Horse Rescue - Practical Reality

[Phalaris1913]

PART ONE
I share my experiences with racehorse rescue just so people know either what they are getting into, or what the rescue groups are having to deal with.

Almost exactly 15 years ago today, a TB given to me by a coworker arrived at the stable where he was to spend the next couple of years of his life. In this case, the acquisition (unlike the DC story) was as positive as it could be. The horse had run a handful of times and, not living up his owner/breeder's high hopes, was given away rather than run at the claiming levels. He arrived in perfect health and in the two years I had him, was out of commission due to injury or soreness only once - strictly precautionary, as a result of a foolish action on the horse's part in the stall.

I had spent a good part of my teen years riding, but I realized before the horse arrived that my horsemanship was not sufficient for the task of retraining a 4YO thoroughbred racehorse. I boarded him at a small, reputatable dressage/eventing stable where I could get riding instructions and the horse could get training with a professional. The total monthly price tag, in Phoenix metro in the mid-1990s, was around $600.

Good progress was made. The horse, ridden by his trainer, scored a 76 at a practice dressage show in his first outing. His jumping ability rapidly outpaced my ability to ride jumpers. He was the nicest horse I had ever been around - a Rolls Royce compared to the backyard horses I had honed my skills riding as a teenager. But after a year and a half, I couldn't just take him for a ride outside the safe confines of his arena into the residential neighborhood in the desert nearby, and I wasn't proving to be a particularly talented showring rider. Worse, despite the fact that I was living in a studio apartment and driving a 20-year-old car, I couldn't afford to keep him in the responsible surroundings that had enabled him to bloom as an eventing prospect. The specter of what happens when people who think they know something about horses try on their own loomed in my mind - another coworker had taken a horse from the same breeder and they'd just put him in a pen at their rural property and thought they could ride him like a normal horse. He was, of course, competely unsafe in that setting.

The day came when I realized that I had to sell the horse but I still felt good about what I'd done: of course my own horsemanship had improved greatly, but I had taken on an individual and invested the time and money required to make him a nice show prospect for a better rider.

And then - I couldn't sell him. He was matched to what those involved in the transaction felt was a perfect rider for him, but he wouldn't vet and the prospective buyer wouldn't buy him. The horse had never actually taken an unsound step in the nearly two years I'd had him, but he had navicular changes. It was thought that this was nothing new - that he'd been this way the whole time I had him - but I had nothing to prove it. I ended up having to give him away. I heard later on that the girl I gave him to rode him in eventing classes for a couple of years, and then gave him to someone else who jumps with him occasionally.

So 15 years later, I remember the painful reality. Mine represented almost an unrealistic best-case scenario for a racehorse rescue by someone without personal experience in retraining thoroughbreds. The free horse was sound, talented, had a decent mind and good feet, and no health or physical problems whatsoever manifested themselves. He never needed one dollar spent on anything other than routine shoeing, shots and wormings. I, while no picture of proper riding form (since I'd received no formal instruction as a teen), had years of experience riding running QHs, TBs, Arabians and who-knows-whats and riding them everywhere from busy city streets to open desert. Recognizing my limitations, I lined up a support team of professionals to retrain me and the horse. It just doesn't get much better than that in the world of racehorse rescue. I'd wanted a horse my whole life and committed all my resources to make my dream reality, up until the point when financial disaster loomed.

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