On March 17, a New York Times article brought attention to financial and management issues surrounding the Saratoga, N.Y.,-based Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) that serves to find retirement homes or new adoptions for approximately 1,000 off-the-track thoroughbreds.
According to the article, the foundation has been operating at a deficit for the past two years and, as a result, has not made timely payments to some of its satellite farms that care for a substantial number of retired thoroughbreds. Some TRF horses, allegedly, were in poor condition.
Florida’s Thoroughbred Retirement Farm, located on 100 acres at the Marion Correctional Institution, in conjunction with the Florida Department of Corrections, operates separately from the national TRF. Florida Thoroughbred Charities, the charitable arm of FTBOA, is a major sponsor of the program.
“The national TRF is, and has been, a well-run organization for several decades,” said Richard E. Hancock, executive vice president of FTBOA. “The downturn in the economy over the past two-to-three years has severely taxed all charitable organizations and especially during a time when so many horses are in need of help. We understand how difficult it is to raise support for these programs.”
Hancock said Florida’s retirement farm has been able to remain financially feasible, in part because its herd is relatively small.
“We’ve been fortunate in Florida to take care of the horses that qualify for our stated program,” he said. “We’re independent from the national TRF, so we raise our money in Florida, and we spend our money in Florida. Our specific goal when we started this farm was to rehabilitate Florida-bred horses that were coming off the track and to retrain them for new careers or to be retired.”
Horses adopted out from the Florida farm have thrived in careers as police horses, pleasure horses and competition horses, Hancock said.
The farm, which has been operating since 2001, provides vocational classes for female inmates at the Lowell Correctional Institute. Inmates graduate from a year of classes with a vocational certificate in equine care technology, preparing them for careers in the horse industry.
The Florida TRF is currently home to 52 thoroughbreds; 20 are being retrained and prepared for adoption. Anyone interested in adopting a thoroughbred or taking a tour of the farm is encouraged to arrange a visit by calling FTBOA at (352) 629-2160. Additional information about the Florida TRF is available at http://www.ftboa.com/index.php/charity/trf.
