A SHORT HISTORY OF RACEHORSE AFTERCARE

By Penny Loeb

The chestnut mare must have been wondering where all the other horses had gone on that late fall day in the early 1960s. There she was, left behind after the race meet ended, when a woman from New York spotted her, and the mare’s life changed forever.

The woman, a friend of my mother’s, asked us to turn out the mare for the winter. She joined my mother’s horse and a pony on a farm near ours. I’ll never forget forging through knee high snowdrifts to feed the three every day.

Given the perfect name, Chance Step, she was sent to a top trainer, sold to a young rider in the Midwest, and became champion large junior hunter of the nation. She is memorialized in a perpetual championship trophy given at the Washington (DC) Horse Show.

Retired racehorses can live many lives. Some become broodmares or stallions. Far more become hunter, jumpers, three-day eventers, dressage performers, polo ponies, western mounts, steeplechasers, fox hunters, mounted police horses, or just pets.

Three of the four horses to win individual Olympic Gold Medals for the United States in show jumping and eventing were thoroughbreds : Snowbound 1968, Bally Cor 1976, Touch of Class 1984.

In 1960, 12,901 thoroughbred foals were registered in North America. With retired racehorses the preferred choice for showing and eventing, many found second careers. But that changed in the 1980s just as the number of foals peaked at 51,296 in 1986. American competitive riders began favoring Holsteiners, Hanoverians, Oldenburgs, Irish Sport Horses and other warmbloods popular in Europe.

By 1989, a group of leading owners and breeders in Maryland became concerned about the fate of that record number of thoroughbreds. “What happens every year to the hundreds of aging race horses who are no longer able to earn their keep? It’s almost too sad to think about. You and I would worry ourselves to death if we knew,” wrote Allaire duPont, who bred and raced lgendary gelding Kelso, Horse of the Year 1980-1984. “Far away from the view of racing fans, many proud old runners are slowly succumbing to neglect and abuse--or being herded onto crowded trucks for shipment to meat packing plants. We owe these horses a decent retirement. All of us here in Maryland who love horses need to work on starting a home for old horses. It has been done in New York, with heartwarming results. And there is no reason something like that can’t happen here.”

The Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation was founded in 1983, the next year a gelding named Promised Road walked off a van and onto the grounds of the Wallkill Correctional Facility in upstate New York. Now TRF has 18 affiliated farms, including seven at prisons, where prisoners find solace caring for horses.

Fortunately, far fewer thoroughbred foals were born in the past decade, averaging about 22,000 registrations a year, with an estimated 20,500 in 2020. Approximately 72 percent will race. And upon retirement, they will have many options for future careers and homes.

Thoroughbred Charities of America was created as an outgrowth of the fundraising by those Maryland breeders, and has provided over $24 million to more than 200 Thoroughbred-related organizations. The Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance accredits, inspects and awards grants to approved aftercare organizations, with 74 certified so far. CANTER (Communication Alliance to Network Thoroughbred Ex-Racehorses), founded in 1998, has volunteers at tracks in 15 regions of the country, and has helped more than 25,000 racehorses. Some racehorses will be taken in by the more than 500 all-breed rescues.

Several national groups, and many rescues focus on retraining racehorses, shaping them for pleasure and competition. Zenyatta’s two sons, Cozmic One and Ziconic, are winning show jumpers. Started in 1992, New Vocations is the largest racehorse adoption program, placing more than 7,000 retired Thoroughbreds and Standardbreds.

“Without training beyond what they’ve learned for racing, a good future isn’t guaranteed,” explains New Vocation’s website. “New Vocations provides a safety net for these horses by matching them with qualified individuals and following up on their rehabilitation and vocational training to ensure a successful transition. Our focus is on adoption versus retirement, and we believe each horse deserves to have an individual home and purpose.”

Former racehorses can show off their abilities in the Jockey Club’s Thoroughbred Incentive Program classes at horse shows, with a year end show and high point awards. The late New York trainer Rich Violette Jr. founded TAKE2 Thoroughbred League, with classes at U.S.Equestrian shows, year end finals and high score awards. The Retired Racehorse Project produces the annual Thoroughbred Makeover show, drawing more than 800 former racehorses to the Kentucky Horse Park. In 2019, it joined TCA and TAA to produce the first annual Thoroughbred Aftercare Summit.

Streams of money for aftercare, retirement and retraining have grown exponentially. The Jockey Club gives breeders registering new foals an opportunity to donate a designated amount to TCA, with the Jockey Club matching the amount. TAA has given more than $17 million to its accredited groups. Major auction companies give buyers and consignors the opportunity to donate up to 25 percent of a horse’s sale price to TAA. At New York tracks, 1.5 percent of a claimed horse’s price is donated to TAA and Take the Lead, the NY Thoroughbred Horseman’s aftercare organization. New York and several other tracks charge a fee per horse’s start of $10 or more that goes to aftercare groups associated with the tracks. An increasing number of owners generously support aftercare. Some owners retire their horses, others are taken by riders and others who cared for them at the track.

While continuing growth and funding of aftercare is certainly positive, much more needs to be done, as Natalie Voss, editor in chief of Paulick Report, wrote in her excellent three part series in 2019. “Those on the front lines of rescue and rehoming efforts say we're not even close—and we probably never will be. For one thing, the scale of the problem is big. Bigger than most people probably realize.”

And the pandemic has made the task even harder.

“ So many nonprofits in the Thoroughbred world raise money through initiatives that were forced to be halted by the pandemic (events, in-person meetings, in-person horse inspections and adoptions, etc.)” Jen Roytz, executive director of the Retired Racehorse Project wrote in an email.

“The RRP had to postpone the Thoroughbred Makeover, as our sponsorship was down, many of the aspects of the event that we use to monetize it, such as parties, vendor fair, spectators, etc., were not allowed to happen in Kentucky, and a survey of our competitors told us that they were behind on preparing their horses for the Makeover due to a lack of shows and other events to take them to for preparation; restrictions on how often they could go to their boarding stables or statewide lockdowns, and restrictions in the spring into the summer on elective veterinary and therapeutic procedures. New Vocations had to cancel their horse show as well. The Maker’s Mark Secretariat Center had to lay off staff.

“2021 is expected to be even harder on nonprofits than 2020, as people will be fully feeling the effects of the pandemic on their finances (made even worse as possible second shutdowns loom and there is a general sense of uneasiness in the country), so now is a critical time for people to support the causes and charities that matter to them.”

Please read the Paulick Report comprehensive three-part examination of the challenges and solutions for racehorse aftercare. “A Decade In, How Are We Doing With Thoroughbred Aftercare?”

Additional Resources:

TAA Accredited Aftercare Organizations

All Breed Equine Rescues Members of Humane Society of the U.S. Homes for Horses Coalition

OTTB Connect Facebook Group has 77,000 plus retired racehorse owners and other supporters