Paralyzed jockey helps his OTTB land softly
Train him and flip him, that was always the plan. But Jake Chalfin, a former amateur steeplechase jockey and Thoroughbred trainer learned that plans change, for the better and for the worse. And his did, in ways both tragic, and deeply rewarding. The bad day dawned with excitement as the amateur jockey readied to ride in a Virginia steeplechase in September 2010. The seasoned equestrian was participating in one of his favorite horse sports, a hobby that counterbalanced his day job as a salesman for an agricultural company, when the horse he was riding “flipped out” and threw the 32-year-old […]
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A NY academic opines about horse slaughter
This interview was originally published on July 5, 2012. Jill Pflugheber, a microscopy specialist with St. Lawrence University in New York, is an academic with horses on the brain, and in her heart. In an earlier life, she bred Thoroughbreds. Today, she is the proud owner of ex-racehorse Thoroughbred Napoleon Dynamite. Like many fans of Thoroughbreds and racing, and horse lovers of all levels, she has some strong opinions about horse slaughter. In this week’s Reader’s Clubhouse, Pflugheber offers her opinion on the state of slaughter, observing some positive signs in the quagmire, and areas where more could be done. […]
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Calif. officer finds calling saving OTTBs
This story was originally published on April 13, 2012. In one of those ironic twists of fate, it was a layoff from her beloved job on the Sacramento, Calif. police force that led Alana Courville to discover her true “calling”— finding new paths and careers for ex-racehorse Thoroughbreds. Up until receiving her pink slip last June, Courville had kept her enthusiasm for horses as a sideline, and worked with gusto on community policing work and other projects for the force. But when her career ended abruptly in a widespread layoff, if wasn’t the allure of fighting crime that fueled her […]
