"Steal a little and they throw you in jail," Bob Dylan wrote a few years ago, "steal a lot and they make you king." In today's economy that means you receive a huge government bailout if you accumulate billions in debt and are "too big to fail," but for everyone else, you're on your own. Bankruptcy might be the only viable alternative for many individuals and businesses, horse owners among them.

Since October 2006, when bankruptcy law went through a significant overhaul, adding filing limitations and consumer protections, bankruptcy filings have shown a steady rise. There are no reliable figures on how many bankruptcies directly involve horse owners and horse businesses, but the precipitous drop in the Thoroughbred auction market and the alarming number of horses abandoned because their owners cannot afford to care for them are two strong indicators that the industry has been hard hit by the recession.

The first step toward deciding whether bankruptcy is the best course of action is learning about the process and the options. Just as important is dispelling some of the myths and misconceptions that have arisen around bankruptcy