Seabiscuit Author Laura Hillenbrand Rescues Pair
From Possible Slaughter

There are two new horses living the good life on the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation's Montpelier Station Farm in Virginia, and they have author Laura Hillenbrand to thank. Hillenbrand was responsible for the rescue of two horses, Trinity Moon and Columbus Pride, from the New Holland Horse Sales, which is overrun with slaughterhouse buyers. Instructing the TRF that she wanted to do her part to prevent some horses from going to slaughter, she paid all the expenses involved in their purchase, immediate care and transportation to their new home.
 
“Racehorses have provided me with so much joy in my life, and because I have written about them for a living, they have given me the roof over my head and the food on my table,” Hillenbrand said. “I feel that anyone who takes something from this sport, as I have, owes the horses something in return. They give us body and soul for our entertainment and profit, and we owe them peaceful retirements. I find the institution of slaughter abhorrent. That there are people in this sport who will discard these trusting, generous creatures, condemning them to frightening and violent deaths, is revolting. If I can save a handful of horses from this fate, I think I have the obligation to do so.”
 
Hillenbrand hatched the idea of saving a horse a while back when watching one of her favorite Thoroughbreds slide down the class ladder until it became apparent that he was a candidate for slaughter or might break down on the racetrack. She told the horse’s owners that she would find a home for the horse once his career was over. The owner thought he had a few more good races in him and wasn't ready to retire him. That wasn't to be the case. The horse broke down on the racetrack shortly after Hillenbrand had acted and was euthanized.
 
“I got a chart of the race, and was horrified,” she said. “He had broken down severely in midstretch, the jockey had either fallen off or bailed out, and he continued running, crashing into several other horses and veering toward the grandstand. I am so glad I didn't see it, though I dreamt it in great detail after learning of it. I was just sick about it. I felt terrible about the loss of this horse, and wanted to do something in his memory. I decided the best way to do this was to see if I could save some horses from slaughter. The TRF provided the perfect means to do this.”
 
Hillenbrand also spent $1,000 to sponsor a TRF horse and has donated signed, first-edition copies of Seabiscuit, which the TRF auctioned off. And she will continue to speak out every chance she gets about the importance of caring for the sport's retirees.
 
“I'd like people to understand that it takes so little to save horses,” she said. “It is not expensive, and there are such wonderful people at the TRF who will take in any horse and find a place for him, even if he is so unsound that he will never be useful again. If there was one thing I could urge upon the people in the sport of racing, it is that they consider what horses have given to them, and what they owe them in return.”
 
This experience has left her with mixed feelings.
 
“When (TRF farm manager) Kim Wilkins, who is caring for the horses, wrote to tell me that they were playing in their water trough soon after their arrival, I felt such a deep sense of joy,” she said. “But to hear that Trinity arrived at the sale apparently drugged, emaciated, lame in two legs, and clearly traumatized, I felt sick. This does not ever have to happen to a single horse, yet because of the selfishness and indifference of some people, some of them are lost to this most terrible of fates.  Most of all, I feel profoundly angry. How can a horse go from the barn of an owner in the sport to a slaughter pen? How can it be that we need a charity to save horses from the actions of their owners?”

Founded in 1982, the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation is a nonprofit organization that provides lifetime retirement for Thoroughbreds at satellite and TRF-operated farms in 18 states. There are currently more than 1,000 horses residing on these farms and facilities, many of whom would have been subject to abuse, neglect or slaughter if not taken in by the TRF. The work of the TRF is wholly dependent on public support. To learn more about the TRF, log on to www.trfinc.org.