Let’s Discuss: what happens to racehorses after retirement

By John on

Our weekly Tuesday discussion topic continues today with one of the most important issues facing the horse world.  Full disclosure, this topic is not a happy one but it is a life and death matter for all too many horses.

Nobody in the equestrian media wants to write about it, but Lauren Mullane of the Washington Post recently published an article titled Beasts of Burden – What happen to thoroughbred racehorses after retirement.  Lauren describes that a lot of horses are born for racing each year, but most of them don’t have successful racing careers so some owners try to get rid of unsuccessful horses any way possible.  As the article describes, the issue of what to do with unwanted horses extends well beyond thoroughbred racing.  
Some statistics from the article:

-35,000 thoroughbreds are foaled in North America each year, 68% for racing

-Only 0.2% of those will win a Grade I race

-Most racehorses are retired before age 6

-2/3 of thoroughbreds coming off the track are either euthanized, abandoned, or slaughtered

-The USDA estimates that 90,000 horses were exported to Canada or Mexico last year for slaughter

There’s nothing better than a good OTTB eventer, but of course our sport isn’t large enough to rescue every unwanted horse.  One of the best points made in the article is that “it’s impossible to talk about horses without talking about money.”  So, I present the question to Eventing Nation:

What is the best way to improve the unwanted horse crisis?

Categories:

Eventing Nation, Let's Discuss
  • Anonymous

    I have long thought that the Jockey Club ought to adopt the registration process that the majority of the european breeds require--inspection/suitability to represent the breed.

    To register a Holsteiner, Hanoverian, etc. both the stallion and mare have to "qualify" and be of suitable breeding quality to be entered into the mare/stud books. Then, once the foal is born, and inspection of the foal determines if the horse is allowed to be registered as that breed.

    I believe this would stop the backyard breeders and eliminate the junk TBs that are often bred.

  • Katie Evans-Malensek

    I have no genius ideas for these unwanted horses, but I am strongly opposed to the closure of US slaughterhouses. Unfortunately this is the fate for many of these horses, but at the current time we don't have any option but to ship these horses to Canada and Mexico. Unfortunately these slaughter houses don't follow the same standards of humane treatment that the USA had in place (Mexico much lower standards than Canada). These poor horses are subjected to horrible treatment, starvation, dehydration, overly long lengths of travel, and cruel and inhumane euthanasia methods. Unfortunately the animal rights groups thought they were doing horses a favor by lobbying against USA equine slaughterhouses, but unfortunately that does not diminish the number of unwanted horses in this country, it just significantly decreases the quality of treatment they have on their way to the same fate.

  • Anonymous

    There are too many junk horses being bred by the backyard farmer. You can drive down any road in TB country and see some superb specimans, and across the road, the back yard pony that has a very slim chance of making his breeder anything. It's a lottery mentality.

    Then you have trainers trying to recoup thier money on whatever they have standing in the pasture. So they put a price tag on the horse that makes it hard for a professional to pay out, redo the horse, and then make a small profit.

    I kinda agree with the whole approval thing. Sure would cut down on these random breedings.

  • Anonymous

    I have to agree with the above poster. From what i have seen quality TB's that are not broken down are pretty tough to find. (especially for people with little to no racetrack connections) I see a lot of poor conformation (super long pasterns, upright, downhill, crooked legs, BAD FEET!) And while this is by no means the case with every thoroughbred, i have to feel like alot of what is coming off the track is not suitable for a high performance sport such as eventing, even more true if you are looking for a horse to compete at the upper levels. Its a tough issue and there is obviously not one clear or right answer...

  • Lec

    In the UK we have slaughter houses to stop live export. I know lots of horses who have been treated with dignity and are slaughtered for meat in this way. It may be distasteful to many but it is a very good service and for us it gets rid of the crap that cannot be ridden or are too old. We also have the hunt which is another great way of getting rid of old or fallen stock. Our hunt picks up fallen/old stock for free. The skins are sold and the meat fed to the hounds. I guess we are also lucky in that we also have jump racing and amateur racing in the form of point to points which also helps to carry on mopping up OTTBs. Finally a really good initiative that is now huge is showing - its called racehorse to riding horse and its for re-trained TBS and lots of people contest these at large county shows. To win the final is a big deal.

  • Kathleen Sullivan

    i agree with the above comment regarding the US slaughter houses.....ideally no one breeds low quality horses, everyone takes responsibility for an animal they bring into this world, and each industry works out a retirement or humane way to end an unwanted horses life....but none of that will really happen in today's world. So I am afraid the next best/worst solution is to have a US sanctioned slaughterhouse, where horses can die in somewhat of a decent manner. We need to better manage/control the shipping and handling of horses in the US, but sending these unfortunate, unwanted creatures to Mexico or Canada is beyond horrible.

  • Amanda

    An approval process for TB breeding as the first poster suggested would certainly help. But there will always be back yard breeders, unfortunately, no matter what the breed of horse (or other animal...). I wish a bigger deal would be made of "racehorse to riding horse" like Lec pointed out. I know some small shows have classes for OTTBs or special awards for high point OTTB, but I don't know if there's much traction for that in the US... considering we're so into instant gratification. Very few people are willing to put work into re-training a OTTB these days. :(

  • andrea

    how to stop over breeding - stop racing horses and stop showing. Stop eventing , stop riding.

    Ya that is not going to ever happen I hope.

    I agree with above - closing the slaughter houses in the States has caused more problems. IMO. Shipping horses across country to Canada or to Mexico in a crowded trailer with no stopping is more inhumane than what happens at the slaughter house.

    Get rid of it in all three countries that allow slaughter over here and we will see more abandoned, starving in the field horses. More people hoping their hand fed horses can survive with the wild ones out on the range and we find them starved to death.

    And then there is the back yard breeder. How do you control that? How do we "force" people to geld stallions that are obviously not of any quality. Or prevent people from breeding their trail pony that they have loved for years with the messed up conformation but has been a great pet?
    Cant.

    This has been a topic of discussion in many many forums and no one seems to be able to make any consensus. Tempers flair and all reason seems to evaporate.

    Is money the issue? It is one of them - yes.
    But greed is another.
    The desire for a better and better horse is a huge factor.
    The general attitude that we are in a country that says we have the right to own a horse even though we dont know what a fetlock is. Education!!?!?

    I dont know.

  • eventer79

    If anyone thinks the slaughter that was ocurring in US houses was humane, then they have never seen it. Those facilities were not designed to process horses and horses endured what they do now -- horrible transport conditions, terror, abuse, and suffering. Bringing that back accomplishes nothing. There should never be a financial reward for dumping a horse. If you can't afford to euthanize it or spend $0.50 on a well placed bullet, you shouldn't have it. Period.

  • clb

    Sensitive subject and one that makes me sick just thinking about it...
    Although somewhat small, I can bring a little bit of positivity to this conversation. Through the Ontario Horse Trials Association (and I am sure through other Associations out there too), we have something called the "Ontario Thoroughbred Horse of the Year" Award. It is presented to the top placing registered TB from Entry (Beginner Novice) through to Advanced. Each top placing horse gets $100 and the rider, owner and horse must all be based in Ontario. Sort of a small thing in the grand scheme of this topic, but one IMO, that encourages the development of the OTTBs on!
    I know this doesn't answer John's question at all, but at least there is some recognition for the OTTBs (and riders/trainers), who DO make it in their second comming...
    Go OTTBs!

  • Bond

    Here is a thought for all eventers, pleasure riders, hunter/jumpers, etc. The horse you buy is the horse you will commit to for his/her life. Don't buy a horse if you can't take care of it after it is no longer useful to you. Have a back up fund or plan so you can sell it TO A GOOD HOME or retire it somewhere you can monitor them when you are no longer directly responsible for their well-being. You can do pro-active steps to help anonymous horses but you can make sure a horse that has given you pleasure is not thrown away or slips through the cracks when you no longer want it.

  • Liz

    This is a really tough subject, as personally every horse I've ever owned has been an off the track Thoroughbred. But basically it comes down to this, people need to take responsibility, for EVERYTHING. Now i know every situation is different, but its not fair and or right, that these wonderful beings get to die, just because either the owner, doesn't have funding to take care of the horse any longer and or time and interest. Unfortunately some of the owners of the thoroughbreds are very disconnected from the horse them selves, and its more of an elite socialite experience than anything else. Whatever happened to donating horses use them for tax wright offs? that surely must pay more money than the slaughter houses, especially if you have them evaluated and priced on potential. Get websites up and going, get people connected, as far as potential equestrian centers that are open to having these horses donated. That would work for everyone, the owner, gets a nice tax wright off, and the new owner, gets a free horse that they can either keep or retrain and sell. Every one profits, now i know this unfortunately couldn't happen with every off the track Thoroughbred but hey it could be a good start.

  • eventmom

    I never figured out why Alpo stopped using horse meat to feed dogs. It is a perfectly good way to recycle horses that have no use. Lame and crazy horses have no use in the world. It is sad to see horses hanging out in fields with no care. I have rehabilitated many horses and found them jobs and good new owners.

    Do you know that leather car seats are made from horse hide?

  • Lauren

    Be active! Unfortunately the majority of animal rights issues are priority of a minority and it takes majority to make legislative changes, state laws can be made but especially in these times the money necessary to create the laws and especially enforce is not going to happen. It is up to those who regard horses or any animal for that matter, as deserving the decency to a humane death or life to act. Donate money to rescue causes, if you know people looking for horses suggest rescue. If you're a vet do probono work of free euthanisation. Volunteer on weekends at rescue organizations.
    "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
    nothing is going to get better. It's not." - Dr. Seuss

  • Retreadeventer

    The problem is the economy and more than that a changing lifestyle. Sports and outdoor activity is lessening. Tracks have lost racing dates, struggle to keep purses high enough to keep owners and trainers in business. As the tracks winnow out the horses on the fringes, more and more horses are unwanted at the track. There is a new currency in racing - stalls. If you have a lot you are rich trainer with lots of influential owners. Without stalls you are nothing. Horses are pawns in this gigantic chess game, which is nothing new, but there is tremendous competition for the gambling dollar today. It used to be only Vegas and Atlantic City, but now every state has an indian casino and states like Delaware and PA have slots, etc. Fortunately the horsemen got a piece of the pie in those states and soon to be Maryland, but the stress on the sport is immense. Thus the importance of production on the part of the horses; marginal horses which could always hang around and train for a year or two are no longer tolerated. More on the market -- and increasing pressures on the market from other influences, such as loss of American slaughter houses, the narrowing European outlet, etc. I made a remark about racehorses ending up on Belgian dinner plates 15 years ago while being interviewed by CBS Radio regarding the problem, and it's not changed much since then, except maybe gotten worse. The industry itself has to get better at requiring better training of the horses making them infinitely stronger, sounder, and more saleable. They have to have a way forward for retirement for horses no longer raceable and that needs to be done industry wide. They need to change to freeze branding to allow more visible identification, like the Standardbreds. Rescues and organizations that have a proven track record of clear aid to ex racehorses need to be solidly supported and not string along year to year hoping for grants and windfalls. A comprehensive after-track program including prize money and year end awards for performance Thoroughbreds needs to be funded regularly and fully so that plans can be made and horses brought along. Educational programs, such as the seminars that advanced eventer Steuart Pittman does, need to go nationwide. Those are a few of the answers, but it's not easy and it's not a quick fix. A comprehensive national leadership is desperately needed and has to come from the Jockey Club or equivalent.

  • anon-eventer

    A very simple solution is to enact a euthanasia tax on horse registrations in the US. Tax every registry, on every foal registered. The registry passes the cost on to the breeder. The tax goes into a fund that is used to pay to euthanize and dispose of unwanted horses.

    There are ~10 million horses in the US. If we assume that the average horse lives 20 years (a generous estimate, given all the horses that die from various causes each year, pasture injuries, colic, put down due to lameness, etc.), that means ~500 k horses are born each year in the US. It's probably closer to 1 million born each year.

    There are ~100 k horses shipped to slaughter each year which means ~1 out of every 5 horses will end up going to slaughter at the end of their life! To stop this, we need to tax new registrations ~20% of the cost of euthanasia to gather enough money from the registration tax to pay for euthanizing the ~100k horses that are shipped off to slaughter each year. If it costs an average of $250 to euthanize and dispose of a horse, then it would add $50 to each registration fee. This increase would also provide a disincentive to back-yard breeding.

    We can NOT stop slaughter simply by legislating against it - kill buyers will simply find work-arounds as they have already (shipping horses further, using intermediate buyers, etc.). We need to put in place alternatives. Most of the people who sell horses to slaughter do so because the cost of euthanizing is too high, compared with the price they can get paid for selling the horse to slaughter. It's simply an economic fact that they can't afford to elect the euthanasia option. We have to face the economic problem head on to fix it.

    The other thing we can do that will help with the economics of slaughter is to ban hauling horses in double-deck trailers, AND set a minimum space per horse in stock trailers. When kill-buyers can't cram them in like sardines in double-decker trailers it will cost them a lot more to transport horses to slaughter, to the point that they can't make a profit even if the horses are given to them for free. So what, are people going to PAY a kill buyer to take a horse away and slaughter it? I think that when it comes to that, people will do the right thing and pay a vet instead. Right now they can delude themselves into thinking "someone" will buy their horse at slaughter, or that nice lady who came and said she would give their free horse a good home on pasture was actually telling the truth. But when those options go away, when kill buyers want you to PAY them to take away your unwanted horse, then you have to face the facts that it's not going to be put out on a nice pasture, it's going to be trucked to slaughter.

  • Matt

    Opening U.S Slaughter houses would not solve the problem. It would just make it easier for people to dump their horses at the slaughter house for a quick buck, buy another cheap horse and continue to cycle of making a quick buck.
    I really liked what anon-eventer had to say. It makes sense to find a way that makes people have to pay the kill buyer to get rid of their horse. When people can make money off something, they will almost always choose to make the money than lose it.

  • Cathy

    Keep in mind that horses are/used to be considered
    livestock. And if you cannot cut down on the number
    of horses foaled you have to cut down at the other end. While euthanasia is a good humane choice; then what?
    There is no reason not to put the resources to use, be
    it dogfood, bone meal, leather seats, what have you.

  • Fran

    I don't really know enough about this sad situation to be able to comment on it, but that picture really made me chuckle.

  • MorganG

    I read numerous comments above that we need to re-open US slaughter houses so that horses could be humanely slaughtered. Apparently no one who made those comments have educated themselves regarding the treatment of horses at the 3 slaughterhouses that were opened. Humane was not a part of the process, quite the contrary and I can show you photo evidence that were released from the USDA under a FOIA request as proof. The slaughterhouses that were here were also a nightmare for the community--overloaded their water treatment plants, blood coming into houses, horse parts laying outside, unimaginable stench, NO taxes paid, thousands of dollars in unpaid fines, legal funds bankrupted. The list goes on. The slaughter plants were closed for a reason don't delude yourself into thinking that this is the answer, the proofs are too numerous against that belief.

  • Tom Durfee

    Horse meat is unfit for humans to eat.
    Food and Chemical Toxicology, Volume 48, Issue 5, May 2010, Pages 1270-1274
    Association of phenylbutazone usage with horses bought for slaughter: A public health risk
    Nicholas Dodman, Nicolas Blondeau, Ann M. Marini
    http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T6P-4YF5RB0-1&_user=10&_coverDate=05%2F31%2F2010&_alid=1317753422&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_cdi=5036&_sort=r&_docanchor=&view=c&_ct=4&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=2f8a2c55a559e5963d0f1e02b682319c

    Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs - prohibited as well Phenylbutazone, known as "bute," is a veterinary drug only label-approved by the Food & Drug Administration for use by veterinarians in dogs and horses. It has been associated with debilitating conditions in humans and it is absolutely not permitted for use in food-producing animals. USDA/FSIS has conducted a special project to for this drug in selected bovine slaughter plants under federal inspection. An earlier pilot project by FSIS found traces less than 3% of the livestock selected for testing, sufficient cause for this special project. There is no tolerance for this drug in food-producing livestock, and they and their by-products are condemned when it is detected. Dairy producers must not use this drug in food-producing livestock and if it is found, those producers will be subject to FDA investigation and possible prosecution.
    http://www.saanendoah.com/prohibiteddrugs.html

    Horse Owner Survey Shows NSAID Use Trends
    by: Edited Press Release
    April 30 2009, Article # 14073

    In a recent survey, 96% of respondents said they used nonsteroidal
    anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to control the joint pain and
    inflammation in horses, and 82% administer them without always
    consulting their veterinarian. More than 1,400 horse owners and trainers
    were surveyed to better understand attitudes toward NSAIDs, in a project
    sponsored by Merial, the maker of Equioxx (firocoxib).
    http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=14073

    99 percent of horses that started in California last year raced on bute, according to Daily Racing Form. Bute is banned in the United States and Canada for horses intended for the food chain. That’s a permanent ban.
    Question
    Are horses used to make pet food?
    Answer
    Horses are not raised for food in the United States so they are not generally used in commercial pet foods.
    http://www.petfoodreport.com/aboutpetfood.htm

    Nonsteroidal Medication (NSAID’s)

    Phenylbutazone (Bute), flunixin meglamine (Banamine), and ketoprofen (Ketofen) are the most common NSAID’s used in horses while aspirin and ibuprofen are the most commonly used NSAID’s in humans. These are very effective in eliminating discomfort and are usually the first line of therapy in minor musculoskeletal pain.

    http://www.aaep.org/health_articles_view.php?id=253

    NSAIDs

    The systemic NSAID group includes phenylbutazone (Butazolidin) and flunixin meglumine (Banamine), which are 2 of the most widely prescribed drugs in equine medicine.

    Volume 25, Issue 3, Pages 98-102 (March 2005)
    Dr Anthony Blikslager, DVM, PhD, DACVS (Associate Professor)a, Dr Sam Jones, DVM, PhD, DACVIM (Associate Professor)b

    http://www.j-evs.com/article/S0737-0806%2805%2900061-4/abstract

  • Daniel Guggenheim

    In response to the post about the situation in the UK being so much better. I am also based in the UK (N. Ireland) and your statement view on horse slaughter here is totally jaded. Potters abbatoir has a horrendous reputation for abuse and cruelty and are forever in trouble for slaughtering horses without a passport. And saying they are good for getting rid of the crap and old horses is just ignorant. Over breeding TB's has caused so much crap and 90% of the TB's slaughtered in the UK are under 5, not old in my book. !! My local hunt also takes fallen animals which i think is a good way to dispose of them but slaughter is not the answer. We dont eat horses here so why should we feed Belgium, france, Italy etc... our abandoned animals. We have one slaughter house that can process horses in Ireland but, most are sent on a cross channel trip to the UK where they make more money. As a horse owner i realise there is a need for a suitable horse disposal for whatever reason but the local hunt or Potters should never be the easy option as you seem to think.

  • Jessica

    There is tons of literature available that proves that the US was no better than Canada or Mexico. Perhaps you need to do a little research before making such a daft and erroneous claim.

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  • Virgil

    This is just an idea but, other countries also have race horses and those racing in North America and Europe are probably better race horses than those in other countries like Latin America or even Asia. It may not be cost effective but, selling them or giving them away to other countries to be raced in those countries might atleast, be better than slaughtering them. Granted that not all the horses can probably be given away and saved but, some of them could probably and save their lives as well.

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