What's a girl to do? (Part 2)

(Before you read this post: if you haven't read the first installment, if not read it here.)

The Reader's Digest version of the previous post is this. I work at a breeding farm. The horses here are not pets, they are here as part of a business to make money. If they cannot make us money or benefit us in some other way, we get rid of them by selling them or donating them. We are not mean people, we care about the horses we raise, but that is the truth of the matter. It is a business at the end of the day. Do I necessarily agree with my boss and the farm owner on this matter? No, but I'm not the boss. This is reality for us, as a business, specifically in the racing industry. I left off by explaining that most of the property is for sale. We've downsized over several years from over 200 horses to 39. The farm owner is getting older and wants to retire from the business in the near future. So I was discussing the matter of the "unwanted" horse, specifically regarding a yearling filly we have in the barn right now.

We have this filly who we've spent thousands of dollars on trying to make racehorse sound. She isn't. Looking at her x-rays, she will likely never be sound enough to race. She just started getting turnout again, after being inside the barn for her entire life to date, so perhaps she won't even stay pasture sound. Foals that grow up inside a stall tend to be different out of necessity. She will likely be very small (running around with friends help foals grow into bigger, stronger horses) with limited social skills (she's never met another horse other than her mother) and potentially, although not definitely, some serious sass from being so used to being poked and prodded by humans. Time will tell. I've got my fingers crossed for the little girl. The truth is that we have relatives of hers though. We still own, and breed, her mother. We have her full sister in training as a two year old. We have her half brother in training as a three year old. We have had other foals from this mare previously. We had/have foals out of her mothers sisters. She is well bred, no doubt, but it is not a bloodline that we lack.

Not the filly in question, just a darn cute one we raised!

So let's move on from that filly for a little bit. As you know, I own Digby. I have for 6 years in February. I knew him for a few years before I bought him and he was sound up until about 6 months after I bought him. We've had on and off lameness issues for years (with all kinds of saddle fitting, chiro/massage work, saddler fitters, different opinions from several farriers, and vet bills) but it's been mostly resolved with the lack of jumping. Corrective shoeing, supplements and Adequan help. He CAN be one of the coolest horses I have ever flatted and has a ton of buttons. I CAN finish a ride and think "I can't wait to ride tomorrow." He CAN go w/t/c on the buckle. He CAN be basically bombproof. Does he 100% of the time? Nope. When he is bad, he is BAD. He is not a horse who is subtle about his feelings. This is great because I know if he's uncomfortable or unhappy. This is not so great when you realize that you're spending a ton of money on corrective shoeing, supplements, Adequan, board at a very specific type of barn because god forbid it doesn't meet Digby's requirements, other vet bills (hi Lyme disease and multiple occurrences of ulcers, what up!) on a horse who only wants to play riding pony part of the time. This is my life and has been for 6 years.

After much, much thought and looking at my personal, non-horse life, I decided, "ok, this isn't fair to me, financially or emotionally." He just turned 17, he's absolutely stellar in a barn and with other horses. Let's try to find him a new home. I'm sure someone out in the world wants an adorable, well behaved companion who can go barefoot, isn't ancient, requires no maintenance, and is an easy(ish) keeper. Turns out, not so much. I will keep looking and have faith that the right person and situation will turn up eventually.

My point is, I've wondered over the years how not a single owner managed to know about his congenital bipartite navicular? Technically, if it had broke when he was a foal for example, it should of healed differently than what it looks on an x-ray. But what if, just for kicks, someone knew there was something wrong with his hoof as a foal? Maybe he came up lame as a foal or he broke it and was lame instead of being born with it. Let's say, they kept him in the barn for most of his young life for it to heal or to give him the best shot as an adult horse at a performance career. He had a good life so far. I'm his longest owner, but he's been taken care of. But I now have a small horse who hates being in a stall with a passion, has lameness issues from time to time, and is basically unwanted. I love him, I really do. If you've met me in real life or read the blog long enough, hopefully this is clear to you. But, I mean, in all reality, he just spends my money and I've gotten little use out of him. It's not like I rode him for years as a child and he's my heart horse. He's just a little horse who I'm attached to. I probably got 1 full year of riding out of him with minimal attitude or lameness issues. Not a whole lot out of 6.

The infamous Digby himself.

If you go on Facebook, COTH Forums, or other social media, you'll see people who preach that if your horse is not useable or rideable, you need to keep them forever or put them down because no one else will want them. (Spoiler alert: if you're trying to get rid of your own horse, don't read those because you'll feel like a total ass.) I see their point. I have accepted that I may very well own Digby until he dies. If I cannot find him a good home, he will stay with me. If I cannot afford him and still can't find a home, I will put him down. I've heard too many horror stories about horses going to "good homes" who end up selling the horse who ends up in a slaughter house or some other tragedy. No horse deserves that. I do think you need to be careful in the horse world. I would HATE to do that to Digby. I can't imagine putting him down because I couldn't afford him but I am realistic. I am young, not married, in a career that will likely not be my life time career. Things change financially. I can't say never, as much as I would love to. That said, I got unlikely I suppose by having a horse who has lameness and behavioral issues. Is it fair to me to have to keep him because I essentially got unlucky? It wouldn't have made sense to take x-rays of his hoof in a PPE. His previous owners didn't know. Luck of the draw essentially that now, according to the internet, I should pay board, farrier bills, vet bills for without looking for a new home until he dies. He's 17. It could (and hopefully will!) be a while. As for putting him down, that's wildly hard to even think about because it is NOT. His. Fault. He is healthy otherwise. He isn't a bad horse, just a little unlucky and quirky.

My point is, had his breeder known about his hoof issue, like we know about that little filly's, would I want them to have done what we're doing? I'm not sure. He's had a good life and will continue to have a good life, but there are horses out there in the world who are nicer, sounder, more athletic, better bred, etc. Emotions aside, as a realist, from the outside looking in, was it the right thing to do? As a responsible breeder, should we keep semi lame horses alive knowing that we will not be there to keep them safe, fed and taken care of until they die? I don't think so. But Becky, this means potentially your own horse would of been put down?! Yes. It does. Remember I said I had an interesting stand on this topic, right?

My coworkers often say "well, at least she's alive" in response to her being stuck in a stall. I cringe every time. What happens if she's 10 years old, dead lame (because trust me, her x-rays are worse than Digby's), hasn't produced any good foals as a broodmare, and doesn't have an owner who loves her? What of her fate then? She's not alone either. This isn't racehorse exclusive. We can't guarantee someone will make sure a horse goes to a good home.

So, readers, I ask of you: does buying a horse mean you promise to take care of a horse forever? Do breeder's have a responsibility to "take back" horses they've bred? Any personal stories of your own to share?

What's a girl to do? (Part 1)

(I ended up splitting the post because I'm a bit wordy and as usual, my words are scattered and jumbled so bear with me.) I think I have a unique position as a horse person. Why? I work at a breeding farm and I own an "unwanted" horse. Ok, dafuq? Don't shit talk Digby! I know. Settle down and let me explain.

I've worked in the horse industry for a long time. I started working off lessons almost as soon as I started taking them. I remember being a young kidlette, dropped off at a barn for a days work of whatever my trainer wanted to throw at me that day. I mostly did it for the extra riding. I forever am grateful and I wrote a post about my time spent in the barn as a child here. I ended up going to college for an equine degree. I worked as a barn manager for a woman who was legitimately undiagnosed bipolar. It was eventful. I ended up at a breeding farm that I had worked a few sales for when I was in college. I left for a couple of years to try the whole "office job" thing out. I came back.



One of the foals from last year

Regardless of where my life has lead me, I now have an interesting position of being a long time worker at a breeding farm. I do a little bit of everything here, from staining wood, to fixing steps with cement, to seal coating and asphalt patching, to weed whacking, to unloading hay and, oh yeah, actual work with horses. I find this interesting because of how I stand on several issues. Specifically, the issue of the "unwanted" horse. The farm I work at used to have over 200 horses when I started. We stood 3 stallions, all of whom produced several winners. One stallion still has an average earnings out of all his foals combined of over $100,000. Not bad. One of the others who we no longer have had produced several big, big winners, some of whom went on to be stood at stud themselves, and is still consistently sought out as a breeding stallion. Not too shabby either. We had quality broodmares, several making over a million dollars at the track. Several producers of foals who made over six figures or over a million at the track. This is not a shabby operation we have here. The man who owns it is getting older (he's in his late 80s) and is slowly getting out of the business. We've downsized over the years and this year, I believe, the horse count is at 39. Total. Including our tease stud, our now 2 stallions, our 2 tease mares, then the youngsters and the broodmares. Of course, it's foaling season so that number will go up some over the past few months. At least until we sell the yearlings in November. We sold one of the properties, we no longer lease the fields we used to, two of the other properties are for sale. Such is life. The employees often talk about what they'll do when it closes. No one is 100% sure and we're mostly just riding it out until the end. Many people have been let go already so it's just the 7 of us left. It sounds like a lot for 39(ish) horses but we still have about 300 acres so it's actually pretty busy during breeding season and during the summer. Not so much during the winter months but we do a lot of cleaning and do our best to stay busy until foaling starts.

I've seen many foals born. I've raised youngsters and prepped them for sales. I've followed them as racehorses, or desperately tried to find out information on them when I don't see them racing. Are they doing ok? Where are they? Who owns them? Most of the time, to be totally honest, once they leave that sale as a yearling or as a racehorse, I don't know what happens to them. I stalk some rescues of off the track horses and always see if it's anything we've bred. Not because the owner of the farm would ever help but because I'd like to help if I could. If nothing else, I could give background info on the horse that could possibly get them placed into a home. I've never found any of ours in a rescue, although I've seen a few from our stallions that we didn't breed. I do occasionally contact trainers who I know have horses I raised. Sometimes they email me back, sometimes they don't. I check sales to see if any yearlings, racehorses or mares we've sold are in the sale. Regardless, I do care about the horses we breed. I want them to be good racehorses and have good homes when they're done. Does it always work that way? No. I'm not naive. That doesn't mean I don't wish it would.

One of our yearlings, from several years ago.

The point of this is, there are a lot of horses in the world. There are horses with near perfect conformation who still flunk as a racehorse. There are horses with not so perfect conformation who excel as a racehorse. There are horses with not so perfect conformation who do not excel as a racehorse. What happens when they're done racing? They could stand as a stallion or be a broodmare. What happens to the geldings? What happens to the ones who aren't good enough to stand stud or be a broodmare? Hell, what happens when a broodmare is older and can't get pregnant any more? Or when she produces several foals and the foals flunk as racehorses? Horses get shuffled around. Big time farms sell those less than stellar broodmares. Maybe they go to farms who aren't looking to produce as high a quality racehorse and are happy with average? Maybe they go somewhere else. Hard to guess.

We have a yearling in the barn currently. She is never going to be a racehorse. We have her full sister in training as a two year old this year. The yearling has a hoof injury that kept her in her stall every day of her life (minus one!) up until yesterday. She got turned out yesterday for a few minutes, with the help of some sedatives, for the first time since she was a very small foal by her mothers side. She is not 100% sound. She never has been. Will she be broodmare sound? Yeah, probably. Will she race? Hell no. We, as a farm, spent thousand of dollars trying to make her serviceable as a performance horse. It is not going to happen. We know that by this point, given her x-rays and her being basically unsound for the whole 8 months of her life so far. I hate to see any horses put down, I really do. My inner animal lover just hates it. I've seen it, as unfortunately with 200 some horses, it's bound to happen. Colic happens. Foals with get kicked and break a limb. It happens, though thankfully not often. While I'm glad she's alive, I have given much thought to the fact that we, as a business, will likely not be around in a few years at the most. This yearling has siblings. Many siblings, actually, though most of them aren't full siblings. We still have her mother. We had her mothers mother up until a few years ago when we had to put her down due to thyroid cancer. (I know, what horse gets thyroid cancer? Weird, right?) We have had several of her mothers half or full siblings over the years, who have also produced foals for us. Her mother will hopefully produce another lovely foal this year. She is well bred, with half/full brothers and sisters and other close relatives who have done well on the track, and aside from her hoof issue, she is a nice looking filly. Does she have potential as a broodmare? Yeah, probably. So, assuming the turnout goes well and she maintains her level of soundness, is it the RIGHT thing to do? To keep this filly who will likely NEVER be sound, aside from pasture sound, alive, when we know fully that as an operation we will not be able to keep her for close to her entire life? It's a complex issue.

Another yearling, from several years ago.