It is time to stop wagging the chin and do something .

Does not anyone in the industry understand that funding for racehorse retirement and rehabilitation must be mandatory? Has it not been proven over and over that voluntary funding does not work? Besides the horses deserve a portion of the revenue for their well being. The thoroughbred racing industry is a multi-billion dollar industry nationally and the money is there to support the horses. The industry needs to stop procrastinating about this issue and implement mandatory funding at every racetrack. The majority of money needs to come from a percentage of the purses but mandatory fees must be placed on breeders and jockeys and racetrack management should commit to a mandatory fee as well.
 
Of course there needs to be accreditation and  oversight of facilities as well and monitoring of horses. These programs that put horses on the Internet for adoption and then do not follow up on them or only for a short period of time does not work and many horses end up in harm’s way. The mentality that a retirement and rehabilitation program should be a “run them in and run them out” program is wrong and does not serve or protect the horses in the long run. Adopting mares out to be bred to produce more horses is not helping the situation either and should be banned.  Since 2004 our organization has asked and advocated to the industry to fund racehorse retirement on a mandatory level. It is now 2012. It is a disgrace that the very fiber of the industry, the horses are still not being financially supported properly and many are still ending up at auction or slaughter. This is not rocket science stuff here folks and can be done but it is going to take a lot of hard work, dedicated people, constant monitoring of the horses and oversight of facilities in addition to the substantial perpetual funding that is needed.  Every week, month and year the thoroughbred racing industry procrastinates about this issue there are thoroughbreds in harm’s way or standing in a kill pen and crying out for help and no one comes because of money. Surely our horses deserve better than that.

I agree with Mainoffice. I just recently rescued one in MI. The only help I received was from 4 gals who had all quit a popular rescue group because of the rescue’s  incompetence. I called this gentleman in charge of this so called rescue group (they have rescues in other states, CA for one) who was going to call one of these gals and never did. (We knew he wouldn’t but I needed evidence), I called NY Throughbreds here in Saratoga, nothing, had someone contact the breeder, nothing, contacted other rescue farms…nothing.  Michael Blowen from Old Friends was the only one who contacted me besides one other rescue that could not help but gave me another set of so called do gooders to contact that did nothing, NO repsponses is what I mean when I say nothing. Same as below, answering machine with “will call back” or emails that have nothing to do with what you contact them about. These gals that help rescue or have rescues also work other jobs to survive. Their rescues live on donations to support their organizations.
  I mentioned how it was said by Rick Violette that a low percentage of TBs goes to slaughter and the rescue’s response was “it depends on what auction you go to and what track.  Numbers are not accuarate. Many in racing like to down play it.” I know the hell I went through with the owners of the horse I rescued and will be paying for this rescue until I die. He didn’t deserve his fate. MI is way to close to Canada and this track is the pits. This owner/trainer combo have sent horses to Canada for spite if hounded about rescuing a horse. We could not let them know our interest until we had a trainer. Not as easy as some think it is but unless they are injured to the point of no return…euthanizing them is not the solution. There needs to be TB Aftercare and these owners and or breeders who made the money on these TBs need to step up to the plate. People, such as myself, that were involved in a partnership of a claimer who fell into hard times do not have the funds to rescue them all. This horse earned $50,000 for us. Once the owner/trainer combo learned we finally had someone to claim him he was in a 4000 dollar claiming race. They laughed all the way to the bank. It is a track where trainers do not claim from other trainers… but this one trainer that we finally found agreed because of the connection to Old Friends. 4 months we worked on this claim.
 Look no farther than those mares from Asmussen’s. Thank God these gals are at these slaughter pens.. or they would have been slaughtered…one was in foal!
 This summer at Saratoga, there are 20,000 dollar claiming races filled with horses that have earned between 100,000-400,000 or more. Geldings or older mares.  
Makes me sick and it should do the same to others in this business.

The members of the Northeast Thoroughbred Sporthorse Assoc. can attest to the truth of  the words of Chip Tuttle of Suffolk Downs. Suffolk Downs will be one of the major contributors to the success of NETSA’s October 7th Horse Show to be held at Saddle Rowe in Medway, MA and we are pleased with the response for support from  others in the Thoroughbred industry in New England.  The show will be the first thoroughbred show ever held in New England and there will be classes for half-thoroughbreds also.

Isn’t it about time the horseman start putting the horses first and earmark money from each start and each race to thoroughbred aftercare.  Like most things with horse racing, the mentality is backwards.   If $50k were cut from each graded stake to fund aftercare programs would anyone really care if they won a grade one and pocketed $30k less for the winners share?  The people normally winning those races usually care more about the graded win than the purse anyway.   Horse racing continues to shoot itself between the eyes, not unlike horses shipped to Canada.

It’s my view that the current owner should be responsible for the care of the horse when he/she retires.  I have one horse retired and pay for all his care (to the tune of close to $8,000 a year).  If you can’t afford to take care of the horse after that horse retires, you shouldn’t own him.

It’s great that there are charitable organizations and farms that are willing to take some of the horses when they’re retired, but it’s not anyone elses responsibility except the owner.

The thoroughbred industry is producing over 30,000 foals each and every year. Isn’t that enough? There are already too many horses and to adopt out mares to produce more is not helping the situation. Yes, they may have a home as long as they can produce but what happens to them afterwards when they cannot or what happens to all of the foals that do not turn out or down the road? People and the industry need to start looking at the long term effects of their short term actions.

I agree with everything you said.

However, for many related reasons, from safety to quality to reputation and to better manage –physically and financially– equine retirement, the racing industry needs to begin with eliminating most of its problems by preventing the normalized abuse of its horses.

If more horses were retired before giving “all they’ve got”, more would be easier, faster and cheaper to rehab and adopt out.

Anne, you must broaden your horizons before being so passionate about small scale rescue. Go to Beulah Park, Canterbury, Charles Town, Ellis Park, Evangeline Downs, Fonner Park, Louisiana Downs, Mountaineer, Penn National, Prairie Meadows, River Downs, Remington Park, Sunland Park, Thistledown, or Turf Paradise to do some charity work, observe the horses there, then tell the readers what difference there is between the real world containing the greatest numbers of geldings and old race mares which compete in far less elite company than $20k claiming races at the SPA and the near pristine world in which you reside.