by Suzi Pritchard-Jones
In recent weeks. this publication has printed two articles by Dan Ross about Thoroughbred racehorses who are falling through the aftercare net, ending up in kill pens for export to either Mexico or Canada for slaughter.
Owner Jack Wolf responded with a possible solution in a letter to the editor in last Friday's TDN. Mr. Wolf is not a lone owner. There are many people who are heavily invested in this industry. In today's world when racing's social license to operate is wafer- thin, our industry is increasingly under scrutiny.
Are you not concerned, if by nothing else other than the optics of Mr. Ross's pieces?
It is time we all row in to allow this sport and business to be recognized with the degree of respect it deserves. There isn't a successful business on the planet that can afford to drop the ball in one area so consistently as this industry does when it comes to breakage–horses without monetary value. Every aspect of the Thoroughbred industry runs like a well-oiled machine…until those horses who did not display enough talent on the racecourse to return to the breeding shed retire from racing. Where do they go, who takes care of them, and whose responsibility is it?
How does it look when facilities such as Old Friends in Lexington, Kentucky, who take in 'famous' horses who have earned hundreds of thousands of dollars on the racetrack for their owners, have to rely on successive fundraising campaigns to live out their days? Have we become that spoiled and overindulged that when we tire of a toy or a puppy, we just throw it out?
Our parents brought us up better than that. This is not somebody else's problem; it's a horse owners' problem, and it's a horse owners' obligation to solve the problem, because nobody else is going to, and if we don't, we're not going to have an industry. Of that you can be very, very sure.
Many owners and several syndicates have a structure in place to take care of their horses. However, this is not the case across the board, and therein lies the problem. This a solvable issue. We do, however, need to come together and work together to resolve it successfully.
There is no racing industry without owners. It's time now to take ownership of this great game. For if you don't, who will?
Our ace in the hole is that Thoroughbreds are not one-dimensional. They are multifaceted, and they are particularly suited to Equine Assisted Services. Currently, there are numerous programs around the world where EAS are working with Thoroughbreds in a multitude of modalities from helping children with autism, learning disabilities, social anxiety, depression; troubled teenagers, domestic abuse victims, people suffering from PTSD, veterans, first responders, others suffering from addiction. The prison system has also had amazing results with Thoroughbreds within their equine programs.
Thoroughbred horses are changing lives the world over, and it is hugely exciting.
We have the most powerful drug on the planet in this beautiful creature called the Thoroughbred. In this industry, we not only have the capability of turning racing into a sport and industry to be once again immensely proud of, but we have here the opportunity to create meaningful change.
Suzi Pritchard-Jones
Pritchard-Jones is the author of BYERLEY, The Thoroughbred's Ticking Time Bomb, and the founder of the Byerley & Godolphin Conservation breeding project.
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