Thoroughbred owners and racing fans: the Jockey Club has provided you with an easy way to help ensure that the horses you love end up in a good place when their racing days are done. PLEASE take advantage of it.

To learn more, read the Bloodhorse news article here, or go directly to the online tool: thoroughbredconnect.com.

The project focuses on public perception of equine rescue facilities, and how rescues can become more successful with simple changes that:

• enhance their perceived legitimacy
• increase the public’s willingness to donate resources, and
• improve the quality of the facility’s operations.

I think this approach is sheer brilliance on Jacie’s part, and I can’t wait to read her thesis when it’s published next month!

The first semester’s students focused on the unwanted horse problem and presented their findings at the 2011 Black Hills Stock Show in Rapid City, SD. (Details of the presentation can be found here.)

Kudos to SDSU, Professor Rebecca Bott, and all the students involved! I’d love to see a class like this implemented at every college and university that offers courses in equine studies or agriculture.

These stories are incredibly disheartening– not just because of the suffering of the horses involved, but because they damage the credibility of all horse rescue efforts, making an already difficult task even more difficult.

As I was attempting to write up a post to cover the current issues and propose ways to prevent them in the future, I was thrilled to discover that someone else has already said it better than I could. Dr. Sheila Lyons wrote a lovely article last week for Dressage Daily, titled Equine Rescue Under Fire – How to Make Things Better.

Please read it when you have a chance. I’ve covered some of her points here before, but they’re worth covering again. Others are new to me, and I’ll be discussing them in detail here soon.

After his ranch was foreclosed on in November, a Quarter Horse breeder in Montana apparently left all of his horses (as many as 700) on the property and disappeared. The malnourished horses have been without adequate food and water since then.

The Northern International Livestock Exposition (NILE) has efforts underway to airlift hay to the horses. As you can imagine, it takes tremendous resources to feed so many horses, so NILE is currently accepting donations of hay, transportation assistance (for donated hay), and money (to purchase hay and rent equipment). If you can help, please contact NILE:

Email: info@thenile.org

Phone: 406-256-2495

Mail: NILE Foundation, PO Box 1981, Billings, MT 59103

You can receive updates on this situation via NILE’s Twitter feed and Facebook page.

Facilities must follow the AAEP Care Guidelines For Equine Rescue and Retirement Facilities and have “not-for-profit” 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status to qualify.

I’ve compiled a huge list of horse rescue organizations, and I’ve broken them down by state below. However, please be aware that all rescues are NOT created equal, and that I have no personal knowledge of most of these organizations. As with any type of charitable organization, there are a few bad apples out there, so please do some research to ensure that your donations go to a good rescue who will use them well.

I could write up an article about how to evaluate and choose a good horse rescue, but the Behind the Bit blog has already done a fantastic job. They’ve also provided an excellent list of additional web resources.

Horse Rescue Organizations by State

Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona

California

Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware

Florida, Georgia

Hawaii, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana

Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana

Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana

North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, New York

Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon

Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota

Tennessee, Texas, Utah

Virginia, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming

Moneighs are paintings created by famous racehorses, using their noses, hooves and even paintbrushes. Equine artists featured in this auction include Curlin, AP Indy, Big Brown and more. The proceeds help fund ReRun’s efforts to help ex-racehorses find a second career.

You can see examples of past paintings here.

The auction runs Nov. 28 – Dec. 5. Watch ReRun’s homepage for details and links!

The obvious long-term solution is to breed fewer horses. That’s where Operation Gelding comes in. Sponsored by the Unwanted Horse Coalition, Operation Gelding provides funds to groups and organizations who hold low-cost gelding clinics to castrate local horses. So far, clinics have been scheduled or completed in 16 states.

This is a huge step in the right direction! I applaud UHC for its efforts and hope to see Operation Gelding clinics popping up all over the country soon.

If your barn, rescue organization, vet clinic/school, etc. is interested in hosting a clinic, contact UHC Director Ericka Caslin at ecaslin@horsecouncil.org or 202-296-4031.

It’s often also the only one that makes sense.

I won’t fault any individual for spending his or her own money to try to save a beloved animal, assuming the animal doesn’t suffer long-term, and assuming that spending that money doesn’t endanger any other members of the household. But rescues are different. Nearly all rescues are working with very limited resources, many of them donated. The sad reality of the current horse market is that spending thousands of dollars trying to save one critically ill or injured horse means that several healthy but unlucky horses lose their second chance at a good life. And often, even the ill/injured horse in question has very little chance at what most people would consider a GOOD, comfortable, enjoyable life.

As we’ve covered in previous posts, there are simply too many horses in this country, and not enough people with the resources to care for them. To truly help the unwanted horse situation, rescues need to focus on saving horses who have potential to be adopted quickly (perhaps after a reasonable period of rehab and training) and go on to live a productive life. If an animal is too damaged, either mentally or physically, to live a normal life– if it can’t live with other horses due to aggression, if it can’t walk comfortably across a pasture, if it has no chance of ever being adopted — euthanasia should be seriously considered. There is no shame in letting an animal go to a peaceful death.

The same holds true of individual horse owners. Many horse owners choose to send their elderly, injured or chronically ill horses away rather than have them euthanized. While a part of me understands that desire (Who wouldn’t want to avoid the pain of watching an animal die? And who really wants to spend several hundred dollars to kill and dispose of a body?), doing so is incredibly irresponsible. Of these horses, a very lucky few end up in a rescue or with a generous and kind-hearted individual. But all too many go to fates far worse than euthanasia, on a slaughterhouse-bound truck or at the hands of a neglectful or abusive new owner.

Sad truth: If you don’t have the time, money or patience to take care of your own debilitated horse, it’s unlikely that anyone else will either.

Euthanasia is a difficult choice, and not inexpensive in most cases. But as his owner, you owe it to your horse to provide him with a good, peaceful death rather than subjecting him to an uncertain fate. And as a horse person, you owe it to the industry to not walk away from your responsibility.

Resources:

General information about equine euthanasia:

• Veterinarians for Equine Welfare Euthanasia Guidelines
• American Veterinary Medical Association Euthanasia Brochure

The Humane Society provides an extensive list of euthanasia resources for each state, including low-cost euthanasia programs, crematory services, carcass disposal, etc.

Low Cost Euthanasia

I applaud the following organizations for providing low-cost equine euthanasia clinics for those unable to afford the cost. I believe this is one of the most useful and important programs a horse organization can provide to the public, and I hope to see more organizations follow suit:

• Sound Equine Options (Gresham, OR)
• Horse Plus Humane Society (Northern California)