A question we get at HART often is: How can you give the horses up for adoption after spending so much time with them?
It’s not easy, but it is the right thing to do.
For one, we only have so much space and time. We aren’t one of those big, fancy show barns with 50 stalls and an army of people to care for our horses. HART is run almost entirely on volunteers. We have two shifts a day, meaning 14 shifts to cover with volunteers. And by about June, in a HOT Florida summer, doing chores becomes a very big task.
We also run a boarding facility and provide riding lessons which helps keep the lights on and the feed bill paid, although there are many expenses that are not met by this alone.
For us, rehabilitating, retraining and re-homing these beautiful off-the-track-thoroughbreds (OTTB) is our passion. But most of all, if we don’t re-home one horse, we can’t bring another horse in for rehabilitation.
There is no greater feeling that seeing one of our horses thrive in their new home and create new OTTB lovers wherever they go. One good horse placed somewhere that nobody has considered the abilities of the OTTB before can do more good for the breed than all the combined marketing dollars the racing industry has out there.
If we think a horse can go out and be the best ambassador possible for both our program and for OTTBs as a whole, then off they go. It’s not easy, but it is the right thing to do for the horses that we love.