Prisoners Work With Horses in Maine

This is a great partnership between horses and prisioners.  I am so happy they are able to work with each other, heal each other and even get a second chance because of each other.  ~Declan

Prisoners work with horses in effort to rehabilitate each other

By Abigail Curtis, BDN Staff

Posted Nov. 15, 2012, at 7:15 p.m.
As posted on Bangor Daily News

Abigail Curtis | BDN

Chris, an inmate at the Bolduc Correctional Facility, works with Bradley, a 14-year-old standardbred horse. Bradley was rescued from a bad situation and taken to the facility as part of a new program called ShelterMe. Inmates including Chris care for Bradley and the other horses that will be part of this program, working to rehabilitate the hard-to-adopt animals. Buy Photo

WARREN, Maine — Bradley and Lincoln are two feisty horses that have gone through some tough times, and are now living at the minimum security Bolduc Correctional Facility in order to be cared for, rehabilitated and given a second chance at a good life.

As it turns out, the horses are helping to rehabilitate the two prisoners who are caring for them, too.

“It means everything to me,” said Chris, an inmate who said he works with Bradley and Lincoln every day. “I go back at night and I’m already looking forward to coming back in the morning. It’s not just about staying busy — you get bonded with an animal just like you do with a person.”

The prisoner helped show off the horses Thursday morning at a press event to present ShelterMe, a new collaborative effort between the Maine Department of Corrections; the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry; and the Maine Animal Welfare Program. It’s the first program of its kind in Maine.

Chris has so far spent 17 years behind Maine bars and has less than two years to go before he’s released. He didn’t want to share his last name, or the reason why he was convicted.

“I’m trying to keep this about the horses,” he said.

While reticent about himself, the inmate didn’t run out of things to say about Bradley and Lincoln, both of whom looked glossy, well-fed and full of energy. They pranced around a fenced meadow at Bolduc, formerly known as the state prison farm, and rolled around the still-green grass.

Their apparent good health was not always the case, Chris and others said. When the animals first arrived, one in July and one in September, they had been surrendered to the state as part of animal cruelty cases. They were much thinner, and a lot less comfortable around people.

“Both horses were in really bad shape when they came here,” said Ben Beal, the director of Bolduc Correctional Facility. “They have a good life now.”

Beal said that he has noticed positive changes as well in Chris and inmate Eric Weston, 39, who also has been working with the horses.

“It’s a great opportunity for them,” Beal said. “They just learn coping skills and life skills. They learn that they have responsibilities. We’ve seen huge, huge changes with these guys.”

Weston of Skowhegan said he was serving a few months in state custody for a conviction of receiving stolen property. When he had the chance to work with the horses, he jumped at it. Altogether, the facility could provide work for as many as four prisoner caretakers.

“I just enjoy being around horses,” he said, adding that he brings them apple biscuits and comes over at night to give them their hay. “Most of the other guys don’t like to come down. They’re big animals, and even the cows make them nervous. City kids.”

Two more horses should be arriving any day now to join Bradley and Lincoln in the barn which was renovated by the prisoner caretakers from its former incarnation as a potato house. As the horses heal, mentally and physically, it’s possible that program officials will seek out adoptive homes for them, Chris said.

Those officials also want people to know that the hay is grown at the prison and the caretakers are paid a $150 stipend out of a special account that is not funded by taxpayers.

Chris, a white-bearded man who has photos of his grandson tacked to the walls of the barn, said that he’s hoping to take some of what he is learning with him when he is released from Bolduc. Maybe, in time, he’ll be able to have his own piece of land and the ability to adopt one of the ShelterMe horses, he said.

“It definitely teaches me patience. You can’t be rough with them,” he said. “You have to be in control, but at the same time, you have to be gentle.”

Buyer of Wild Horses Under State & Federal Investigation

Buyer of Wild Horses Under Investigation by State, Feds

Colorado officials are considering whether to prosecute Tom Davis, who has bought more than 1,700 wild horses from the federal government since 2008, for violating laws meant to deter livestock theft. (Dave Philipps)

by Dave Philipps, Special to ProPublica , Nov. 11, 2012, 10 a.m.   As posted on ProPublica 

co-published with the Colorado Springs Gazette

A southern Colorado man under investigation for his handling of protected wild horses has admitted to state regulators that he shipped animals out of Colorado in violation of brand inspection laws, officials said.

Officials with the Colorado Department of Agriculture's Brand Inspection Division have turned the case involving Tom Davis over to the district attorney in Alamosa for prosecution.

"The brand laws are some of the oldest laws in the state. They are there to prevent livestock theft and we take them very seriously," Brand Commissioner Chris Whitney said.

Davis, 64, a livestock hauler and proponent of the horse meat industry who lives in La Jara, 15 miles southwest of Alamosa, has purchased more than 1,700 wild horses from the federal Bureau of Land Management since 2008 — roughly 70 percent of all horses sold by the agency.

Davis signed agreements with the BLM, which is charged with managing and protecting wild horses, promising not to sell any to slaughter.

As detailed in an investigation published by ProPublica in September, Davis has brand inspections documents for 765 horses, which say he shipped these animals to Texas towns near the Mexican border.

There is no information about disposition of the other horses he purchased from the BLM. In an interview this spring, Davis said he found the horses good homes, but declined to provide records showing what happened to them. Reached by phone at his home this week, he said again that he has lived up to his sale contracts with the BLM.

Animal welfare advocates fear the mustangs purchased by Davis were exported to Mexican slaughter plants.

An estimated 37,000 wild horses, descended from escaped Spanish steeds and Indian ponies, as well as ranch strays, roam public lands in the West, where they have been protected by law for decades. Selling them for slaughter is illegal.

The ProPublica account caught the attention of the Colorado Department of Agriculture, which requires all livestock in Colorado to be inspected by the state when shipped over state lines to prevent livestock theft.

Whitney interviewed Davis at his house Nov. 6 and said Davis was "very candid" in acknowledging that he had illegally shipped horses out of the state without the required inspections. Whitney declined to give details of the conversation, but said it was enough for him to recommend prosecution.

"Sometimes we issue a ticket, but this is a serious violation," said Whitney.

Davis acknowledged he had spoken to Whitney, but said he was not aware he could face prosecution.

The brand office is turning over the case to Colorado's 12th Judicial District Attorney, David Mahoney, Whitney said.

If convicted, penalties range from a small fine to prison time, depending on whether the violations, which records suggest span years and many truckloads of horses, are charged as one infraction or hundreds.

"That is up to the prosecuting attorney," Whitney said.

The district attorney could not be reached for comment.

Davis is also the subject of a federal investigation. The probe was opened in June by the BLM's law enforcement division, but is now being handled by the U.S. Department of Interior Office of Inspector General, according to Interior spokesman Blake Androff. Often the inspector general takes over cases in which there is a potential conflict or involvement by the agency.

"By law and in practice, the IG's office is independent from the Office of the Secretary," Androff said.

The inspector general's office did not respond to questions about the subject and scope of its inquiry.

Wild horse advocates welcomed the news of the potential prosecution, but said any investigation would be incomplete until it includes the actions of the Bureau of Land Management and its parent agency, the Department of Interior.

"Let's get real. There is no way the BLM could think someone was buying that many unadoptable horses for anything but slaughter," said Laura Leigh, director of the Nevada-based advocacy group Wild Horse Education. "The people who sold those horses are just as culpable. This is a breach of public trust and there needs to be some accountability."

A BLM helicopter rounds up horses in the Stone Cabin Valley of Nevada in the winter of 2012. (Dave Philipps)

To keep the wild horse population on the range at target levels, the BLM rounds up thousands of horses each year and encourages the public to adopt them. Most horses, however, are not adopted and instead go into a government-funded system of feedlots and pastures that hold more than 47,000 animals — 10,000 more than are in the wild.

The system is at capacity and accounts for most of the BLM's wild horse budget.

BLM spokesman Tom Gorey described the agency as being "in a real bind."

Emails among BLM staff obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request show the BLM turned to Davis as a way to get horses out of government care. BLM employees would contact Davis, encouraging him to buy dozens of mustangs at a time, sight unseen.

Davis was vague in communications with the agency about his plans for the hundreds of untamed horses, according to BLM documents, saying he was going to use them as movie extras or sell them to graze on oil fields.

Davis is a vocal proponent of the horse slaughter industry and has tried to open his own plant.

"Hell, some of the finest meat you will ever eat is a fat yearling colt," he said in an interview in May. "What is wrong with taking all those BLM horses they got all fat and shiny and setting up a kill plant?"

The BLM did not attempt to verify his claims about where the horses went. When concerns were raised by horse advocates, the sale program director who approved Davis' purchases assured them that the buyer in question had a long relationship with the BLM and was "above reproach," according to an email Sandra Longley, one of the advocates who had misgivings about Davis, sent to other advocates.

In the past, the BLM has arrested wild horse buyers for attempting to ship horses to Texas to sell for slaughter.

In 2011, the agency arrested two Utah men, Robert Capson and Dennis Kunz, with a truckload of 64 wild horses bound for Texas, where, according to a federal indictment, they planned to sell the animals to an exporter for slaughter. The two were charged with wire fraud and making false statements, both felonies. Capson pleaded guilty this summer. Kunz is awaiting trial.

The North Carolina-based American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign is calling for a congressional oversight hearing on the BLM's management of the wild horse program.

"We are pleased the state of Colorado is acting immediately to hold Davis accountable," said Suzanne Roy, the group's director. "But what about the BLM? They need to be held accountable too."

BLM's Wild Horse Management at a Crossroad

Interesting... I am learning as much as I can about the wild horses, but so much just doesn't make sense to me.  Why are they rounding up so many wild horses in the first place?  I think nature will take care of itself if we would just leave it alone.  

Please don't forget Children 4 Horses is on Facebook.  You can find more information and get daily updates on what's happening with our horses there.  ~Declan

(Trent Nelson | Tribune file photo) Horses at the Salt Lake Wild Horse & Burro Center in Herriman, Thursday, October 13, 2011.

BLM’s wild horse management at a crossroad

Population control » BLM considering neutering and contraception to manage captive and wild herds.

By Christopher Smart

| The Salt Lake Tribune

First Published Nov 11 2012 05:33 pm • Updated 6 hours ago

As posted on The Salt Lake Tribune

They are seen as an icon of the West, living history of a big, bold land that still stirs the American imagination.

But the wild horses that roam federal rangeland across 10 Western states and the Bureau of Land Management that oversees them stand at a precarious crossroad.

On one hand, the BLM will begin considering neutering horses on the range as a way to keep down populations. On the other, thinning herds too much will lead to a lack of genetic diversity that could threaten future generations.

New management strategies are being considered because the agency’s Wild Horse and Burro Program, as is now formulated, appears unsustainable: 47,000 horses and burros have been taken into captivity with little chance of adoption, and their fate is uncertain because of the cost to maintain them; the estimated 37,000 animals remaining on the range will almost double in number in the coming four to five years; and the 179 herds that make up that population face an ongoing drought in the West that is leading to reduced forage on the 31.6 million acres where they are allowed to roam.

"Adoption [as a population control strategy] is no longer a logical way to proceed," said Dean Bolstad, deputy division chief for BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program. "We cannot continue to increase the numbers of horses in captivity."

But the BLM has set at 26,600 the optimal number of horses for the public rangeland under its multiple-use management paradigm, which must also accommodate 3 million grazing cattle and provide forage for deer and elk on the total 244 million acres it controls.

As such, the BLM must continue roundups to keep mustang numbers in check. But wild horse managers, who have practiced some contraceptive measures in the past, must be more aggressive with birth control, Bolstad said.

Not least, the BLM will "consider" spaying mares and gelding stallions in the wild, Bolstad said. The program’s advisory board endorsed that strategy at a meeting in Salt Lake City last month.

That is an outrage to wild horse advocates, said Ginger Kathrens, executive director of The Cloud Foundation.

She maintains the agency has given short shrift to the use of "PZP," an injectable contraceptive that provides good results but is not permanent. She fears sterilization could negatively impact genetic diversity.

The number of horses in captivity exploded under President George W. Bush and continues under President Barack Obama, Kathrens said.

"Instead of removing them [from the range] why not use a tried and true [contraceptive] drug?" she said. "It shows you, they would rather remove the animals or mutilate [spay] the mares and geld the stallions."

Public grazing land for wild horses and burros has decreased about 22.2 million acres from 53.8 million acres originally outlined in the 1971 law.

Part of the challenge is political, said Pat Shea, the Salt Lake City attorney who headed up the BLM from 1997 through 1999, under President Bill Clinton. Cattle interests have a strong lobby, while wild horse activists don’t, he said. Congress bends toward the cattlemen but is largely disinterested in mustangs.

During his tenure, Shea said, the agency returned 10,000 animals to private rangeland, was aggressive with contraception and began gelding wild stallions.

Kathrens, and other activists, would like to see the range extended and individual horse herds well above 150 to 200 adult animals needed to ensure genetic diversity.

Gus Cothran, professor of veterinary and biomedical sciences at Texas A&M University, contracts with the bureau to track genetic diversity in the herds. He said that although many BLM herds are smaller than 150, none show ill effects of a reduced gene pool — yet.

"The herds are very small, and that will lead to a lack of genetic diversity, given time," he said.

Once a herd’s gene pool has been reduced, allowing its numbers to grow will not bring back genetic diversity, Cothran said. However, there is a remedy for a reduced gene pool in any herd, and that is to introduce breeding-age animals from another herd.

Some of the herds date back to the Spanish conquistadors, and activists like Kathrens say their integrity should not be compromised by introducing outside horses to buoy genetic diversity. That is among the reasons they believe herd sizes should be expanded before genetic variability is threatened.

"The BLM doesn’t have the will to manage horses in a humane, sane way," she said.

But Bolstad said the agency is working to protect the wild horse and burro populations. However, even if rangeland and horse populations were allowed to double, the BLM would still be faced with the population control, he said.

"We need to consider more tools," Bolstad said. "No one strategy will solve the [wild horse] management issue."

Horses Helping Students Learn Leadership Skills

In this story middle school kids are learning to do better academically and mentally through working with horses.  This is a quick read and is very interesting.  You should read it!  ~Declan

Horses help PSD students hone leadership skills

8:55 PM, Oct 30, 2012  As posted on the Coloradoan

Lincoln Middle School students care for horses and other animals as part of the Open Door Project, which teaches life skills that help students be successful in school and at home. / Photo courtesy of Jose Sandoval

Written by

Lauren Stieritz

Poudre School District

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Lincoln Middle School students care for horses and other animals as part of the Open Door Project. / Photo courtesy of Jose Sandoval

Spending time with horses is helping students at Lincoln Middle School transform their lives as they learn leadership and life skills they need to be successful academically and at home.

“We learn to help the horses and then when we go home we can help people there and help people at school,” said seventh-grader Graciella Hernandez.

Once a week, sixth- and seventh-grade students at risk of dropping out of school leave the classroom to brush, bathe and run horses through a program called the Open Door Project.

The project, funded through a $20,000 Pharos Fund grant from the Bohemian Foundation, began three years ago as a partnership between Lincoln Middle School, an International Baccalaureate School, and equine-assisted life skills coaches Pia Jansen and Jill Cantor Lee.

Lincoln school counselor Jose Sandoval said the Open Door Project gives students a chance to incorporate leadership skills they learn by working with and caring for horses into other parts of their lives.

“I can say that 100 percent of these students are walking away as better human beings because of what they’re able to reflect upon with the horses,” he said.

Sandoval believes the program has completely transformed students who were once falling behind.

“These kids could’ve said no to equine but they said yes, so that tells me they do want to better themselves,” he said. “I’m very proud of them.”

In addition to caring for the horses, the students are given individual and group challenges each week.

“We are leaders with the horses, and — when we come back to school — we are leaders there,” seventh-grader Juan Gomez agreed.

Another seventh-grader, Jesus Vargas, added: “Not followers.”

Through the Open Door Project, local businesses may sponsor the students through funding, by hosting a lunch, hanging a picture of them on the wall and by sending the message that they are important members of the community. Anyone in the community can get involved, Sandoval said.

For more information about the Open Door Project, contact Sandoval at jsandova@psdschools.org or (970) 488-5700.

Lauren Stieritz is a communications intern with Poudre School District. She and others will occasionally write content that runs on the Coloradoan’s Education page.

This article is so cool!  It's about a very smart engineer, named Dr. Mick Peterson, who made a way for horses to race safer.  Dr. Peterson invented a simple solution, putting in a special synthetic surface, consisting of materials like, recycled rubber, sand and fibers.  It is very cool and his idea could make horse racing safer for the horses and the jockeys if people use his idea!  I hope they do!  ~Declan

As posted on FORBES.COM |

 

10/31/2012 @ 6:53AM |

Making Racing Safer For Horses, Starting With The Surface

This Friday and Saturday at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California, hundreds of horses will take to the track for the Breeders’ Cup.  One hundred and eighty horses have been pre-entered in 15 races, and if Dr. Mick Peterson has anything to say about it, they’ll all come home safely.

Concerns about the safety of Thoroughbred racing have never been higher, and while horses contesting the Breeders’ Cup are among the most accomplished and expensive racehorses in the world, that doesn’t mean that they are immune from injury. In fact, the Breeders’ Cup has unfortunately been the site of more than one high-profile breakdown.

Peterson doesn’t think it has to be that way.

He’s not a vet, and he’s not a trainer. Peterson is an engineer, with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the General Motors Institute and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics.  A professor at the University of Maine at Orono, he works with Drs. Christie Mahaffey and C. Wayne McIlwraith to research the role that track surfaces, particularly dirt and synthetic ones, play in equine injury. Mahaffey earned her Ph.D. in engineering at the University of Maine; McIlwraith holds degrees in veterinary science and joint disease research and is based at Colorado State University’s Orthopaedic Research Center Laboratory.  Both are Peterson’s colleagues in the Racing Surfaces Testing Laboratory.

In 2004, racetracks in North American began to replace dirt tracks with synthetic surfaces, which were reputed to be safer than dirt tracks and require less maintenance; the composition of the synthetic material includes sand, fibers, recycled rubber.

While reviews and results of synthetic surfaces have been mixed, recent data funded by the Jockey Club suggest that they do in fact reduce fatal breakdowns. Based on information provided to the Equine Injury Database, horses suffered fatal breakdowns at a rate of 1.3 per 1,000 on synthetic tracks, 1.6 per 1,000 on grass courses, and more than 2 per 1,000 on dirt.

But synthetic tracks are expensive to maintain, and Peterson doesn’t think that they have to be the answer to reducing catastrophic injuries.

“The best dirt tracks,” he said, “are almost as safe as synthetic surfaces.”

So what constitutes a good dirt track? Elementary, says Peterson: it’s all in the moisture.

“A good dirt track is consistent, and water has a huge effect,” he explained. “All the data suggest that consistency is the key, and that the biggest effect is consistent moisture.”

A significant part of dirt track maintenance is watering the track: before and between races, a water truck is driven around the track, spraying water on the track’s surface.  As Peterson points out, that method makes it difficult to achieve consistency. He also notes that few track supervisors keep detailed records of how they maintain track surfaces. This is where he comes in.

This week before the Breeders’ Cup, Peterson and his assistants will be at Santa Anita, creating what he calls “moisture maps” of the track’s surface, examining the moisture content at 144 points, consulting weather stations and evaporation rates, and using the data to try to keep the one mile of the track’s surface as consistent as possible.

Someday, Peterson foresees, an integrated system will have track water trucks automatically controlled, based on the condition of the track at various points.

And while this week Peterson’s concern is the track at Santa Anita, he also works with track superintendents in Kentucky and New York, towards a system that will be in place not only for big racing days, but daily at tracks across the country. The Equine Injury Database makes available to the public information on equine breakdowns, and Peterson envisions compiling daily reports on track maintenance that is available to track management, horse owners, trainers, jockeys, and the public.

Peterson cautions, though, that track surfaces are not one of the primary causes of equine injury. Perhaps as a result of time at the General Motors Institute, he is wont to sprinkle his explanations with automotive analogies.

“If you’ve got a car with a lot of miles on it,” he said, “and you drive over railroad tracks and your shock absorbers go, it’s not the railroad’s tracks fault.”

Peterson’s recent presentation at the Jockey Club’s Summit on the Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse was more emphatic, stating that, based on data in the Equine Injury Database, “the track surface itself is not a significant risk for catastrophic distal limb fracture,” an observation that would seem to contradict the injury statistics informed by the EID.

Equine injury, Peterson explained, is the result of muscular-skeletal disease; catastrophic injuries are the result of an “overload event.” And while he acknowledges that track surfaces can play a role in developing the smaller injuries, he also said that the injuries are a result of a number of factors.

“The way I describe it to trainers is like this,” he said, in his habitually energetic way “A given track on a given day didn’t break the horse’s leg, but every track the horse has been on, how you train the horse, its conformation, individual pre-disposition, shoeing–they all combine to cause muscular-skeletal disease.”

For a man whose professional life is now spent largely thinking about horse racing, Peterson came to the sport late, going to the track for the first time 14 years ago. That first visit was to Santa Anita, where he’ll be working this weekend.

“I had a meeting there in the morning,” he remembered.  “And I saw the mist rising off the track, and the mountains in the distance…there’s so much appealing about it.”

That appeal sits uneasily next to a number of negative perceptions about the sport, the most pernicious of which is caused by the horrific site of a horse breaking a leg on the racetrack and having to be euthanized. And while that risk will never be wholly eliminated, Peterson does think it can be reduced.

“If we can take control of track surfaces in the next ten years, it could have a significant impact on the safety of the horse,” he said.

Horse Thief May Have Taken Girl's Best Friend

** 11/3/12 UPDATE**  We spoke with Katie's family today and are happy to let you know that Katie's horse Spirit has been found!!  Thank you to everyone who helped get Spirit back home!!  ~Declan


PLEASE help Katie Rose find her best friend Spirit.  Spirit is a very special horse and a big part of Katie's life and has helped her through a lot.  Spirit was last seen on October 27th, from Lincoln County, Georgia at Bussey Point Park.  Please visit the website Finding Spirit and if you have any information to help, please contact Katie's family.  ~Declan

Horse thief may have swiped girl's "best friend"

6:11 PM, Nov 1, 2012   As posted on 11alive.com 

FOR FULL VIDEO CLICK HERE

Written by                    Doug Richards

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Katie Rose with her horse, Spirit

COVINGTON, Ga. -- At 14, Katie Rose is an unabashed horse fanatic. She was drawn to horses, in part, as an alternative to strenuous sports -- because Katie has had asthma and heart issues all her life. Five years ago, she adopted a colt named Spirit. And the two grew up together.

"It was almost as if they were destined to be together. She loves that horse dearly," said her mother Maria Rose. "They're best friends."

Last weekend, Katie Rose's best friend vanished. Spirit was tied to a post overnight at a camp near Lake Thurmond in Lincoln County. "Saturday morning, when I got up to check on him and to give him water and feed, he was gone," said Karen Parham. Spirit was born on Parham's farm in Covington -- which is where Katie Rose learned to ride. It was more than exercise for her. The gentle and playful colt was therapeutic -- the way a friend can be.

"The way that they communicate is really on a deeper level," said Maria Rose. "Spirit has a way of looking in her eyes and it's almost like he knows her feeling. Whether it's the pain of her dad's cancer or her grandfather's death... it's almost like he knew it."

Katie Rose concurs. "He knew," she says "that something was going on with me."

Now, Katie Rose's family has distributed flyers, showing the missing horse. They're wondering whether he's in the illicit possession of a 21st century horse thief, hoping he hasn't been sold at auction.

They've also created a web site devoted to the missing horse, describing his distinctive white streak and scars above his right rear hoof.

"Every night when she goes to bed, it's the tears. And the wondering where he is," said Maria Rose.

Rescuing Race Horses

A big thank you to all the people like Ms. Jones, who work so hard and do so much to help Thoroughbreds off the track.  Without people like her, and organizations who's mission is to encourage responsible horse ownership, theses race horses would unnecessarily end up at slaughter.  ~Declan



Rescuing Horses as Industry Bides Its Time
By JOE DRAPE
Published: November 1, 2012

As posted in the New York Times

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — Deborah Jones has a ticket to the Breeders’ Cup, and as a lifelong horse lover, she would cherish a weekend amid the best thoroughbreds in the world and some of the most prominent owners in racing. But she will not make the drive 41 miles north to Santa Anita Park on Friday to watch the horses of sheiks and titans of industry compete for more than $25 million in purses.

Ann Johansson for The New York Times

Deborah Jones, a thoroughbred advocate, said, “They run for big purses, but then you see how easily they are discarded.”

Instead, Jones will make and take dozens of phone calls from like-minded thoroughbred advocates on the lookout for former racehorses that have landed at auctions and are en route to slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico. When they are found, she will call their breeders or former owners in the hope they will send a trailer or some money to help find the horses a safe home.

Some have been horrified to learn of their horses’ fate and have helped immediately. But many more, Jones said, have declined to help at all.

Just two weeks ago, eight horses were discovered in a kill pen in Ohio. One of them had raced 12 days earlier at nearby Thistledown, and another had earned more than $217,000 in his career. Jones mobilized a rescue through her Facebook page.

Within hours, $6,200 was raised, and the horses — all in poor shape — were removed, quarantined and under veterinarian care. Over the past four years, Jones and her informal network have raised tens of thousands of dollars to save hundreds of horses.

“It is frustrating to know that these thoroughbreds are bred to make money for people,” Jones said. “There are values assigned to their pedigrees, they run for big purses, but then you see how easily they are discarded.”

In the past three years, nearly 86,000 thoroughbreds have been registered as foals, but only about half of them will actually make it to the races, according to Jockey Club statistics.

Slow or injured horses do not stay on an owner’s balance sheet for long, and only a handful of horses possess the rare combination of regal bloodlines and proven talent to assure a career after racing. In 2011, for example, 1,861 stallions covered 35,391 mares in North America.

So where do the other former racehorses go?

Hard numbers are elusive, but 138,000 horses were sent to Canada or Mexico in 2010 to be turned into meat for Europe and other parts of the world, according to a Government Accountability Office report.

Advocacy groups say up to 10 percent may be thoroughbreds.

“We know the problem is massive: half the foal crop doesn’t make it to the races year after year, and it becomes exponential,” said Mike Ziegler, executive director of the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance, an organization of breeders, owners, sales companies and racetracks recently formed to accredit and raise money for facilities for retired thoroughbreds.

Some owners treat their horses as members of the family and retire them to their farms or find them a home at retraining centers. Other owners treat them as commodities. Their horses are the ones that Jones and dozens of rescue groups come across.

Mindy Lovell has stopped hundreds of horses from reaching a slaughterhouse in Quebec, and she cares for more than 40 of them herself on her farm in Ottawa. They include expensive sons and daughters of stars like the Kentucky Derby winner Silver Charm and the Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Skip Away. It costs her $7,000 a month to keep them fed and cared for, money that comes out of her own pocket.

“In all the years I’ve done this, only one breeder has ever taken back his horse and cared for it the rest of its life,” Lovell said.“So many involved in the racing industry just sit there silently while we pull them out of the kill pens.”

John Murrell is a longtime horse owner and a friend of Jones’s. Like many who save horses, he has a hard time squaring his passion for what he believes is a beautiful sport and the greed that encourages cruelty and abuse off the track.

He provided half the money to rescue Grunwald, a 5-year-old gelding who had won 11 times, and the seven other horses that went from the racetrack to the kill pen in Ohio in October. He knows he cannot save every horse, but he has spent countless hours and thousands of dollars saving scores of them.

“I’m part of the industry, and I know many, many fine people who take care of their horses,” said Murrell, a Dallas-based oilman. “But we’re breeding too many, and we’re dumping them like yesterday’s trash when they become economically useless. It has to stop.”

Over the years, there have been substantial donations by individual owners and groups to umbrella organizations and aftercare programs.

In the past three years, for example, the Jockey Club has given $750,000 to Thoroughbred Charities of America and the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation. For the fourth straight year, trainers and owners of Breeders’ Cup contenders have pledged a percentage of their earnings to New Vocations Racehorse Adoption Program. So far, more than $150,000 has gone to the organization, which finds homes for horses coming off 40 tracks.

Broader efforts have not fared as well. Since 2009, the Jockey Club has given owners an opportunity to donate $25 to $100 toward thoroughbred retirement when they register their foals. Participation has been poor, and although 86,000 foals have been registered, only a little more than $156,000 has been raised.

Next year, the Jockey Club will add a $25 transaction fee for registering a foal and give the money to the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance.

Auction companies like Keeneland have pledged a percentage of their gross sales receipts, and horseman groups have agreed to set aside a portion of purse money to take care of retired racehorses. Ziegler said the alliance had promises for $4 million for 2013, an admittedly modest start.

“There are a lot of transactions surrounding a horse, and if we take a small percentage of them, it’s a lot of money,” Ziegler said.

Less eager to participate, however, have been the commercial breeders who are responsible for the glut of racehorses. While 13 farms have pledged a portion of their stallion fees to the initiative, hundreds more, including some mainstays of the industry, have chosen a wait-and-see approach.

For Jones, the constant ringing of her phone, the often heartbreaking photos of missing horses that appear on her Facebook page and the 17 hours a day she says she spends identifying racehorses in distress and setting the wheels of rescue in motion are evidence enough that there is no time left to wait and see. Too often, her efforts are too late, and the horses are sent to their death.

As much as she would like to spend a day at the Breeders’ Cup, Jones knows her time is better spent standing up for those thoroughbreds that have long been forgotten, she said.

“I’m not antiracing,” she said. “I work with, and need to work with, people in the industry. I’m just looking for more responsibility and accountability.”

Horses Help Kids Cope With Loss

Camp Hearts' N Hooves uses horses to help kids cope with the loss of a loved one, like their mom or dad.  This is another story that proves that there is no such thing as an unwanted horse and that horses can be used to help people like these kids and even veterans.  Check out all the other stories I have posted on my blog and on my Children 4 Horses Facebook page, about how horses help people every day.  ~Declan



Horses that heal help kids cope with loss

Posted: Oct 27, 2012 7:35 PM EDT
By Jacqueline Quynh, Multimedia Journalist - email
As posted on KTIV.com

CLICK HERE FOR FULL VIDEO 

Horses, as a part of their nature do a lot of nagging, but they can also be the best of listeners. That's why they're being used for therapy to help kids deal with death.

"I just love horses, like I've always loved them," Jennifer Huisenga said.

14-year-old Jennifer who has recently lost her mother is one of about 20 kids at Camp Hearts' N Hooves. It's a camp designed for kids to learn how to deal with grief through horse therapy.

"I thought it would be a really good idea to come out here and meet people who have like the same differences and stuff," Huisenga said.

So far, Jennifer has been able to open up and talk to kids her age like Autumn Petska who understands those differences she's talking about.

"People have their parents and then they always talk about them and how fun they are and then you're just sitting in the back going umm I wish that was me or something," Autumn Petska said

Making new friends, and learning new ways to heal is what Camp Hearts' N Hooves is all about.

"The camp is focused around equine assisted psycho therapy and utilizing the horses as a partner in providing grief assistance to our children that are grieving the lost of a loved one," Lynnea Andersen, the Director of Bereavement Care with Iowa Hospice said.

Andersen says horses allow kids to let their guard down, and activities like brushing and combing the horse helps decrease their anxiety.

Autumn describes working with the horses as something that is soothing.

"Well it kind of takes your mind off of everything and you're like having fun," Petska said.

Josh Carr is the Executive Director of Camp Foster, and also takes care of the horses. He says horses are a lot like people that's why it's a natural fit to use them as part of therapy.

"They're very in-tuned to our emotions because horses have emotions too, so if they're scared an we're scared --it's kind of like a buddy, you're a partner I think horses and people were meant to be one," Carr said.

The program was started in 2008, and Andersen has been working with the Iowa Hospice to expand it across the state. 

"A lot of times we have kids that start with us and they really aren't able to communicate what their needs are with us until the end of camp. And I've had parents say that they wouldn't talk at all until she came to camp and then she was able to tell her mom about her feelings about her dad that had passed away," Andersen said

Meanwhile, Jennifer says she's already benefited from the program by finding new friends.

"We're definitely going to stay in touch and maybe get together sometime," Huisenga said.

HSUS Preps for Animal Rescues from Hurricane Sandy

October 29, 2012

Hurricane Sandy Threatens People, Pets

The HSUS preps for rescues, urges animal owners to be ready for "Frankenstorm"

The HSUS's Animal Rescue Team

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  A male deer on the beach was disoriented as Hurricane Sandy drew near. He ran the wrong way: into the ocean. The HSUS

For the latest information on pet-friendly emergency shelters and other local resources, stay in touch through The HSUS's Twitter feedand Facebook page. (No need to have your own Twitter or Facebook account to see the updates.)

Hurricane Sandy is aimed at the East Coast of the United States, on a course to become a storm of historical proportions. If you haven't already made a plan for your pets, or if you're evacuating, be sure to take your pets with you.

The HSUS's Animal Rescue Team is assembling staff and equipment for disaster response and is poised to help stricken communities in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. Please make an emergency donation to support our disaster relief efforts.

The Humane Society of the United States

#sandypets

Here4Adam RT @ASPCA: Is everyone doing okay? Please let us know if we can help with shelter locations and safety tips! #Sandypets41 seconds ago · reply · retweet · favorite

 

 

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gedy08 Don't let your pets drink out of puddles, the storm flood waters may be toxic! #Sandypets" @lorenridinger @nataliaroks32 seconds ago · reply · retweet · favorite

 

 

4 new tweets

FrankandSophia #SandyPets pic.twitter.com/MSp3BrB039 seconds ago · reply · retweet · favorite

 

 

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Eaglerae RT @Wash_Humane: A huge thanks to our staff & volunteers who are making sure that every animal is safe and cared for! #SandyPetspic.twitter.com/vL5QYIqJ36 seconds ago · reply · retweet · favorite

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The HSUS's state directors have been in action already, helping local shelters, staffing a Unified Operations Center, advising pet-friendly polices at human shelters, and reminding everyone to include pets during evacuations.

On a beach in New Jersey, a deer confused by storm preparations ran into the ocean (see photos above). A caring person, Eric Walsh, pulled the deer from the surf, but the deer lacked the strength to move inland.

Our New Jersey state director, Kathleen Schatzman, rounded up wildlife rehabilitators, the Montmouth County police, and New Jersey's Associated Humane Societies. Through a combined effort the buck was tranquilized and removed from the beach, for perhaps the first animal rescue of the storm.