By the Wayside

(ETA: I think there needs to be a Gainesway Thoroughbred Hunter class at the next AA show at the Horse Park … )

I dug up something interesting while searching Bloodhorse for an article on the new endeavor by Bloodhorse and its sister publication The Horse to provide a listing for Thoroughbreds available for adoption. The listing is hosted by The Horse and sponsored by Gainesway.

The article I was looking for, by Dierdre Biles, has far too much substance for me to summarize adequately, but I recommend it. I will only pull a couple of sections.

With the economy struggling and the buy-back/no bid rates at Thoroughbred auctions rising, the issue of unwanted horses is a growing concern. Antony Beck, president of Gainesway Farm in Lexington, decided to try to do something about it, by sponsoring an adoption service on the Web site of The Blood-Horse’s sister publication, The Horse.

The site will allow Thoroughbred owners to list information about horses they are willing to give away free to good homes in the United States.

“It’s a sad, but a very definite situation that we’re facing,” Beck said. “A large number of Thoroughbreds are going to be taken out of the breed one way or another, and it would be wonderful if they could go out of the racing orbit into the show horse or pleasure horse worlds. This is a way we can save a lot of lives.”

Beck and Gainesway, I will note, are among those in the industry who have taken an anti-slaughter position. And he deserves to be lauded for stepping up to the plate with this new endeavor.

I have repeatedly mentioned my belief that the Thoroughbred industry needs to work more closely with the sport horse world; I cannot imagine it would do anything but good if attempts were made on both sides.

Here is one of my favorite of Beck’s ideas:

Beck also would like to see auction companies advertise in equine publications outside of the Thoroughbred industry because “there is going to be a tremendous opportunity to get some really good Thoroughbred blood for very reasonable prices” in the coming months or even years.

Yes! All I can do is agree.

There is much more in the article, including opinions from those on the sales/consigning side of the industry. I don’t wholly agree with John Stuart – I think any program that will channel Thoroughbreds to the sport horse side of the industry is a good thing, and that the free horses that end up in his inbox a few weeks from now could be the ones not selling right now, and the better the infrastructure that’s set up to find them a new home, the better chance they’ll have. I’d be perfectly willing to meet up with Mr. Stuart to talk horses, but I’ll need an invitation seeing as how I’d be a guest (of course, I’d pay my own capping fee).

But to return to my original point, I did find something very interesting when I was searching Bloodhorse for that article. This one’s short enough that I’ll just quote the whole thing:

The Jockey Club, Horse Adoption Group Discuss Registry

Bettina Cohen, November 12, 2001

The Jockey Club is working with the Thoroughbred Adoption and Retirement Association to establish and maintain a separate registry that would recognize Thoroughbreds suited for careers as sport or show horses.

Just days after TARA held its second annual convention in Lexington, its executive director, Shon Wylie, met with The Jockey Club’s executive director, Gary Carpenter, Nov. 8 to discuss the plan.

“It went well,” Wylie said. “(Carpenter) asked that the TARA groups put in writing in what capacity The Jockey Club could be of service regarding registry, foal papers, et cetera. Of course, we’ll get right on that.”

By creating the registry, and implementing an All-Thoroughbred show circuit, TARA hopes to increase the marketability of Thoroughbreds by raising public awareness of the breed as an all-around athlete. TARA believes it can raise the value of horses in training and provide horsemen with an incentive to retire horses that are sound and suitable for a second career.

The registry would also serve to create a general fund to pay expenses of racehorses placed into accredited adoption programs.

Ah. The things that fall by the wayside.

This one needs resurrecting.