This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Privacy Overview
Awakening to Thoroughbred Aftercare
What happened to a Thoroughbred after it finished racing barely registered as an issue with most industry stakeholders 25 years ago.
“Nobody cared,” said Delaware owner/breeder Herb Moelis, a New York businessman who bought a farm he named Candyland in 1986. What awoke Moelis and his wife, Ellen, to the fate of ex-racehorses was an article about horses being abandoned at Delaware Park when the track’s meet was done.
“The good horses moved on, and the poor runners were just left in the stalls,” Moelis remembered. “They just shut the gates, and they died there.”
The Moelises’ eyes had been opened, and they began looking for solutions. They started with the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation (TRF), an organization supported by a trust created by Paul Mellon, and a handful of small rescue organizations. Moelis said he quickly discovered the root of the problem: the funding didn’t exist to provide anything approaching adequate retirement or retraining options for these horses
Create a free account with TheHorse.com to view this content.
TheHorse.com is home to thousands of free articles about horse health care. In order to access some of our exclusive free content, you must be signed into TheHorse.com.
Start your free account today!
Already have an account?
and continue reading.
Written by:
Eric Mitchell
Related Articles
Second EHM Case Confirmed at California Facility
2 Ontario Horses Test Positive for Strangles
Florida Quarter Horse Tests Positive for Strangles
Strangles Case Confirmed in Palm Beach County, Florida
Stay on top of the most recent Horse Health news with
FREE weekly newsletters from TheHorse.com
Sponsored Content
Managing Horse Wounds for Optimal Healing
AAEP Preview: SmartPak Gastric Support
AAEP Preview: Bionote USA
Weekly Poll
Readers’ Most Popular
Top Categories