Postby Sylvie Hebert » Thu Dec 09, 2010 5:27 pm
A legitimate rescue???What is it in your eyes,a place for trainers and owners to unload their broke down horses since there are no "Killers" anymore and they can't risk their licence..All rescues right now are overload.Some "legitimate rescues" have been caught for horse abuse ,starving,,Ask the people who run the fingerlakes program,she will tell you,when a horse is decently sound and looks good, trainers try to sell it first,when they are really unable to sell them,they give it to her...But you can be sure they milk them first.
There are exceptions,but if you have never seen a horse in bad condition then you have never been to Fort erie,Finger Lakes,Beulah and more...
This is where previously good horses(some have made lots of cash and run at high level before) end up and it is no heaven...
sure there are decent people there too, just less of them..
And the economy makes it tough even on the good people,horses having less value and being impossible to send to auction or meat,makes it fight for survival of trainers/owners,the horses being just a disposable but "hard to dispose of" pawn in that game.
I went somewhere in the midwest and when i told the trainer that his horses were not cared for,he told me he was getting $25. a day...and had to call the owners and beg...some people just should'nt have horses.
Sure i can avoid it,but where would these horses end up?
And for those who say,just find them homes,come on try yourself,pay the horse,the $200. of documents for shipping,the shipping itself,the care,feed,medications, for a couple months till they are in a sale-able condition and then "adopt" away,so you can get them back a few months or years later when they are again not needed or lame or old,and all that time,beg for donations and don't make a mistake of placing a "bad" horse because you will get sued...
everything you place has to pass the vet,not run off with anyone,never kick or bite,or buck or crib or weave or...I am not talking about a $25,000. horse here but a $1000. one...
Easy to talk,harder to walk: where is each horse you bred,trained or owned in your life right at this minute?
Where did that nice colt,the one you bred and got claimed off you a couple years ago,ended up,after Belmont,Philly,Penn,Beulah,...may be as a mexican burrito or a french "pate" or ....in a riding school up north after a few months of rehab in my barn...How come you never asked,never had a single conscience pinch,...
One day i will simply come here and list all the ones i saw over the years,how they came here and what happened to them.
Will you be a tiny bit touched?Will it makes you think twice before "ONE LAST RACE" or before breeding that mare you paid a lot for but broke a leg in her first few starts?
What we need,but i am a realist,it won't happen in my lifetime (i am in the last strech now),is responsible breeders and owners. But,we don't even have responsible parents,look at all the left over kids...no reponsable humans either look at the starving and abuse all over the world.
Was it Ghandi who said you can "judge a nation by th way it treat it's animals"?
Well the jury is out...
The sport and industry survive not only because of the champions that are remembered forever but also because of the losers that are so easy to forget...
