Retired Racehorses

ENCOURAGING COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES TO USE
MORE RETIRED RACEHORSES
Colleges and universities offer resources that
lend themselves well to the retired racehorse
community. However, more can be done to facilitate
connections between retirement facilities and
institutions of higher learning in New York state.
The Task Force reached out to New York-based
schools that have equine and/or agriculture
programs, including: Cornell University, Houghton
College, Cazenovia College, SUNY Cobleskill and
Morrisville State College on ideas to bridge the gap
between retired racehorses and opportunities at
New York colleges and universities.
The Task Force recommends surveying existing
retirement, retraining and rehabilitation facilities
to determine their needs and their ability to offer
programs including housing and meals and/or
salary for student interns in order to make the
information available to colleges.
SUNY Cobleskill is implementing a program to
include a few former racehorses from rescue
facilities in a specific course each semester at the
institution. The college hopes to have additional
rescue facilities identify horses that would be
appropriate for college student handling and
retraining for a several month period. Horses would
return to their respective rescue facilities at the
close of the course, with the intention of horses
finishing the program being more appealing to
prospective adopters as a result of the student
training provided at SUNY Cobleskill.
This model may be replicated at other institutions
if space and monetary restrictions are not
burdensome and if opportunities are in place to
transition horses back to rescues for placement with
responsible future owners.
33
Photo courtesy of TRF