After Racing

The career of the average racehorse is rather brief, with most animals usually retired from the track by age 6 or 7. In addition, some horses originally bred for the sport never end up running a race as a result of not reaching certain standards, but go on to compete in other arenas such as equestrian events.

For those horses that do make it onto the track, a number of options exist once they’ve retired. Some become breeders, while others become family or companion horses. There are also racehorse retirement sanctuaries, which serve as permanent homes for these animals and differ from horse rescues, which focus on rehabilitating and adopting out the horses they accept. However, horse adoption is a bit different than, say, adopting a dog. Diana Pikulski, executive director for the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, explains, "When a thoroughbred first arrives at a rescue, it is evaluated according to its ability, temperament and many other factors. Based on these evaluations, the horse may be re-trained for a second career in show, dressage or even to join a police force. Others may not be sound enough for a second career but can be placed in caring environments as a family horse, used in therapy or true retirement on a farm. Thoroughbreds are highly valued animals and you should expect to pay a significant adoption fee. Potential adopters are also carefully screened and will sometimes work with the horse at the rescue for several months before moving the horse to its new home." There are hundreds of both horse rescue and sanctuary organizations across the country that care for former racehorses.

These are just some examples of existing programs offering sanctuary for retired horses, but additional solutions continued to be explored. In fact, according to the Thoroughbred Times, the New York State Task Force on Retired Race Horses was established in 2008, the first of its kind intended to explore ways to protect retired horses. One program offered through the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation gives incarcerated men and women the opportunity to learn how to care for animals and gain vocational skills, while also providing the inmates with emotional therapy.

Unfortunately, whether or not a horse has been successful at the track does not limit its risk of being auctioned off and sent to a slaughterhouse. Currently, there is pending legislation (the Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act of 2009, H.R. 503) that would protect all horses, including racehorses, from slaughter by prohibiting horse slaughter for human consumption from taking place in the United States and also make it illegal to export American horses across U.S. borders for the same purposes.

Additionally, several racetracks within the U.S. have announced new policies that would punish trainers and owners who directly or indirectly transport a horse from the track to a slaughterhouse or to an auction engaged in selling horses for slaughter. The punishment at most of the tracks is that the trainer and owner would be prohibited from having stalls at that track in the future. U.S. tracks that have enacted what is called a "zero tolerance" policy include: Beulah Park (Grove City, Ohio), Fairmount Park (Collinsville, Ill.), Golden Gate Fields (Albany, Calif.), Gulfstream Park (Hallandale Beach, Fla.), Laurel Park (Laurel, Md.), Lone Star Park at Grand Prairie (Grand Prairie, Texas), The Meadows (Meadow Lands, Pa.), Mountaineer Race Track (Chester, W.V.), Pimlico Race Course (Baltimore, Md.), Remington Park (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Santa Anita Park (Arcadia, Calif.), Suffolk Downs (East Boston, Mass.) and Thistledown (North Randall, Ohio).