Posts Tagged ‘racing’
Seriously, even today?
I have to write a whole new blog entry about this – it was brought up in yesterday’s comments and now I want to know how much truth there is to it.
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!
A holiday gift that keeps on giving…to rescued Thoroughbreds!
Four years ago, when the Fugly blog was just a low-grade grumble track of annoyance with the horse industry running through my mind, I was in the market to acquire something to dink around on playing arena polo in Los Angeles. I didn’t have any local racetrack contacts at that time, so I started shopping online and found the LOPE site (www.lopetx.org). It looked like a pretty decent organization, so I bought a plane ticket and headed to Austin to do some horse-shopping. I was very impressed with LOPE; they had a nice facility, the horses were able to run out on acres of grass with safe fencing and everything looked very happy and well cared for. The filly I went to visit, Sugarfoot, was tender-footed due to a recent trim so I decided to wait and see if she was sounder in a few weeks, and in the meantime someone else snatched her up, but I really enjoyed my visit and liked Lynn, the rescue’s President, a lot. Unlike a lot of people in rescue, she was obviously a knowledgeable horseperson who understood Thoroughbreds and was providing a safe place for them to detox from their track careers and find new homes.
Fast forward to today and not only has LOPE grown and continued to prosper, but Lynn has written a book about her experiences rescuing Thoroughbreds. Here’s an excerpt:
“To me, racehorses are winners even after their racing careers end. They have so much heart, athleticism, and intelligence — all they need is a chance to find that second career after the finish line. Of course, they could use a little help making that transition. Because it can be hard to change careers at first.
I can sympathize with that.
I used to have an accounting career, working in a Washington, DC, cubicle. Pale, stressed, and full of suburban angst, I was the least likely candidate to run a racehorse adoption ranch in Texas. Back then, horses were just my outlet, my weekend respite from spreadsheets. Only learning to ride as an adult, I took group horseback-riding lessons and strained to master the most basic equestrian skills.
But even then, I was drawn to racehorses — several resided at that stable, in training to become show jumpers and polo mounts. They charmed and inspired me, with their intelligent faces, beautiful conformation, and dark reputations as risky rides.
From childhood, I had secretly wanted to be a horse trainer. But I was a horse geek, a real goober around the barn. The instructors and trainers hid their smiles at my barn gaffes and painfully anxious riding style. Every trainer at the barn had grown up with horses, usually turning professional by their teens, a formidable resume of equine mastery. I would never fit that mold — how could someone like me be a trainer? It seemed like an impossible, silly dream, plausible only in a Disney film.
I worked hard to improve my skills anyway: exercising polo ponies for free, trading barn work for lessons, teaching at a horse summer camp, anything to learn more on my modest budget. Slowly, my horse activities morphed into a vocation, a calling I could no longer ignore, however ridiculous it seemed to others — and often even to me.
Finally, I took the plunge, moved halfway across the country, and opened the racehorse adoption program.”
How many of us dream of doing this? Well, Lynn actually did it, and her stories are touching, inspiring, and motivational. The book says, if you want to make a difference in horses’ lives, you can. If you need to learn more to do it – well, what are you waiting for? I’ve read the book and it has a really human perspective, devoid of ego, that I rarely see in horse books. Lynn doesn’t think she’s a magikal horse whisperer or the Mother Theresa of horse rescue. She admits to her mistakes along with her successes. She rides her own rescues, puts on benefit horseshows and other events, and keeps her numbers controllable so that every horse gets everything they need.
Today, one of her donors said that if she could sell 5,000 copies of the book, that person would TOTALLY fund a book tour for her! Well, that is one challenge I would very much like to help out with. Not only does purchasing the book help Lynn continue to help Thoroughbreds personally, but the stories inside it give names and faces to the horses she has helped…the kind of horses that are, unfortunately, all too often discarded, to end up in Mexico and Canada’s slaughterhouses, or starving with someone who does not know how to care for a Thoroughbred. It would be a great gift for that friend who thinks that you are crazy to have rescues or to keep your old horses, or the stock horse aficionado who just doesn’t get your obsession with OTTB’s! It’s first-hand education about what happens when a horse’s racing career is over, and what we can do to help them find new careers or just a safe spot to land. It’s only $16 on Amazon right now – just click the picture of the book below to get your copy, and/or send some to your friends!
It’s Churchill Downs, not the wheelchair races!
But then Ms. Costello, who is probably as qualified to retrain a horse for dressage as I am to translate Farsi at a U.N. conference, did something positively insane. She put the horse back into race training. One poster on the Thorougbred Champions forum said it best, so I will simply requote Intelligent Male: “This is some silly person who wants to play horse trainer (they’ve never had a starter) and since no one would dare give them a horse to train they took a free giveaway failed broodmare (slipped ‘02, no report ‘03 and ‘04, dead foal ‘05, ‘06, and ‘07, no report ‘08 and ‘09) and are going to run her so they can say they’re a trainer.”
Ms. Costello is not the only moron in the world, to be sure. Just two years ago, Ellis Park track President Ron Geary purchased a 17 year old gelding in disgust to keep him from being entered in any more races. Story here. What’s that saying, common sense isn’t so common?
I was dying to find a pic of this ding-dong. Anybody who was actually at CD, is this her myspace? It’s her name and age in Lexington…love to have a pic of the mare, too, did anyone snap one?)
On a happy note, if you’re holiday shopping for your horsey friends and want to help ex-racehorses, click below for a very fun gift idea!
And then this one screamed my name…
I’m so glad I went down to the lot myself! Hana, who has been SO helpful in photographing and helping to identify horses, met me and told me she had another with a tattoo. I nearly fell over when I saw her. This is a bad camera phone pic but the mare is just gorgeous in real life!
We ran her tattoo and she is Exclusive Report, by Private Appeal out of a daughter of Silent Screen. She’s produced numerous winners. She appears extremely sound, healthy, and even had her feet done not long ago. I’m trying to trace the history – she sold at the winter WTBA last year for only $300. No one filed a breeding report so we have no idea what she is carrying. I’m hoping we can find out. Maybe it’s not a Thoroughbred, who knows. She was run through without her papers.
It’s payday for most of us – if you can skip a frappucino and send $5 or whatever you can spare to info@secondchanceranch.org, it would be much appreciated. She needs to get out of there.
And I really will write another blog post about something completely unrelated today. 
Thanks for bearing with me and thanks to those who have helped get some of these horses to safety. In other related news, all the Arabs are very sweet as is 461 and they are all going home with new owners. I posted pics of Staci and Eeyore safe at KL’s to the Enumclaw Report thread. And the Fugaloosa colt was rescued by one of the office staff at the auction. He is going to have some new experiences now…like HOOF CARE. She was as appalled as I was by his condition. Who knows, maybe with some proper care he will turn out a lot better than we think – at any rate, she has a home for him once he’s fattened up and broke out next spring so that’s very good news for him!
From last place to first priority!
January 4, 2003 – Ready Say Go is foaled in California, the son of multiple stakes winner Poteen out of a daughter of stakes winner Strike Gold (California’s leading sire of winners).
He won a few races and made over $30,000 for his owners.
Like most California breds, he started out racing in California, and as his value dropped, he made his way north, winding up at Emerald Downs near Seattle. Most recently, he was owned by trailer Neil Knapp and Bob Fidler (an early third partner seems to have dropped out).
He ran August 7th in race 8 at Emerald Downs - finished last….
He was on the Vet’s list for EMD on 8/22 as “lame”
He ran September 11th in the 5th race. He broke in the lead, but finished 5th.
He ran September 27th and came in last. The trip notes from 9/27 say “far back throughout” He was not claimed out of that race, so they were his last owners at the track.
On October 4th, he was sent to the Enumclaw Auction. No attempt was made to find him a home. There is no posting for him on Dreamhorse, on Craigslist, or any other equine site that I can find. He was just dumped, without his papers to ensure no one ever raced him again.
Today, October 6th, he was gelded so that he could legally go on the crowded truck to the slaughterhouse. Not that this would change his disposition after 48 hours. He would have been just as likely to fight and flirt in the double-decker on Thursday as an intact horse, but hey, it would have been legal anyway!
Fifteen minutes ago, his bail was paid by Cowgirl Spirit Rescue Drill Team. He is going home tomorrow to a safe panel paddock where he can recover from his shocking week, relax and eat his fill of quality hay.
If you are too far away to help an auction horse, please consider a donation to CSRDT – their paypal is on the main page of their web site, www.csrdt.org or you can send your tax-deductible donation to Cowgirl Spirit, P.O. Box 83, Fall City, WA 98024. I will post plenty of updates about how RSG does!
MORE INFORMATION:
OK, so now the way the story goes is that someone was dispatched to take the horse to the auction with STRICT instructions not to let him go to kill.
That woman lied to the owners and said he was purchased by “a nice couple.” Yeah, a nice couple of kill buyers, Ron and Oly!
The owners are offering to help with his expenses. I appreciate that but I have to say it again:
STOP TRUSTING PEOPLE WHO TELL YOU THEY HAVE A GOOD HOME FOR YOUR FRESH OFF THE TRACK RACEHORSE!
You need to (a) site check (b) reference check and (c) do a legal contract. And I’ll tell you what, the really responsible thing to do would be pay for 3 months layup and 30 days of retraining. I can refer you to good trainers. The auction is never the answer.
The good news is that the horse does not have a history of unsoundness except for hoof problems. Cowgirl Spirit has a fabulous farrier so I know those will get resolved. Further good news – he is a quiet, sweet horse just as I thought. I think his future will be bright from here on out but he VERY narrowly missed being a sandwich.
A few more pics of horses on the lot that are noted as being especially sweet and people friendly. The grey roan appy is #420, the bay roan appy is #422 and the Arab with the white stripe is #402. If you are interested in one, let me know at cathy@horsereunions.com.
PLEASE DO NOT CALL THE AUCTION HOUSE IF YOU’RE (a) NOT SERIOUS ABOUT BUYING (b) CANNOT BE POLITE AND UNEMOTIONAL! Don’t ruin it for everybody who CAN shut up about their opinions long enough to get horses to safety. You wouldn’t think I’d have to say this, but I do. Just go through me if you can’t keep your emotions in check.
Do you believe in the tooth fairy, too?
Horrible Fox News story about rescued ex-racehorse
Before and after pics of the horse on the Second Race blog.
“Brill said she “started rehabbing him” but his injuries were too daunting. Then, she said, a man whose name she didn’t know bought him for $500.
“They loaded him on a trailer and left,” she said.”
And gosh golly gee, he went to a bad situation! A broken-legged racehorse that you sold after YOU realized his injuries were “too daunting.” Marian, you are just a flaming pile of you-know-what. You had a moral responsibility to euth this horse if you couldn’t get him sound or find him a checked-out companion home and you failed miserably. Of course so did his owner, Herman Heinlein, who should have known better than to believe trainer Jose Pinchin’s story that Brill would find the horse a good home. (And for god’s sake, it’s a Claiborne Farm bred. The Hancocks have rescued their ex-horses on numerous occasions, most notably Gato Del Sol, who was brought back from overseas at great expense to enjoy a safe retirement here. Why didn’t you call them?)
Marian is described as a “44 year veteran of the racing industry.” Great, another little old lady who’s a money-grubbing jerk with no ethics. Marian, maybe you and MeSue Babcock can have coffee sometime – you ought to get along great!
As someone posted on the Pedigreequery forum, “I know Ms. Brill and she knew exactly where the horse was going. People at the track give her horses all the time for her to find a “good” home for.” Yeah, no kidding. I’m sorry, but not a one of you in the racing industry can plead ignorance in these cases. That excuse has gotten all the mileage it’s ever going to get. You ALL know about slaughter. You ALL know where your broken down racehorse is most likely going when you give it to someone at the track who says they will find it a “good home.” Here’s the reality: There are almost NO good homes for broken down geldings and colts not good enough to be stallions, or unaccomplished, un-spectacularly bred fillies. Good homes for horses like these simply do not exist. If you believe they are easy enough to find, I have a bridge to sell you. On sale today only, and I do accept paypal!
We have a local situation here at Emerald Downs with the wife of a jockey who plays sweet, promises good homes and then runs them straight to the Enumclaw Auction. I am sure there is a person like that at every racetrack in the world. And the truth is that very often, the owners don’t want to know…they just want horsie to disappear and they want to be able to delude themselves that it “got a good home.”
The facts are out there and it’s way too late for owners, trainers, jockeys or anyone else to plead innocence in a case like this. You might find a decent broodmare home for a mare if she’s well bred and accomplished, but the low end fillies and the geldings and the colts not good enough to make stallions out of? The only way they’re going to have a good retirement for sure is if you keep them in your pasture on your hay/farrier/vet tab! If you won’t do that, do the decent thing and put them to sleep. It’s a piddly little amount of money compared to what you spent racing them, and it is the right thing to do. Buck up, grow a damn spine and call the vet out when you have a broken down racehorse that you know will not return to soundness and that you are unwilling to keep and retire yourself. We all know you can afford euthanasia, and if you can’t handle it emotionally, get out of racing – you’re in the wrong industry.
