Tracking Our Former Horses

I have been involved with Wasabi Ventures Stables since its inception with a role that grew along with the business. Starting as the Community Evangelist, I added responsibilities and gained the title the Director of Community. In time I saw the need to focus on aftercare and, again, added to my title and became the Director of Aftercare and Community. This was not a title without merit; I created programs and carried out the work for these areas.

My initial aftercare work involved soliciting donations from co-owners on cash positive horse closeouts. This program was successful and spurred me to consider the aftercare of all of our WV Stables horses, current and past. I realized that quite a few horses had left our barns, and I was unsure of their whereabouts. Thus, in late 2019 I created a spreadsheet to track each and every horse that was part of WV Stables.

The Master Sheet

Thankfully, I started tracking our former horses only two years into the creation of WVS. Even at that, it took a decent amount of time to list each horse and note its developments. With our own website, it was easy to record each horse we owned, the dates acquired and exited (if applicable), by whom it was trained, and where it was located. The more time consuming part was utilizing Equibase to determine where the horse may currently be situated. The frustrating part was the lack of information for horses who no longer ran.

I update this sheet frequently. Every time we acquire a new horse, he or she is added to my sheet. Every time a horse is retired, sold, or claimed away, that horse’s status is changed and information about new ownership is added. Horses that leave the WVS barns are added to my Equibase virtual stable, so that I get alerts on training and racing.

Why I Am Tracking Our Former Horses

Outside of updating information, I review this spreadsheet at least twice a month. I check any former horses that are still racing to see what the most recent date was. Once a horse has not raced or trained for three months, their status is noted in bold. At the four month mark, I reach out to the last known owner or trainer for an update. I have done that twice in the past month. One trainer was kind enough to notify me that the horse had been euthanized due to a race injury. The other trainer chose not to reply.

My goal for The Horse Fund is to raise the funds to be able to take action on our former horses if needed. Horses that have been dropped to bottom level races and still cannot compete consistently are ones that I watch with an especially careful eye. For the safety of the horse, I want to be able to try and privately buy the horse for retirement. If necessary, I would claim a horse for that same reason.

Along with educating the public about the post-racing lives of thoroughbreds and ensuring the safe transition of Wasabi Ventures Stables’ horses, I also want The Horse Fund to have a level of funding that will allow me to acquire and safely retire horses who are no longer in our barns.