Photo of the Week: Goodwilled TB hunting
Behavioral graces were not exactly the forte of Social Lies when he first set hoof on the dignified foxhunting fields of Virginia. This bay-colored bad boy came spinning, and rearing onto the scene, looking as though he was back on the racetrack, says his doting owner Debra Earhart, 63. “The first time I took him cubbing, he reared, twisted and turned like he thought he was going to have to run a race,” she says. “I’d keep him as far away from everybody else, and I never did anything but sit there. Sometimes I’d sit on his back for 20 […]
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The phone rings: ‘Can you get me an OTTB?’
Before the last Thoroughbred had pranced out of the Kentucky Horse Park, Sue Smith’s phone started ringing, her email buzzing. On everyone’s lips was the same question: Could she get them a competitive OTTB? “I actually had to caution people to hold off’ leaping to adopt a Thoroughbred, says the longtime executive with Thoroughbred re-homing charity CANTER-PA. After nine years spent trying to convince prospective buyers to at least consider an ex-racehorse Thoroughbred, Smith says it feels pretty good to be part of a shifting tide. A change that has come with the growing success of the Retired Racehorse Project’s […]
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Don’t bet against a horse with screws
There are many red-flag phrases in the playbook for horse shoppers. ‘Lag screw fixation’ should not be one of them. So explains top veterinary surgeon Dr. Patricia Hogan, a seasoned equine veterinarian who has performed lag screw fixation—a surgical technique used to mend fractures—on many Thoroughbreds, including the great Take Charge Indy. In this week’s Veterinary Answers column, Hogan, a former board member of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation (TRF), who performs charitable work for both the TRF and other equine charities, explains the technique of mending leg fractures, and offers insights on what the presence of screws means and does […]
