In 2008, the KTFMC donated more than $100,000 to 25 different organizations ranging from those that do equine research to one that puts on a high school rodeo.

Foremost among those groups is Central Kentucky Riding for Hope, an organization whose motto is: “Help Unleash the Healing Power of the Horse.” Located at the Kentucky Horse Park, Central Kentucky Riding for Hope uses horses for therapeutic programs to improve the quality of life and the health of children and adults with special physical, cognitive, emotional and social needs. It is a wonderful organization that really makes a difference in the community. (Incidentally, Central Kentucky Riding for Hope’s big fundraiser, the sixth annual Night of the Stars is on June 20. Click here for details.)

A colostrom bank managed by the KTFMC and facilitated by Rood and Riddle and the Hagyard Equine Medical Institute raised $42,000 in 2008, with all of the proceeds going to Riding for Hope in 2008. Another $5,000 was donated to Riding for Hope’s building fund. The colostrom program benefiting Riding for Hope has been in place about a decade and the building fund donations have been ongoing for about five years, said Matthew Koch, the 2009 Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers’ Club president.

“Mark McEntee (Miacomet Farm) has really worked hard to make the colostrom bank a success,” said Koch, the son of longtime Claiborne Farm manager Gus Koch who with his brother, Charles, and Ted Kuster, operates Shawhan Place Farm. “In 2005, the colostrom bank raised $21,000, and we’re up to about $45,000 this year. This is a totally volunteer organization and Mark is like so many of the other board members who steps up and takes responsibility. We all have a piece of the pie to make this work. Our administrator, Renee Wash, deserves a lot of credit, too.”

The second largest beneficiary of charitable giving from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers’ Club is the Kentucky Equine Management Internship (KEMI), which offers education and farm management opportunities for college students from around the country by bridging the gap between academics and practical experience. KEMI received $20,000 from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers’ Club in 2008.

“By supporting KEMI, we’re getting something back when these kids become part of the industry,” Koch said.

KEMI and the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation have been designated as the primary recipients of the farm managers’ biggest event, the 17^th Annual Challenge Cup Golf Scramble, which is coming up on Monday, June 29 at the University Golf Club near Lexington. Last year’s tournament, its biggest ever, raised over $30,000 through entry fees and sponsorships. Grant Williamson of Vinery and B.G. “Scooter” Hughes are co-chairing the Challenge Cup Committee. Click here for corporate sponsorship information, here for hole sponsorship and here to sign up to play.

There are other events, including the annual Sporting Clays Classic in August, and many other charities that benefit.

The best news I gathered about the Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers’ Club when I attended one of their meetings earlier this year is that the organization is growing by leaps and bounds (its membership is over 800) and that its leadership is a blend of veteran farm managers and a younger generation who bring great enthusiasm and commitment. Combined they are helping the KTFMC fulfill its mission “to foster cooperation and understanding among members; to provide a forum for the discussion of topics critical to our profession, which will enhance and protect our professional interests; to promote fellowship among members; to be good stewards of the land and Thoroughbred industry; and to be good citizens of the community.”

The food has improved over the last 20 years, too. Keeneland’s Phoenix Room and Turf Catering provide a great setting and meal for most of the meetings (Fasig-Tipton is also a host). And it continues to be an event where you can catch up on all the industry gossip—some things haven’t changed.

Previous Good News Friday subjects: Father Chris Clay, The Race for Education, Military Appreciation Day at Keeneland, Kentucky Oaks Pink Out for the Susan G. Komen Foundation, Mary Lee-Butte and the Blue Grass Farms Chaplaincy, Mary Jo Pons and the Radio Reading Network, TV Ratings Are Up, Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund.

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick

Long before most Americans knew that ex-racehorses could end up on someone’s dinner plate in Europe, the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation was doing what it could to provide an alternative to the slaughterhouse or a life of neglect and abuse. Founded in 1982, the TRF is the oldest, largest and best known operation dedicated to helping Thoroughbreds no longer able to race or serve as breeding animals.

The founder of TRF was Monique S. Koehler, who had a unique vision to have these horses serve as part of a vocational training program at the Walkill Correctional Facility in New York. In short, the TRF would provide the horses and Walkill would supply land and inmates who would be taught how to care for the horses as part of their own rehabilitation. The program has been a success, for both horses and the humans who have cared for them. Many former inmates have been quick to credit the TRF program for their own personal turnaround, as the therapeutic value of working with horses has been well documented. Click here to see a video about the TRF produced by HRTV.

This unique prison program has been replicated in five states that have TRF farms at correctional institutions and since the spring of 2004 the organization has operated a rehabilitation and retraining facility – the Maker’s Mark Secretariat Center – at the Kentucky Horse Park near Lexington. The Secretariat Center is now open for public visitors from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday through Saturday, with interactive demonstrations on Saturday mornings from 10-11 a.m. Horses from the Secretariat Center have been adopted out for second careers to horse owners around the country.

Like all welfare organizations, the TRF depends on donations to fulfill a mission that hopes to eventually rescue all ex-racehorses from slaughter, neglect or abuse. Breeders who produce the horses were recently given an option by the Jockey Club to contribute to the TRF through a checkoff program at the time a Thoroughbred is registered. Click here for details. But there are many ways to make a gift, sponsor a horse or adopt a horse.

Beginning today and running through Dec. 20, the TRF has launched an online fundraising auction of items ranging from racing memorabilia to exclusive vacation getaways. To see the list of auction items and begin bidding, click here.

Throughout the past week of the Thanksgiving holiday, the Paulick Report has focused on a variety of equine charities or individuals in the Thoroughbred industry who have dedicated a part of their lives to helping others less fortunate. These are only a small number of the many extremely worthy organizations and people who are making a difference to make this a better industry.

Here are links to the organizations featured in the past week: Belmont Child Care Association/Anna House; the Exceller Fund; ReRun; the Salvation Army fund-raising page started by my former colleague Ron Mitchell; Thoroughbred Charities of America; Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation; and Tranquility Farm.

There are others, too numerous to mention, and I would invite readers to list their favorite equine charities in the comment section below. I sincerely hope each of you will consider a gift, no matter how large or small, to an organization that is making a difference in our lives and in our industry.

By Ray Paulick

One of the Thoroughbred industry’s biggest challenges may also present one of its greatest opportunities. The challenge, brought to the fore this year by a series of widely publicized events but always lingering just off center stage, is the issue of animal welfare. How the industry deals with this subject may be one of its last, best opportunities to derail our slow but steady march toward irrelevance in the eyes of the general public.

The death of Eight Belles in this year’s Kentucky Derby, from all indications, was a freak accident, one of those incidents that could not have been prevented by anyone. But her demise, along with revelations about the routine administration of anabolic steroids to many of the sport’s best performers, shined a spotlight on racing that revealed to the general public some of its darkest truths.

Foremost among those is the question of what becomes of a Thoroughbred when it is no longer useful as a racing or breeding animal. Some owners and breeders take great measures to insure either a productive second life for their horses or dispose of them through humane euthanasia. Too many horses slip through the cracks, however, and end up on meat wagons headed to slaughter houses in Canada or Mexico, or are simply abandoned.

The perception of our sport is shaped by media reports of the cruelty of slaughter or abandonment of Thoroughbreds, and it does not present an image attractive to many Americans, especially a younger generation that is more in tune with animal welfare issues.

That is the challenge.

The opportunity lies in the numerous programs and untold number of volunteers who work to find second homes for Thoroughbreds as riding, pleasure or performance horses, or as therapeutic animals used in programs for the mentally, spiritually or physically challenged, and in prisons where they have helped rehabilitate hardened criminals.

It’s time for the racing and breeding industry to fully embrace programs like the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, CANTER, Rerun, Tranquility Farm, Thoroughbred Charities of America and others, instead of pretending the issue of unwanted ex-racehorses does not exist.

Last week I heard a presentation on how our sport can energize its “brand” from marketing expert David Aaker at the Asian Racing Conference in Tokyo, Japan. Aaker, an advisor to Japanese advertising giant Dentsu and professor emeritus at the Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley, talked about how some other businesses have energized their brands by hitching their wagons to something outside of their core business that it is interesting, relevant and compelling to their customer base.

Avon, one of the oldest cosmetic brands for women, was cited as one very good example. There was little the company could do to energize itself by making better lipstick, Aaker said, so it found an issue with great relevance and interest to its female customers: breast cancer. Avon put enormous resources into a breast cancer awareness campaign, created a foundation to support breast cancer research, and promoted an annual Avon Walk for Breast Cancer throughout the world. Breast cancer research and other social issues relevant to women were foremost among Avon CEO Andrea Jung’s program to rebuild and re-energize the Avon cosmetic brand. It has been a great success.

What social issue is of great importance to current and potential racing fans? I think that’s a no-brainer: it’s the humane treatment of the animals that give us so much pleasure and entertainment.

Look into the eyes of any fan when a horse dumps its rider in the post parade and takes off on a perilous solo run, or when a horse breaks down in a race or is carted off on an ambulance. It’s not just the champions our fans care about, either, it’s those low-level claimers they’ve followed in the first or last race on any day at any track.

Racing is fortunate to have people who are animal lovers and do what they can to protect them. Just today, Madeleine Paulson Pickens is reported to have come up with a plan to rescue from death the tens of thousands of wild mustangs who have roamed the American West and are so much a part of our culture. The late Paul Mellon bequeathed a most generous gift to the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation that will benefit former racehorses for years to come. John Hettinger dedicated the last years of his life to ending slaughter and protecting our horses.

But it’s time for racing, as an institution, to understand that what’s good for our horses is good for our sport, to face this challenge and embrace it as an opportunity. The Jockey Club realized this with its recent announcement that it will give to horse retirement causes and offer breeders an easy way to donate funds to this cause whenever they register a foal. Suffolk Downs officials established a zero-tolerance policy against trainers sending horses to slaughter and a few other tracks have followed their lead.

But the clock is ticking. Voters in Massachusetts banned dog racing in that state Nov. 4 because of concerns over animal welfare. It’s not a stretch of the imagination to see similar measures taken against the racing of horses. Think about that for a minute.

We have some very bright people in this industry, people who can understand what marketing expert Aaker was talking about with Avon and apply the same principle to help both the horses and the business of Thoroughbred racing. We can energize the Thoroughbred racing "brand" by taking on one of our biggest challenges and viewing it as an opportunity to sell our sport to a new generation.

Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report

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Saturday was a bad day for horses. One of their best friends in the world, John Hettinger, passed away at the age of 74. No one fought harder to end the slaughter of horses in the United States than John Hettinger.

He was tireless and passionate about ending slaughter. He talked about it, wrote about it, did something about it. He was a man of words and of action. And he put his money where his mouth was.

Of all the things John Hettinger ever said or wrote about horse slaughter, there is one paragraph that has stayed with me. It came from an article he wrote in 2003 and asked me to publish in the Bloodhorse.

 

“How do we as an industry feel about our horses?” he wrote. “Are we horse lovers? Are these animals, who work for us in one way or another throughout their entire lives, sensitive and capable of trust, courage and generosity of spirit? Or are they fast cows without horns?”

Fast cows without horns? That line got me. Until then, I was ambivalent about slaughter, because I considered horses “livestock,” which, technically, they are. But that simple but brilliant observation taught me there are different kinds of livestock – the kind that are bred and raised for human consumption, and the kind that are bred and raised for sport, but end up in the food chain by unfortunate circumstances.

Thank you, Mr. Hettinger, for helping me finally understand what was so clear to you.

The following press release about John Hettinger comes from the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation. Please consider a donation to TRF, Grayson Jockey Club Research Foundation, Blue Horse Charities or to any of the many other worthy equine welfare organizations in his memory.  – Ray Paulick

TRF Mourns loss of Humanitarian, Horse Lover John Hettinger

 

John A. Hettinger, a tireless advocate for retired race horses and one of the leading figures in the fight to end horse slaughter in this country, passed away Sept. 6 at his Akindale Farm in Pawling, N.Y., after a lengthy illness. Hettinger was 74.

 

A longtime horse owner and breeder, Hettinger became a passionate activist for the retired Thoroughbred in the late 1990s. He personally bought hundreds of horses to keep them from going to slaughter, was an outspoken critic of anyone standing in the way of passage of legislation to ban horse slaughter and started Blue Horse Charities, a charity that raised millions to provide for retired thoroughbreds. Hettinger was also an important friend to the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation. He was a long-time member of the group’s board of directors.

"We at the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation are deeply saddened by the loss of John Hettinger," TRF Executive Director Diana Pikulski said. "John was among the most loyal and honorable people I have ever known. He was the Thoroughbreds strongest advocate and he took action to back his convictions. The TRF was honored to have his huge support and presence as a director. John personified our mission and made us a stronger, better organization and we are honored to continue his efforts on behalf of our equine athletes.

"John created a sanctuary at Akindale, his family farm, where hundreds of thoroughbreds saved from the slaughter pens were given a home. The TRF started the first Thoroughbred retraining center in the country at the Exceller Farm, the use of which was donated to the TRF by Mr. Hettinger. John also created Blue Horse Charities to raise money from thoroughbred horses sales to fund thoroughbred adoption agencies.

"It did not matter who he rubbed the wrong way in his effort to have the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act passed by the U.S. Congress. John always said that his best friends all had four legs."

In 2000, his efforts on behalf of retired horses were recognized by the industry, which awarded him a Special Eclipse Award.

"There are two things that flourish in the dark—mushrooms and horse slaughter," Hettinger once said. "Most people don’t know it’s going on. We must deny them the darkness."

Hettinger was also a member of the Board of Trustees of the New York Racing Association and Chairman Emeritus of the Grayson Jockey Club Research Foundation. Racing under the name of Akindale Farm, Hettinger campaigned such stakes-winning horses as Chase the Dream, Genuine Regret, Jazzing Around, Lady DAccord, Move It Now, Prospectors Flag, Up Like Thunder and Virgo Libra. Akindale also stood such stallions as DAccord, Personal Flag, Stacked Pack and Sir Wimborne.

Hettinger’s big horse was Warfie, who he said gave him his biggest thrill as an owner when she won the Long Island Handicap in 1989.

He was also the majority owner of the Fasig-Tipton sales company until it was sold earlier this year to Dubai-based Synergy Investments Ltd.