What to Do With All Those Horses?
By Steve Zorn
Breakdowns on national television, and now, Monday night on HBO, a close-up and horrific view of the fate of old racehorses that end up at the slaughterhouse. Or, as one participant in the slaughter business described it, “from stable to table in seven days.” That table may be in Europe or Japan, but the stable is right here.
Horses can live well into their 20s, and beyond. But a thoroughbred’s racing career is usually only a few years. Sure, the great geldings of the 1960s and 1970s — Forego, Kelso, John Henry — all raced until age 8 or 9, but most horses’ careers are over well before then. A few, very few, of the colts go on to be commercial stallions, and a larger number of the fillies go on to be broodmares. But that still doesn’t account for even a majority of the 35,000 or so thoroughbreds born every year. For a lot of ex-racehorses, that leaves a lot of years, and a lot of expense for those who’d like to ensure the ex-racers’ comfort.
What are the options? A second career, as a hunter-jumper or in a therapeutic riding program, or just as a riding or companion horse. For those too unsound for a new career, perhaps a dignified retirement somewhere. Or, for those less lucky, a trip to the slaughterhouse. And it’s not just the bottom-level claimers that end up there. The 1986 Kentucky Derby winner Ferdinand was slaughtered in Japan when he was no longer valuable enough as a stallion, and Exceller, who won Grade I stakes in France and North America, suffered the same fate in Sweden. |
