So sad

flurrydor

flurrydor

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At Hereford sales today an ex racer who had won £56,000 for his owners was sold for £400. So upsetting, surely he deserved better.
 
flurrydor said:
At Hereford sales today an ex racer who had won £56,000 for his owners was sold for £400. So upsetting, surely he deserved better.
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I co-run a horse rescue and we see so much of this. One we saved from a dogger (slaughterer) in October 2018 was an ex racer who had won $250,000 AUD. We rescued him and now he is being used as a riding school horse, loving quiet boy. None of them deserve this. I'm not sure what the market is like in Britain but over here with the drought you can't give horses away!
 
£400 is rather high for an ex-racer - he wasn't bought for meat. Might have been a dealer or could have been a private buyer looking for a horse to take on. The wierd thing is the value hasn't gone up at al in MANY years. This was an ex-hurdler I bought for $A300 - in 1972! I confess he was a bit much for me - he 'ended up' with the top professional of the day, Art Uytendaal.

Art on Jim.jpg
 
scruffyponies said:
I wish people wouldn't equate sale value with care. Many expensive horses live miserably, subject to all manner of abuse, and others who were given away have long, happy, healthy lives.
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This!!

I bought a bin end horse at the sales in Hereford, she wants for nothing, same as my rescue ones and the one I was gifted. I had my eye on a few there (not this time)... it doesn't have to have a depressing ending.
At the monthly horse and pony sales they often don't make top dollar, different buyers and sellers to the performance sales, but no guarantees on their fate either way ;)
 
scruffyponies said:
I wish people wouldn't equate sale value with care. Many expensive horses live miserably, subject to all manner of abuse, and others who were given away have long, happy, healthy lives.
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For sure.
But personally I don’t like the risk ratio and I think this aspect of racing is disgusting. There are plenty of schemes in place to rehome ex-racers ethically. Plonking it through the sales at Hereford is not one of them.
 
scruffyponies said:
I wish people wouldn't equate sale value with care. Many expensive horses live miserably, subject to all manner of abuse, and others who were given away have long, happy, healthy lives.
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Also this! I have at the moment one horse bought for €400 and another that was free. They're not doing so badly...
 
Hopefully a nice owner has bought a good bargain, I have always tended to buy cheap horses and have been given a few, my horses are well looked after regardless of how much they cost.
 
What was the horses name?

Found it. Entihaa - the horse hasn't ran since August 2017 so there is every chance that the horse was rehomed from the yard and then has been taken to the sales by someone else.

Another One went through the ring straight from racing and has found a lovely home. They were posting pics of him on facebook Racehorses Where Are They Now already!

Actually most of them are from the same person - Alexandra Dunn the racehorse trainer. She seems to have hung onto some of her older horses and has then ditched them in the sale ring. Its people like her that give rehoming racehorses a bad name!

I deal with the majority of the rehoming of the horses in our yard and trust me everyone is thoroughly stalked and checked out before I will even message them back! We only want the best homes for our horses, we care about where they go!

I am very tempted to message her ...
 
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It is sad. We don't know his fate, he may land lucky but like ihw says the owners are really risking his future. I've bought cheap horses and they've wanted for nothing BUT I wouldn't risk the sales for one of mine. After all he's done for his owners they could have tried better to guarantee his future.
 
scruffyponies said:
I wish people wouldn't equate sale value with care. Many expensive horses live miserably, subject to all manner of abuse, and others who were given away have long, happy, healthy lives.
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its not about that though, its about a horse that won a load of money that is sold on through a sales ring with not much thought to its future (although that may not have happened here).

I knew one old boy, long career and had won tens of thousands over the years-sold for next nothing to some numpty that wouldn't pay to feed him enough, get him vet treatment or his feet seen to but would boast of how much money he'd won in the past (about the only thing she didn't lie about). a horse that wins that sort of money owes nothing to his owners, who should have retired him themselves-they had the land too but even if they hadn't, he deserved a lot better than the decline bought about by neglect for the last 6 years of his life-arguably cut short because most of the year he was hungry and cold. and yes, his owner was reported several times.
 
MotherOfChickens said:
its not about that though, its about a horse that won a load of money that is sold on through a sales ring with not much thought to its future (although that may not have happened here).
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I think it depends on how you look at it, I mean I totally understand the feeling that a horse that has been so "useful" to his owners is owed a happy life either at their expense of some kind of significant effort to find a suitable new home direct from training.

But his actual fate need be no worse than any of the other horses at the sale, and i feel like all of those horses deserve a good home, not just the ones with a successful previous career. If he's sound (since quite a few that present at cheap sales aren't, god knows enough horses sold privately are not sound either as we hear about it on here all the time) then he stood a goodish chance I would have thought.

was just looking at the results as I had a peek at the catalogue before the sale and the prices were pretty low (as normal) so there were lots of horses making that kind of money, it wasn't a one off that day.
 
EKW said:
What was the horses name?

Found it. Entihaa - the horse hasn't ran since August 2017 so there is every chance that the horse was rehomed from the yard and then has been taken to the sales by someone else.

Another One went through the ring straight from racing and has found a lovely home. They were posting pics of him on facebook Racehorses Where Are They Now already!

Actually most of them are from the same person - Alexandra Dunn the racehorse trainer. She seems to have hung onto some of her older horses and has then ditched them in the sale ring. Its people like her that give rehoming racehorses a bad name!

I deal with the majority of the rehoming of the horses in our yard and trust me everyone is thoroughly stalked and checked out before I will even message them back! We only want the best homes for our horses, we care about where they go!

I am very tempted to message her ...
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Do it! Yes I agree with the others, the horse may well have found a fabulous home, but you would think that having been a successful racehorse with lots of winnings they would have put some effort into finding him a good home.
 
My point was that he deserved more. He had been an excellent servant and although he may have been lucky the reverse might also be true. There was more that the owners could have done to assure him a very good home....it didn’t need to be left to chance. As I said he deserved better but at no time did I equate cheap prices with lack of care. The fact that he was an ex racer is almost irrelevant......a faithful servant deserves loyalty.
 
I think there is a minimum bid to deter them meat man these days? I thought more than £400 but maybe EKW can clarify this?
I don’t think any of ours have gone through Hereford so maybe it’s different.
Having tried to rehome one this year carefully straight out of training it’s not that easy. None of the rehoming centres were particularly interested and only one agreed to consider him but not at that stage as they were full.
It’s very sad, the worst part of the job.
 
flurrydor said:
My point was that he deserved more. He had been an excellent servant and although he may have been lucky the reverse might also be true. There was more that the owners could have done to assure him a very good home....it didn’t need to be left to chance. As I said he deserved better but at no time did I equate cheap prices with lack of care. The fact that he was an ex racer is almost irrelevant......a faithful servant deserves loyalty.
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I absolutely agree with you.
 
I’m not sure a lot of racehorse owners view them as faithful servants. More a day out which can be replaced by a newer faster younger model.
*not all of them!!
 
poiuytrewq said:
I’m not sure a lot of racehorse owners view them as faithful servants. More a day out which can be replaced by a newer faster younger model.
*not all of them!!
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That’s the whole point of the thread!

And before anyone jumps on me I know it doesn’t apply to all owners. I have a friend who has racehorses and at the end of their career they have been sent to non racing professionals (at not insignificant expense) to start their re-education and then get loaned out to the area most suitable. The one that wasn’t suitable for retaining has been sent to expensive retirement livery!
 
poiuytrewq said:
I think there is a minimum bid to deter them meat man these days? I thought more than £400 but maybe EKW can clarify this?
I don’t think any of ours have gone through Hereford so maybe it’s different.
Having tried to rehome one this year carefully straight out of training it’s not that easy. None of the rehoming centres were particularly interested and only one agreed to consider him but not at that stage as they were full.
It’s very sad, the worst part of the job.
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There is a minimum bid of £800 at racehorse sales but this was a bog standard horse sale where some went for as little as £200. That might be their minimum price but I know the Welsh and Shetland sales have a £10 minimum thats all.

If it was just the odd horse this woman sent through you could kind of pass it off but given that it looks like 4 or 5 there were from her yard on the same day and there is not a scrap of evidence anywhere of her trying to rehome these horses herself I am very quickly disliking her.

Plus she got fined by the BHA for presenting the wrong horse at the races last month so who ever has bought these horses might not even have the right one for the passport they were given 😂
 
There is also the fact that the horse might not have won £56k for its current connections. Horses are bought and sold in racing all of the time so the current owner could have spent £14k in training fees and not got a penny back.
 
EKW said:
There is also the fact that the horse might not have won £56k for its current connections. Horses are bought and sold in racing all of the time so the current owner could have spent £14k in training fees and not got a penny back.
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Taking a quick look at his record he did not do well in his most recent yard/ ownership so they almost certainly lost all the training fees and the purchase price, it does not excuse anyone from sending a horse to the sales but he has not been earning his keep and has not run for a while, he may have ended up with AD as a p2p prospect and not taken to jumping.
Sending several horses to the sales rather than trying to rehome privately or quietly pts is not the way forward for racing and I thought most trainers had moved with the times, good to see ones from your yard are given the very best chance of a useful future.
 
poiuytrewq said:
I’m not sure a lot of racehorse owners view them as faithful servants. More a day out which can be replaced by a newer faster younger model.
*not all of them!!
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As you say, not all of them. A wealthy friend (who owns his own horses, rides himself and has his own land, granted) bought a racehorse along with a few others. He gave them some great days out, racing 5 times, with 3 x 2nds and 2 wins before suffering a career ending injury but certainly didn't pay for himself. My friend bought the others out (they wanted to have him PTS) brought him home and he is just coming to the end of the 6 months box rest. My friend's wife (slightly horsey but doesn't ride) has seen to his every need and spent hours with him every day. We still don't know if he'll make it back to full work but he's going nowhere, even if that means being a field ornament for the rest of his life. He's bought another racehorse so he'd better hope he doesn't end up with a field full!
 
annagain said:
As you say, not all of them. A wealthy friend (who owns his own horses, rides himself and has his own land, granted) bought a racehorse along with a few others. He gave them some great days out, racing 5 times, with 3 x 2nds and 2 wins before suffering a career ending injury but certainly didn't pay for himself. My friend bought the others out (they wanted to have him PTS) brought him home and he is just coming to the end of the 6 months box rest. My friend's wife (slightly horsey but doesn't ride) has seen to his every need and spent hours with him every day. We still don't know if he'll make it back to full work but he's going nowhere, even if that means being a field ornament for the rest of his life. He's bought another racehorse so he'd better hope he doesn't end up with a field full!
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That’s lovely 😊
 
EKW said:
What was the horses name?

Found it. Entihaa - the horse hasn't ran since August 2017 so there is every chance that the horse was rehomed from the yard and then has been taken to the sales by someone else.

Another One went through the ring straight from racing and has found a lovely home. They were posting pics of him on facebook Racehorses Where Are They Now already!

Actually most of them are from the same person - Alexandra Dunn the racehorse trainer. She seems to have hung onto some of her older horses and has then ditched them in the sale ring. Its people like her that give rehoming racehorses a bad name!

I deal with the majority of the rehoming of the horses in our yard and trust me everyone is thoroughly stalked and checked out before I will even message them back! We only want the best homes for our horses, we care about where they go!

I am very tempted to message her ...
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i find it very sad that people send horses they dont want to the sales especially tbs as some people dont realise that , on the whole,a tb needs more care and attention than say a gypsy cob who will cope with less food etc. none of my horses have earnt me money, but they were never sold and were looked after to the best of my ability while their quality of life was good ...it didnt matter that if i couldnt ride my horse, i didnt ride as could only afford one and i would have never sold on or PTS because of finances., as long as horse was happy as a field ornament i kept them.... if people can afford enough to buy a racehorse then surely they could afford to spend a little to get it re schooled and give it a better chance. hopefully the sale horse has found a caring owner...
 
I know many horse of blood/quality that have been bought for a pittance at sales and every single one of them has a good home. Generally the people that buy that type of horse at a sales are experienced enough to be able to take a punt on a horse like that. The sales horses that tend to end up with numpties or bin end dealers are the cobs, the ponies and the cute looking youngstock.

And I've seen many expensive horses being sold to completely unsuitable owners because all the seller can see is the pay check.

My heart bleeds for them all.
 
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