But this year, a friend invited me to join her at Equine Affaire in Pomona, and I have to say that it was much better than I expected.  First of all, they had Stacy Westfall, known to most of you as the girl who does the bridleless reining.  Stacy was funny, accurate and informative and she’s the kind of person you can and will learn something from even if you’re experienced.  She’s not just speaking to the wide-eyed “OMG-you-can-ride-without-the-bridle” crowd.  I watched her presentation on bridleless training and it was great.  She explained how she did it, emphasized the number of riding hours it took to get a horse from unbroke to broke for bridleless reining (800), and very sensibly pointed out that you should not take your bridle off until you know you have real control (that means you can control the hip and shoulder, not just stop and start) with your legs alone.  She said that she rides with the bridle most of the time and certainly rides with one on the trail.  The bridleless thing is for exhibitions – it’s a cool thing to be able to do and that’s all, but it’ s all based upon actually having control with your seat and your legs, which you should have whether or not you ever take off the bridle.  Amen. Oh, and while she believes you can have a special bond with your horse, she does not believe you get that kind of performance without riding those 800 hours. THANK YOU.

I had to giggle at her mare though. Roxy has done this demo a time or two and was listening to what Stacy said, doing things like stopping when she said the word “stop.”   She is very, very well trained and appeared relaxed but somewhat bored.  :)

Because I wanted to watch Stacy, I did not see most of Richard Winters’ presentation but I really liked what he was saying as I was leaving. He was pointing out that most people expect to get a nice lope on a horse without doing a lot of loping.  Ha.  So true.  How many people do you know who canter twice around the arena and stop?  They do not get broke and consistent that way, and it doesn’t matter what your discipline is.  They need to actually do the gait for extended periods of time to get fit.  You can’t get consistency without fitness.   It is not physically possible for the horse. So I’d be interested to see more from Mr. Winters, because he was definitely on target with that, and it’s the sort of thing people need to hear — not “buy my magic stick and develop a special bond with your horse,” because that for a FACT is not going to get your horse to stop loping like a runaway freight train!

In looking for a place to sit and eat terribly unhealthy horse-expo food, we ended up watching a hobbling demonstration. I’m not a trail rider, as I’ve observed many times, but it looked like a lot of work to me when you can buy four panels for about $250 on sale and make a stall wherever it is you might be.  *shrug*  The mare being used for the demo looked really sick of it.

The people I was with wanted to stay for the Extreme Cowboy Race, so even though I knew that the jumping was going to make me cringe (true in some cases), I hung around to watch it and it did look like fun.  It started out with galloping around a bit at Mach 10.  Then you had to slow down, pick up a “sword,” and spear a ring.  Next you had to pick up a jump pole that was leaning on the wall and walk in a circle all the way around it while holding one end of it, then reverse and do likewise.  That looked extremely difficult.  The next maneuver was kind of an S-curve with 3 low jumps.  All the women did well over the jumps and almost all the men sucked at it (Only one of them looked like he actually knew how to jump).  I was trying to figure out how come all the girls could get off the horse’s back and not get left behind even in the western saddle, but the guys were hanging on the horn and getting left behind every time?   Wondering if it’s anatomically impossible for a guy to jump properly in a western saddle without pain.  ;)    Anyway, after that it was stop and do some reining spins both directions, then pick up a full pail of water and walk through one of those things with hanging strips like a car wash and put the pail down on the other side.  I think there was more galloping after that and then they had to stop with just their back feet in a pile of packing peanuts.  A LOT of horses snorked at that, but they all did it once they realized it wasn’t anything scary.  (I may be mixing up the order here, I’m trying to remember)  Then you had to drag a “log” through an s-curve between hay bales.   Next, jump off, take off your saddle, crawl through a hole cut in hay bales (without your horse but the horse had to ground tie and wait for you – get back on bareback, jump a hay bale and then run like hell around the arena again.   Again, it was obvious the girls had a lot easier time of the bareback, though the last guy who went seemed just as comfy up there and wasn’t hanging on.

The one I enjoyed watching the most was Wylene Wilson, who apparently is well known for reforming naughty ponies.  She had a black mare there that she got because it kept flipping over.  The mare went great for her, although she hit a slick spot during the bareback run, hit the panels and Wylene came off.  She stung herself pretty good and was out of breath and had a hell of a time getting back on, but she managed it.  I believe she came in fourth.  I’d really have wanted to give her first just for getting back on, since you could tell she’d hurt herself even though she denied it.

I was also really impressed with Corinne Lindquist. Her horse isn’t as finished as some of these, but I’d say she was one of the best riders out of the bunch.  Her equitation even looked pretty doing this stuff.

They made a big deal out of the third place horse being a grade horse, and that kind of made me laugh because if that horse isn’t 100% Paint horse, I’d be shocked. He is a big old, probably halter bred, Paint horse gelding and I think if he’d had his lead changes, she might have won it. But she said she just had him adjusted and it was obvious he had something mild going on…he was sound but he just couldn’t get a clean change last night. I know she’s won it before and she’ll probably win it again when he’s 100%.

The winner was another woman, Robin Bond, and she absolutely deserved it.  She and the aptly-named Jose’s Perfection had the most controlled ride of anyone.   Her ride through the s-curve of jumps was beautiful – she hit the 2nd one right in the middle, whereas everybody else was almost losing a knee on the standard.

Very fun thing to watch!  I can’t say I love seeing horses have to jump in a western saddle, but other than that, I thought it was a cool event and the horses seemed to be having a blast, particularly when they got to gallop! They apparently have a novice level that is not this difficult, and who knows, if I ever manage to acquire that fun horse for me that I keep talking about – you know, a nice broke teenaged Appendix mare who can do a little gaming, a little chasing cows, a little miscellaneous silly stuff – I may even give it a try.

Other than that, of course I did shop…the Dale Chavez booth sucked me in and now the VLC has a brand new headstall and bosal for the shows.  The nice thing about those guys is that they are experts.  They can tell you what’s going to be in style this year (apparently the horsehair reins are out and the black thin ones are in), what looks good on what kind of face, etc.  They managed to assemble exactly the headstall I wanted, by adding extra silver pieces, for much less than I’d almost paid for it already-assembled online.  I also hit the Kensington booth – if you go, they have some amazing deals in there, including those bug-eye fly masks for just $12 and super nice padded hunt seat pads that are normally $44 for $19.99.

Have you gone to Equine Affaire, either here or at its other locations?  What did you think?  Who were your favorite presenters?  Who didn’t you like?  I kind of have to like these guys just because I heard they threw Pat Parelli out for that picnic-table-jumping crap and that to me is a big win. They seem like they chose people who really would give good information without teaching beginners just enough to be dangerous and putting crazy ideas in their heads.  Your thoughts?

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(For the newbies, I don’t hate Appaloosas but that’s what we call the low-end ones around here!)

Ad text:

http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/ghostwind+forest+tlc His parents both been color coat tested by university of california-davis,he is homozydous for black-his coat color is EEaa which is: EE = NO RED FACTOR DETECTED CAN NOT HAVE RED FOALS.REGARDLESS of the color of the mate.Basic color is Black/bay or brown in the absence of other modifying genes.aa =only recessive allele detected black pigment distributed uniformly basic color is black in the absence of other modifing genes .My other stallion .http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/eagle+rockledge+tlc His parents both been color coat tested by university of california-davis,he is homozydous for black-his coat color is EEaa which is: EE = NO RED FACTOR DETECTED CAN NOT HAVE RED FOALS.REGARDLESS of the color of the mate.Basic color is Black/bay or brown in the absence of other modifying genes.aa =only recessive allele detected black pigment distributed uniformly basic color is black in the absence of other modifing genes.The father to both these stallions is BBR My Real King . His color producing, and in particular his leopard producing abilities are a lot higher than the normal formula of statistics for color production. King has at least SEVEN strong leopard bloodlines including Bandido, Money Creeks Rockledge, Prince Plaudit, Bambi E, KK’s Snowcat, Sundance, Dude Dandy Jnr; and many other lines including Mansfield Comanche, Joker B, Shavano (Patchy-Knobby), Starbuck Leopard x 3, Ha-Dar-Shado (Wapiti), Abdull, Chief Navajo (Painter), Snow Cloud-Iron Cloud (Nez Perce Reservation) and many more….I was lucky enough to buy these 2 stallion from http://theleopardcentre.webs.com/foundationmares.htm Here u can see the mares and stallion The parents of my 2 stallions.I have had both these guys since they were 5 months old.I will breed only to registered mares.I am only charging 50 dollars for stud fee this year 2010. Contact growembig41@msn.com

I headed over to the impressive-sounding Leopard Centre to see what they had over there.  This paragraph caught my eye right off:

“King” does not stand to outside mares for the simple reason that I dont have facilities that I consider good enough to look after mares and foals that dont belong to me. No, I dont live in a junkyard and no i dont have barbed wire, but I would feel badly about having an outside mare or foal hurt or injured while here so I just dont do it.”

Oooookay lady, so you are more concerned about the safety of other people’s mares and foals than your own?  I can’t decide if that is admirable or disturbing. I think it might be both. 

Not everything she says about breeding and conformation is wrong but it’s peppered with splashes of total ignorance like:  “I definately dont want ‘Impressive’ quarter horse bloodlines, or ‘poco bueno’ – both carry defective genes.”  Actually, plenty of them do not carry what you’re talking about. They have this amazing thing called testing which I know you know about since you color-test like mad and the same labs do both kind of tests.  But again, overall, she’s not all bad and I like some of her horses and she does ride them. The big problem here is that she sold two ungelded colts to Mr. GrowEmBig who is now going to stud them out at $50 a pop to people like the unemployed pregnant girl I put on here a few weeks ago who wants to breed her mare when she can’t afford to pay for the mare’s needs to begin with.  That is a recipe for disaster — and a great way to fill the slaughter trucks.  Heck, google his e-mail address – he is selling horses for $200 or trying to trade them for a truck or hay!  Yeah, buddy.  You’re EXACTLY what we need more of in the horse business.  More broke asshats trying to put beer money in their pockets pimping out their done-nothing, no-name stallions.  Ugh. Folks, geld your non-stallion-quality colts BEFORE they leave your property. You won’t regret it!

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Show record:

15 APHA points in Halter & Color! 3 APHA Points in Hunter Under Saddle!
105 PtHA points in Halter and Color!!!
Reserve World Champion Halter Pinto World 2007!!
World Champion Tobiano Color Pinto World 2008!!
3rd Place Open English Pleasure Futurity 2008!!

Um, this is why people make fun of horse shows and say they are stooopid.  Because the Spotted Hunchback is out there winning.  People DO come to the shows in person, you know, and bring their cameras.  What are they supposed to think when they see mutant horse there in the second pic? At least it is a gelding, but still.

You can take an unflattering pic of any horse – I could make any world champion look like a crap from some angle if I tried – but even at worst, it shouldn’t look like a camel!

This is kind of the problem with a lot of the color registries – Pinto, Buckskin, Palomino. You have some really super nice, outstanding individuals showing at those shows. Then you have stuff where you just go, what is that and why did someone think breeding to make that happen was a good idea?…and sometimes it has all kinds of titles on it. I may not agree with everything that the judges like in AQHA, APHA, the Arab shows, etc. but at least there is more consistency. Why do you think the color registry shows are so all over the place like this?  Is it because they’re so all-breed that there’s just too much of a mix of opinions among the judges?  I still don’t understand how you can think that’s a halter champion, no matter what your breed of choice is.

And, oh yeah, don’t shop your horse to the point where its picture looks nothing like it. You don’t want the real version to be a disappointment. Ask anyone who has ever seen Pamela Anderson running around Malibu without makeup!

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This might be the toughest little mare in the world

The good news:  Naysa is fine!  Naysa is great, actually.  The pic at left is from last week!

Naysa today at her wonderful home in Florida.

I don’t know which I love more, the pics of her cuddling with people or the pic of her with her own sleazy hood and blankie!  You know she never lived that well in her life before this. I am happy just looking at those pictures!  You can totally see that her faith in humans has been restored. Every kudo on earth to you, Jolee!

You guys know how often I talk about how everybody is right up there wanting to help a horse when the rescue is “fresh” and you get to be in the spotlight for doing it.   But the real rescuers are the ones who are still just as committed to taking care of the horse a year, two years, ten years down the road.  And that’s why I’m so delighted to be able to show you all of these new pics of Naysa — because this is a case where it was all done right.  Habitat For Horses did it right in rescuing her and rehabbing her, then carefully selecting just the right home for her.  Jolee has done it right in giving her a loving home from the day she brought her home, where she could learn to trust again and finally feel forever safe.

Now this is about as cute as it gets!  And look at the size of that field that little miss Naysa has to play in!

I read something really stupid this week about how you should try to be nicer and more compassionate to avoid “rescuer burnout.”  Screw THAT.  I just need to look at things like this very happy ending to avoid feeling burned out and hopeless!  Feeling hatred toward people like the asshat who did this helps keep me fired up and motivated and that’s a good thing!

So that brings me to the fly in the ointment, the one thing that keeps this from being a perfect rescue story:

The man who did this, Tony Meyers, aka evil incarnate, perpetrator of what is arguably one of the cruelest incidents of abuse toward a horse reported in recent years, has not been tried yet!  Yes, I know.  Our legal system at work.  This bottom-feeding, knuckle-dragging waste of oxygen gets postponement after postponement.  It is ridiculous, ludicrous, unacceptable and needs to stop.

So today, please take 15 minutes to write or call the prosecutor and demand that Tony Meyers be brought to justice. If you appreciate my blog at all, please do this one thing.  I can’t deal with this maggot going unpunished one more year.

Assistant District Attorney Chester Cedars:  ccedars@16jda.com or phone number:  337-394-2222

The Case No. to reference is 07-00009229  (important – no one will know what you are talking about without it)

As always, be POLITE and RESPECTFUL.  You are calling to ask when he will be going to trial, and want to share your opinion that he should receive the maximum penalty allowable by law.  It is never okay to use profanity or get angry.  You don’t want to sound crazier than the crazy person you are trying to have put away.  Be calm, clear and have the facts ready to discuss.  Please let me know what you are told in response.  Thanks!

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Remember how Dean Solomon got some hapless person to buy a Thoroughbred mare for her at the December Enumclaw Auction? A mare that she’d owned before and given away to someone who apparently dumped her at the sale yet again?

Well, Dean never picked up the mare (good) but whoever the idiot is (someone named Shelly? No, no one that I know, some Shelly in Orting, I believe) didn’t take care of her, either, and now she looks like this. As we all know, birds of a feather flock together so it is no big surprise that a pal of Dean’s would let a mare get into this condition.

Her breeder had indicated to me previously that they would be interested in helping her, so I’ve just sent them an e-mail.  Hopefully they are still interested.

Oh, and Dean? JUST FUCKING STOP IT, WILL YOU? You’re not helping. If you hadn’t bid on this mare, she might have gone to a real home or been picked up by a real rescue. Just sit your photoshopped ass down in front of the computer and stop going to auctions. You going to the auction is like an alcoholic going to a wine-tasting. JUST STOP.  At the point where you have to plead guilty to animal cruelty, that is a sign that your rescue career is OVER.  Find something new to collect, something that doesn’t breathe or eat.

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How To Sell A Horse

Read it and get a good laugh – and then I want to ask a serious question:

Who here has actually made money on the sale of a horse they bred, after HONESTLY subtracting the care of the mare throughout the pregnancy, vet and farrier for mare and foal, and then all of the expenses you put into the foal from birth through the day someone actually put a check in your hand for it?  This includes feed, deworming, vet, farrier, training, showing, etc.  Usually people say “well, I enjoyed doing those things/was going to pay for them anyway, so it’s ok.”  I know, but if you were really looking at breeding as a business with a goal of actually turning a profit – who here has done it?

We all know that nobody makes money breeding foals that sell for $1000, $1500 or less.  But how many even make money on the ones that sell for good money?

I think most horse businesses survive thanks to offering training and associated services – not breeding.  What do you think? Here’s a good opportunity to send a wake up call to the young and enthusiastic about the myth of “making money breeding horses” — share your stories!

On a SUPER happy note, we finally (competely) identified Hercules! Here is his USEF listing:Horse Name: GET SHORTY (4082241)Breed: THOROUGHBRED
Sire Name: SLEW THE BRIDE
Dam Name: FLOATING ALONG

WENDY JONES
WA
Owner Point States:
State Start Date End Date
WA 08/09/06 11/30/06

Date Range: 12/1/2005 – 11/30/2010
NO RESULTS FOR THIS HORSE

There isn’t any “Get Shorty” with JC so I wonder if he has a different name?  Anybody got time to do some research about Floating Along’s foals today?   I believe he is a 1991.

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Last night, while wandering around the house on a phone call, I walked into my bedroom and a pillow was knocked onto the floor and soaked in a reddish liquid.  OMG.  I examined it and removed the pillowcase and started looking around — surely someone was puking blood and needed to go to the emergency vet immediately.

I scoured the house and checked every single cat and the dog for any sign that weren’t in tip-top condition.  I felt their chins, I smelled their breath.  They all seemed fine…but what if they weren’t?  OMG.  What would make a cat puke blood?  I was about to go to google and try to find out when I walked back into the bedroom to find the shy kitty that lives in the closet…and discovered what had thrown up on my pillow.

A can of cherry Diet Dr. Pepper that some naughty cat had overturned on the dresser.

HMPH!

These animals will give you heart failure, won’t they?  I remember another time when I was positive a kitten had gotten out and was lost — only to find her inside the kitchen cabinet.  Note to new cat owners:  they can and do open cabinet doors!

So, I know I am not the only one.  Share your stories of a time when you were sure some animal had gotten very sick or very hurt or gotten out and were freaking out, only to discover everything was fine after all!

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Yep, it only took days before I was able to confirm with multiple sources who recognized the horse and were able to describe the woman and her facility perfectly that the person who’d had a big bay Thoroughbred matching Herc’s description on stall rest with a little white donkey was Wendy Hsue (formerly Wendy Jones) of Storybook Farm in Issaquah, Washington. Wendy, shown at left, is no starving teenager – she’s the wife of an affluent, albeit shady, dentist named Kuzi Hsue. Here she is riding poorly on her new toy, a Haflinger. Poor Haflinger, I hope someone else buys it before IT gets old and broken! Check out the heart bodyclipped into its butt. I guess that heart means “I love you as long as you’re sound and able to compete.”

Wendy has a lovely, leased facility called Storybook Farm (assessed last year at $1.8 million dollars) and an approved Swedish Warmblood stallion called Cinzano that she has had in dressage training and been showing (yep, Wendy – not broke!), but somehow, despite having no lack of funds or facilities, Wendy could not bring herself to provide for her old retired show jumper, Hercules, whose real name was – get this – “Tiny.” Nor could she stick a crowbar into her wallet and pry out the equivalent of one lousy designer handbag to send Tiny over the Rainbow Bridge in a quick and painless, vet-assisted way. After trying unsuccessfully to dump him on Craigslist, because after all there aren’t a lot of homes for a lame 17 hand horse that will eat you out of house and home, off to the auction he went, along with his little white companion donkey.

Here’s the ad – helpfully saved by someone else who thought it was sad that Wendy was dumping him!

Goofy giant looking for retirement home. – $1 (Issaquah)

Reply to: sale-j5bzq-1251959656@craigslist.org
[Errors when replying
to ads? ]
Date: 2009-07-03, 9:15AM PDT

17.2H, bay 18yrs TB gelding, he is a total charactor and fun to be around.
Tiny was an upper level event horse (3rd/4th level dressage jumped 5+’) but
has an injury, not lame but not sound for competition. Really looking for a
pasture type retirement home for him. Only maintenance he needs is shoes and
hay in the winter. He is like a big dog comes when he is called, loves on
everyone and tries to play all the time. Good with other horses but
terrified of minis, they chase him. Email me at wmkjones@msn.com or call
425/463-8575
* Location: Issaquah
* it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial
interests

PostingID: 1251959656

The story is just an endless sea of weirdness. She claimed to love this horse, and had owned him for a long time, in fact, ever since he left the track – but thought it was perfectly acceptable to end his life by taking him to Enumclaw and telling Ron she wanted him to go to kill!   I cannot wrap my mind around how you can even BE that fucked up in the head.

Well, Wendy, from what everybody tells me, you LOVE to be the center of attention.  So today, you get to BE the center of attention, right here on the Fugly blog! In fact, I will personally proclaim you the Asshat Queen!  Look, you’re royalty!

So here’s what I have to say:

- Good LORD, your jumping sucks.  This poor horse more than deserved retirement for the rest of his life for putting up with how you ride, if that pic at left is any example.  From what I hear, you ran him into the ground, rode him lame, crashed him over jumps etc. and that’s why he’s so f’ed up now.  Congrats.  Good job, you waste of peroxide.

- Not everybody loves you. I know! I know, it’s just so hard to imagine for your cute little blonde self, but there are people out there who think you’re a jerk and who gleefully ran to me with all the info about how you left YOUR OLD SHOW HORSE at Enumclaw to be shoved into a double-decker and driven to Canada. Just how comfortable did you think your 17 hand horse was gonna be in a double-decker, Wendy? Did you ever think about that? I just can’t get over how someone justifies to themselves that this is an acceptable way to “dispose of” their old show horse. WTF. Did you sell your soul to the Devil in exchange for your cushy lifestyle or what?

- If you are trying to make a horse disappear quietly, taking it to the Enumclaw auction is kind of like putting it on a VH-1 reality show. EVERYBODY SEES IT THERE. Also, I hear you’ve been a frequent flyer at Enumclaw, so EVERYBODY THERE KNOWS AND RECOGNIZES YOU, TOO. Wow, wouldn’t coughing up $400 for that euth and disposal have been a heck of a lot better bargain than the damage to your reputation from this little drama?  I don’t delude myself that I can convince people like you of the value of doing the right thing.  If you were going to do the right thing, you would have on your own, because you could have never lived with doing what you did. I only hope to convince people like you that $400 is better than winding up on this blog.

- Kill buyers like Ron have loyalty to one thing. It’s green and has a dead President on it. When Ron tells you a horse is “kill only,” he means “unless someone else offers me more money in which case I will grab it and giggle all the way to the bank about how I scammed the silly bleeding heart rescue girl.” In any event, it’s totally irrelevant because at that point, everybody had already seen and photographed your horse in the auction pen. The story about him was on the Internet before the auction was over. Welcome to 2010 and modern technology!

Oh, and one last helpful tip, Wendy:

When you know that you are about to be featured on the Fugly blog, and don’t tell me nobody gave you the heads-up that most of the PNW was looking for the villain who dumped a huge bay gelding and a little white donkey at Enumclaw — not like THAT happens every day — you might want to move into “damage control” mode. Telling your husband to pull down his posts on the Ferrari Owner’s Message Board would have been a good start. Owning a fucking Ferrari but refusing to pay for euthanasia or continue caring for your old show horse makes you both look like bigger douchebags than Jon Gosselin.

(Isn’t it funny that I compared Herc to a Ferrari in the original blog? Ah, irony! I didn’t know you had an ACTUAL Ferrari that you cared about way more than him!)

Oh, and since I know you will run around saying the horse was crippled and you were just trying to “put him out of his misery,” I’m gonna get some video in a few weeks because we’ve got the darn horse better than 90% sound and we haven’t even given him so much as a joint supplement yet!

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I normally think of the horse world as one where there is very little discimination against women.  After all, it is difficult to find a horse discipline in which women don’t excel, rising to the highest levels of accomplishment.   In jumping, hunters, dressage, stock breed shows, Arabian shows, and many others, you will have no problem finding women competing against men and winning against them on a regular basis.  You don’t see it in the higher levels of polo, but that’s because it gets down to physical strength at a certain point — in low goal polo, the girls-against-the-guys games tend to routinely result in victory for the women, who often have superior riding skills to the guys, who often started riding just to play polo.

Nor is there any obvious discrimination in the barn at the kind of barns I’ve worked in.  Most hunter/jumper and dressage barns are staffed largely by women, as are Arabian, AQHA, APHA and ApHC barns.   Plenty of women care for polo ponies and transport horses across country.  They train, assistant train, and groom.   Many work as breeding managers and barn managers.  Employment opportunities are plentiful, if not always well-paid.

That’s why I was a little surprised to read a post in the other thread that alleged that Claiborne farms refuses to hire women as stallion handlers or grooms.  Now, I haven’t confirmed if there’s any truth to that yet, and I’d be interested to hear the answer.  If you’ve worked for them in that capacity, and you’re a woman, speak up!  It does remind me of rumors I have heard from friends who worked at the track that the racetrack is stuck in 1950 when it comes to women’s rights.  Women aren’t welcomed and are often harassed, verbally and sexually, intimidated, and even physically threatened.  I’ve heard these stories from a number of women who’ve worked at different racetracks, so there must be something to them.

So let’s talk about that today.  If you’re a woman who has worked in the racing industry, are they still stuck in 1950?  Have you had the same opportunities as a man?  Have you worked for a farm that treated you like an equal and allowed you to handle stallions and supervise breedings, or was there an assumption that you weren’t competent to do that kind of work?  If you’ve actually worked at the track, have you been harassed because you were a woman?

I don’t want to talk about every incident of some loser sexually harassing you at a horse farm, or this thread will be 700 pages long. We’ve all had that happen. I want to talk specifically about the racing industry today, and if a genuine issue still exists as to how female trainers, jockeys, exercise riders, grooms and barn help are treated and if they do not have the employment opportunities men do.

For those of you on Facebook, if you haven’t already, become a fan of Hercules the Horse to see his updates and new pictures. This is the big guy we are still trying to identify, the one who did what we all felt like doing when he bit Ron Mariotti, the kill buyer! Katie visited him yesterday and reported back!

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