Hi again. Today’s blog post is once more on the horse racing industry and I was moved to write it in response to the very positive comments we received to the last post on the subject and also because I received an email from Dawn Mellen.
Dawn is busy organizing her first fundraiser for her newly formed foundation After The Finish Line, a funding non-profit to rescue thoroughbred racehorses from the track. Dawn’s foundation aims to give racehorses the chance of a second career rather than go to slaughter. We have posted the invite below, so I hope you can go to the event as I intend to or donate a silent auction item or just send money. If you’d like to contact Dawn, her details are beneath the invite.
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Hi Carolyn!
It just so happens that the other day I was curious about the different race horse rescue facilities that are around, and I found different non profits from across the country and also a race horse adoption program in Australia!
You asked if anyone had a list of places to help race horses, so I thought I would share mine!
East Coast
ReRun, Inc. Adopt a Thoroughbred. http://www.rerun.org/
Location: Helmetta, New Jersey
New Vocations Racehorse Adoption Program. http://horseadoption.com/
Location: Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee.
Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation. http://www.trfinc.org/index.php
Location: Saratoga Springs, NY
Finger Lakes Thoroughbred Adoption Program. Giving Horses a Second Chance to be Winners. Location: New York http://www.fingerlakestap.org/
East Coast and West Coast
CANTER The Communication Alliance to Network Thoroughbred Ex-Racehorses
Location: Michigan, N. Illinois, Mid Atlantic, New England, Ohio,
Pennsylvania. With a new chapter starting in California. http://www.canterusa.org/
West Coast
Southern California Thoroughbred Rescue. Rescue and Rehoming Services for Thoroughbred Ex-Racehorses. http://www.sctbrescue.com/index.htm
Tranquility Farm, Thoroughbred Retirement, Retraining and Adoption. Location: Tehachapi, CA http://www.tranquilityfarmtbs.org/index.htm
California Equine Retirement Foundation, Inc. Rehabilitation, Adoption, Retirement Location : Winchester, CA. http://www.cerfhorses.org/
The Exceller Fund. Providing A Future Beyond the Finish Line
Location: Granada Hills, CA. http://www.excellerfund.org/
Australia
Fastracehorses.com. Adopt a race horse in Australia http://www.fastracehorses.com/adoption/index.htm
I love the artwork on the flyer!
Who is the artist?
Lori
Liz,
I am so happy you understood the deeper meaning of the message. Thank you for your comment. It is all about being open and supportive for a change to take place.
I remember I had a horse in training I had worked with kindly for months and there was no change. I got irritated and discouraged because nothing hand changed, even a little. Then one of my students said, when you complete his report on the chalk board put two hearts by his name. I did and the next day I had a completely diffrent horse, more that I thought possible. It actualy only took a shift in me, even though I was being kind, I needed a different outlook.
I believe that everything needs to be driven by love and allowing support of natural forces, personal intention and effort.
Carolyn
Thanks Carolyn,
I needed that reminder to focus and be positive, in general, not just on this issue.
Bravo to you all.
Carolyn
Carolyn – I applaud Dawn’s efforts and hope that she has much success. One thing to mention when people think about buying or adopting a former racehorse – These horses are trained to run fast. They are not appropriate horses for children or beginning riders. When I lived near Del Mar, too many people would think they were getting a bargain being able to buy a horse off the track for less than a thousand dollars. They would sometimes buy them for their kids. Then, they’d get upset when they rode the horse and it bolted or ran off. What you are saying about making a connection with the horse and not focusing on the negative is very true and wise. It’s also important to realize that the horse may only be doing what it’s always been told to do when it runs off. If you aren’t capable of re-training or handling a horse that might do this, a former racehorse is probably not a good match. I have also seen ex-racehorses become excellent partners, but their owners understood what the horses had been taught and were able to communicate well with them.
Dear Carolyn,
Bravo and thank you for such inspiring words of wisdom about the power of visualization and positive thought. One of the reasons I decided last monthy to donate a personalized Debra Saum Animal Portrait to Dawn’s fund raiser because she represents positive changes for rescued race horses and her message is all about uplifting attitudes rather than blame or negativity. As you said so well in this post, we can make enormous changes when we hold a positive, loving attitude towards the very things we wish to change. I think horses are here on this earth at this time, to help us do just that. In working with my horse Romeo, and incorporating your techniques and attitudes into my daily activities with Romeo, I have found that by focusing on the positive, leaving the negative and the worries out of the equation, Romeo and I are making leaps and bounds in our relationship. That is not to say that we aren’t challenged! Romeo has serious arthritis and we are both challenged daily to focus on joy and fun instead of pain and regret. There are some days when he is down and grumpy and it is those days that I do my best to stay loving and kind, reminding him to focus on the ways we can have fun together. There are days when I am tired or discouraged, and he reminds me to live in the moment by giving my nudges, poignant looks and his sometimes silly sense of humor. The equine spirit is a tremendously resilient force. The very least we can do is to listen to our horses, understand their ability to transform our hearts and be willing to live our own lives with as much humility, grace and power as they live theirs.
Much love and keep up the wonderful work!
Debra
I have a second job, part-time down at the track as a pari-mutuel teller. Over the past couple of years, I’ve become friends with some owners and trainers and a few backstretch people, as well as a few other staff who have equestrian links. What I’ve seen and heard had been quite an eye-opener!
Let me back up a bit – I took this second job as a first stage of being around horses again after many years living overseas with no equine contact. I had been dreaming about horses for months together, running with them, being protected by them, just standing together, even being a horse – so, some kind of call, I reckon, and then this job landed in my lap completely unexpectedly. I felt really good being up there, and visiting the barns renewed my joy at being with these wondrous creatures. I thought for a while it was just for me and my re-entry to the world of horses.
Then I started hearing the stories about how some owners and trainers treat the horses who aren’t making the money as fast as they would like, saw some abused colts and fillies who were afraid of their own shadows and terrified of humans. I have an equestrian acquaintance who, at the end of harness season, bought a couple of rather lean but nice moving Standardbreds for a song, one of which hadn’t been out of his stall for four months, and still had the sweat and dirt from his last workout stuck to him.
I didn’t know anything about Standardbreds before this job, but they are so willing and stable (no pun intended) in all kinds of weather (including subzero up here in the great white north) compared to those hot Thoroughbreds. Unfortunately, all of them, including the elite of these equine athletes, live in completely unnatural, pressured circumstances and all in the name of the dollar.
I see now that my experience these past couple of years may have been the reason for the ‘call’, that my return to the horse world and this fervent growing interest in natural horsemanship and training will one day be put to a necessary purpose – the rescue/retraining/rehabilitation of race horses (Standardbreds and Thoroughbreds) for a new career under better conditions, and with people of subtlety, dignity and self-respect who appreciate the magnificence and wisdom of these creatures, who wish to truly connect with our equine friends in the most honest of relationships.
I wish the very best of luck to you, Dawn, and to anyone else out there who is like-minded. This will not be fast or easy work, but I’m certain it will be extremely rewarding.
And deepest respect and gratitude to you, Carolyn, for making your experience and knowledge available to us all.
Cheers!
Liallyn
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada