Off Track Thoroughbreds

Racehorse owner and advocate Maggi Moss reports this horse, still wearing his racing plates, was dumped in a La horse lot this week.

A 3-year-old Thoroughbred suffering from a gruesome head wound—slicing in an arc from the top of his head through his right eye— was dumped off this week at a Louisiana horse lot.

The shockingly injured gelding was identified via a lip tattoo as Thoroughbred Say Dat Who, according to well-known race owner and Thoroughbred advocate Maggi Moss, who nearly singlehandedly ignited a firestorm of outrage this week when she published a photograph on Facebook of the mangled animal.

Moss obtained the photograph from well-regarded horse shipper Angelo Trosclair, who had gone to the lot with his daughter to rescue another horse, Moss says, and discovered the T-Bred standing among other horses. “Angelo is a very good shipper,” she notes. “I use him for my own horses.”

Moss says that Trosclair reported to her that he transported the animal to the Red River Equine Hospital in Benton, La., where an anonymous source at the hospital confirmed to Off-TrackThoroughbreds.com yesterday that the animal was euthanized “due to traumatic head injury.”

Say Dat Who
Sire: Etbauer
Dam: Preston Star
Foal date: Feb. 7, 2012Though Trosclair could not be reached for comment for this story, he displays the photo on his Facebook page along with a statement from Moss pleading for help in locating the person responsible for the inhumane treatment.

In a telephone interview with Off-Track Thoroughbreds.com, Moss says she was so sickened by the condition of the horse that she has begun a letter-writing campaign to Louisiana lawmakers to investigate, and help shed light on the mysterious and frightening circumstances that led to the demise of a racehorse still wearing his racing shoes.

“I think the three things that are so shocking about this are 1) he was wearing new racing plates 2) nobody called the vet or euthanized him before this point and 3) discarding a horse in this much pain in a lot like this is the equivalent of throwing out your trash,” Moss says. “Somebody dropped off this horse. Somebody is responsible.”

Racehorse owner Maggi Moss, shown here with one of her Thoroughbreds, has begun pushing for an investigation into what happened to a gelding discovered in a La. lot this week.

As the photo was shared across Facebook, Moss says it was her hope that the poor animal would not have died in vain; and that the picture would trigger an investigation by racing authorizes.

Still unanswered in the grisly discovery is who owned the horse last, what happened to the Thoroughbred, and who discarded an animal at the horse lot, she says, adding that the ugly incident should “open some eyes as to what things are going on in Louisiana.”

“Up until I saw that picture, I thought I had a real working knowledge of the brutality of what can happen to our horses,” Moss says. “Now I’m realizing that I hadn’t even scratched the surface.”

Anyone with information about Say Dat Who is asked to send a private message to Maggi Moss via her Facebook page.

In a statement to friends on Facebook, Moss thanked those who expressed concern for the horse. But she stressed it would be a hard battle to get the attention of the proper authorities. Sadly, she says, the demise of the 3-year-old bay is a drop in the bucket when compared to the “hundreds of thousands of horses going straight to slaughter we don’t even know about,” she says.

“The things I have learned as to the literal numbers of horses and broodmares being “dumped” to slaughter is staggering,” Moss states on her Facebook page. “THIS IS A PROBLEM on levels I have never seen …” which can only be resolved when lawmakers, racing leaders, racetracks and others in the horse world “unite to help protect the very horses that make up the racing environment, and, in a meaningful way.”

Authorities returned for the second time to a one-acre Miami Gardens lot where horses go hungry. A Thoroughbred and three other equines were seized from squalor.

Left once again to pick up the wreckage of another wannabe horse owner “chasing the dream” —his animals wasting away —Laurie Waggoner of the South Florida SPCA returned last month to the same scene where a year earlier, three Thoroughbreds had starved, nearly to death.

Working in tandem with the Miami Gardens Police last month, Waggoner seized four horses, including a foal, and most notably, 5-year-old mare Enchanting Tide, who last raced at Gulfstream Park before falling into the wrong hands. They all showed the heartlessly familiar signs of neglect, she says.

“You could look at the horses and know that they didn’t eat everyday,” Waggoner says, noting that the owner, who was arrested at the scene and charged with animal cruelty, did have some food and water on the premises—but not nearly enough. “The owner recently came here from Cuba and was ignorant about how to take of horses; and he just wanted to live the dream.”

Enchanting Tide
Sire: Untuttable
Dam: Marhaba, by Turkoman
Foal date: March 15, 2010The suspect, whose identity was not available to Off Track Thoroughbreds.com by the time this story was published, reported to Waggoner he had owned Enchanting Tide for only a matter of days, she says. And he produced her registration papers at the time the animal was seized, Waggoner adds, noting the Thoroughbred was in comparatively good shape, with a Henneke Body Score of 3. The suspect’s other horses did not fare so well, she says.

“An appendix-type mare and her 8-month-old foal were living in the same stall, and the foal had dreadlocks” due to inattention and worse. Her mother and a gray horse were also in various states of starvation.

Enchanting Tide, who last raced at Gulfstream Park, was reportedly at the shanty for only four days. Her condition is far better than that of her herdmates.

Sadder than the story of Enchanting Tide and the three other rescues, is the seemingly endless cycle of indifference, disregard and animal cruelty occurring in the one-acre facility of shanty stalls situated in Opa-locka, Waggoner says.

On a property squeezed between other miniature farms on scant acreage, and across the street from an apartment complex, owners pay a minimal monthly fee for rough board in a low-slung shanty, she says.

This is a stall in Miami Gardens where a seized horse was confined. There is no turnout available at the one-acre facility, according to Laurie Waggoner of the South Florida SPCA.

Many stalls were thick with mud and waste, and the room clearance is so low horses can’t fully lift their heads. There is not enough room on the property for turnout, yet, she estimates there were 10 horses on the property by the time Miami Gardens Police responded to the scene after a young woman barraged them with pleading phone calls to investigate the matter.

It was the same scene Waggoner responded to last year to rescue OTTB Silver and Smoke, and others. Please see that story here: http://offtrackthoroughbreds.com/2014/08/05/locked-in-tbs-couldnt-lift-heads-in-stalls/

“The situation is overwhelming,” Waggoner says. “It’s the same location, different owner. Last year we had a 77-year-old man who had a dream to make it big at the racetrack. But he never wins. He just had the dream.”

Sadly, Waggoner suspects the sad cycle will continue, as more owners move their horses into the muck and filth of the sad little stable in Florida.

“There is no solution,” she says. “If I don’t do it, the animals wouldn’t be picked up. It would be like all the other places out there, where the animal is left until he dies.”

Author’s note: The Comments function will be restored very soon. In the meantime, if you wish to comment on this story, please log in via your cell phone and make your comment from there. Thank you for your patience, and for reading this blog.