How to be part of the solution in racing.

There are several of us here who are small breeders and owners of trotters and
race horses. I was wondering what others thought of ways to take action in our
own sports to change it for the better.

I am a lifelong participant in racing and plan on remaining in this great sport
till I can no longer pull on my boots.

I think the main issues for me as a breeder who races her own horses is to plan
matings based on soundness and a possible nick that works for that mare. I only
have one mare but her offspring have been sound and have a lot of try in them.
I had one that was chased through a fence by a bear as a yearling and broke
her shoulder, so that was a disaster.

I am a firm believer in training young horses lightly. If they tell me that
they need some time off - they get it. But I think the best way to produce
a soft boned horse incapable of standing the stress of racing is to let it
sit in a field until it is three or four. There are numerous studies done
regarding the bone growth of young horses and how they respond to stress by
growing stronger. This also seems to be one of the really huge misconceptions
by non racing people about our business. They seem to be under the impression
that a horse is broke as a yearling, then raced into the ground at two.

I posted this somewhere else today - but if a foal crop for one year is, say 32,000,
approximately ten percent of that crop with actually race in the afternoon at two.
The rest are left to mature until they are three or whenever that particular horse
gets to the races. That is why they write maiden races for three year olds and up.
According to the animal rights people, the early developers should be left to sit
in a field until the rest of the crop has caught up to them and they have no chance
of competing against their now bigger, stronger rivals. The early developers should
be punished to satisfy a false belief by those not familiar with the business.

My husband, who has been a trainer since '62, is the person who first had an
acupuncturist come to work on his horses at the track. Everyone thought he was
a nut - but his horses were able to be compete better and with a minimum of drugs
or none at all. Our stable uses lots of herbs, lazer and magnetic therapy on
different problems, but when a horse needs time off, it goes to the farm.

I think the practice of year round racing has been a disaster. In the old days,
(yes, i'm that old) horses use to race for 7-8 months, then go into winter
quarters or to a farm somewhere where they were turned out for a couple of months,
then started back up jogging for several weeks before they returned to serious
training. It was good for their minds and their bodies. I hate the concept of
year round racing and would love to see, for instance, the hellhole of Aqueduct
closed for the winter and let everyone go somewhere and recharge.

We consider ourselves lucky to spend our lives with these fantastic animals
and do what we can in our barn to ensure that every horse, regardless of ability,
is given the opportunity to perform to the best of its ability.

for young horses to get plenty of exercise. We always raise several of them together in a big pasture. They play. They run. They fight. And all the time they are building good strong bones. These little guys will develop microfractures of the bone which heal quickly and strengthen the bone. As yearlings we bring them in and break them to harness, bit and jog cart. We take them out on the track and jog them several miles a day to build stamina but not stress them with any work for speed. In December they come home and take a break. We start again in March keeping an eye on their knees and do not work them for speed until their knees are closed. We are no longer going to race 2 YO's. We have not had any good results. I think a lot of it is due to the fact we have foals later than most breeders. We're a do it yourself operation and we both have regular jobs. Sometimes we just don't get our mares in foal until later and besides I don't really have a good place for foals in Jan. Feb. Mar. in Michigan. It's fuckin' cold here then. And one of our mares goes exactly 1 year between foals. We breed her on the foal heat and she has a foal on May 14 every year.

Right now SB's soundness is not really an issue. I breed all State Breds so we ain't got a hot popular sire. I pretty much try to breed like to like and I'm happy with the horses we have. They're solid and sound but not a champion among them. But they're good natured and anybody can handle them and they can compete. I try to take the best care of them I can. No drugs. They do get supplements to their feed in training.

I don't sell them to the killers. No matter what. I have sold them to the Amish for buggy horses but I do have to keep money coming in to pay for the operation and they are productive and doing what they were bred to do.

I try to do my best with them.

It is one of the first things I learned from other breeder when I first started out.
Too much of the time when you breed a gigantic stallion to a small mare or the other way around,
you get an animal mechanically out of balance.