Archives by date

You are browsing the site archives by date.

Witty Bill breathes life into bereft barn

What Sue Hutchinson remembers of those last moments spent with her 29-year-old Thoroughbred Presidential Way, has the sharp focus and detail that comes from reliving the day, again and again. “It was a Wednesday last July, and he was in the barn like he always was, waiting to be fed. He usually went in around 5 a.m. to wait for someone to feed him. If somebody didn’t come by 6, he’d start hollering,” she says. “When I walked in on this morning, he was in the founder’s stance.” A foundering horse, or one who has developed laminitis, a leading cause […]

After head trauma, rider regains confidence on OTTBs

Stat Box Tattoo: 532283 Race name: JJ Silverheels Sire: Career Best Dam: Gusso JJ Height: 16.2 Color: Gray Trampled by a Thoroughbred trying to flee his stall, Jasmine Klunder was knocked unconscious when her head hit the barn’s brick floor. The last thing she remembered before everything went black was the first thing she thought of when she woke up in a hospital bed an hour later: where’s the horse. Jasmine was 14 years old. “My last memory was of him running toward the road, and I was worried about him. I just wanted to know he was okay,” says […]

Smith and Pay Attention

Pay Attention makes a mint, lands softly

Amanda Smith started to pay attention to the plight of ill-fated racehorses shortly after  Barbaro broke down at the 2006 Preakness Stakes. That’s when Pennsylvania pharmacist and pleasure rider  started to ponder the ineffably sad ending that can come when their racing days are over. Her curiosity led her to websites by exercise rider and anti-slaughter advocate Alex Brown, and soon she started following careers of horses who were once big earners before they dropped in class to run for relative peanuts in claiming races. She started to monitor Alex Brown’s Top Bunk List, which follows careers of racehorses who […]