Calif. cops lining up to buy OTTBs; calm partners
Thoroughbreds who’ve been standing in retirement fields for years—even a decade — are proving to be ideally suited to join police mounted units, according to a California horseman who is working to keep up with the demand for OTTBs from a local Sheriff’s department. “I think I’m seeing a trend” which finds a retired racehorse Thoroughbred, given time to let down from the racetrack, to be an officer’s perfect partner, says Julie Baker, the founder/president of Healing Arenas in Escalon, Calif. “They’ve had to survive in a herd environment, which is pretty key to mounted unit work. They have to tolerate […]
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Oilman helps 10 trotters slip slaughter pipeline
A Texas oilman who has donated tens of thousands of dollars through the years to help save slaughter-bound Thoroughbred ex-racehorses swooped in last week to help save 10 Standardbred trotters from the grisly fate. John Murrell, of Three M Oil Co., Dallas, donated $2,500 toward a $10,000 Go Fund Me to save the trotters before they were due to ship on Saturday to the slaughterhouse. After the fundraiser had fallen short of its goal, Murrell interceded. “I’d heard about the 10 Standardbred trotters, and then I got a message from Diana Pikulski of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation saying they were […]
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An OTTB at the Olympics makes the news
A 12-year-old off-track Thoroughbred, named this summer to the U.S. Eventing Team for the 2016 Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro, was the subject of a full-page article in today’s Wall Street Journal. (Please click the Journal story here.) Blackfoot Mystery, an eye-catching, multi-talented Thoroughbred and Boyd Martin, an Olympic three-day Eventer, were among four horse/rider teams named to the U.S. team by the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF). In the article, Martin describes the “love at first sight” he felt for Blackfoot Mystery, and his Blackfoot Mystery Syndication, which reportedly consists of 13 members who raised $300,000 to purchase […]
