Horse racing remains one of our country’s most popular sports, with over 244,000 people attending Melbourne’s 2022 Spring Carnival alone, clearly, this part of Australia’s sporting and cultural landscape is not going anywhere. Particularly considering the thousands of jobs created by the industry from breeding and training to administration and hospitality. Of course, it still creates an awful lot of retired racehorses.
In the past, the outcomes for retired racehorses have created a long-standing division in the equine community with those staunchly against the racing industry and those who strongly support it. We are now at a time where both sides understand the need to work as one for the benefit of the horses. Here at Life with Horses, we are so happy to see the ‘us’ versus ‘them’ mentality is finally on the way out, with those within the racing industry moving to support the rehabilitation and rehoming of retired racehorses through programs like ours and other charities. Likewise, many charities are now working with the racing industry instead of rallying against it, resulting in the best outcome for retired thoroughbreds and those they can help.
In addition to the support offered through the Queensland Off The Track Community Grant Program, Life with Horses was fortunate enough to be invited as a special guest at Brisbane Racing Club’s Chairman’s Club function at Doomben on Saturday 22nd July. I had the opportunity to discuss everything we are doing at Life with Horses, our hopes for the future and of course, to share the caring and sensitive natures of our retired racehorses, as well as the healing benefits for humans when working with these beautiful creatures.
As both sides put the welfare of retired racehorses first, we look forward to many more initiatives and collaborations to strengthen the relationships between the people of the racing community and the many charities and non-profit organisations dedicated to the post-track lives of retired racehorses. This is great news for many horses who, with the appropriate training, can now use their hard-working nature and sensitive intuition to help those with PTSD, autism and other mental and physical issues. We are looking forward to working with Racing Queensland, Queensland Off The Track and others within the world of horse racing to make programs like ours a natural extension of the racing industry.
See the clip explaining our program here – https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1313321652627073&ref=sharing