Save the Horses, Inc.

Thoroughbred racing at Camarero Race Track on the east side of the island. Click on the photo above to see a video from National Geographic.

Have we mentioned Save the Horses? Yes, I guess I did, in yesterday's post.

We are now up to our withers in this. Every year some 400-700 thoroughbred race horses are destroyed here on the island. Some are injured or ill but many just aren't fast enough to win races. They are expensive to keep. Unlike on the mainland, there are stables here that can take them and retrain them to be jumpers or dressage horses. In general, except for racing, there is no culture of thoroughbreds here. Our good friend Lisa, another avid horsewoman, talked to Elaine about a couple who are rescuing these thoroughbreds. Lisa shared her vision of a stable for rescued horses on this side of the island. Elaine of course was hooked! (Okay, so was I.)

There was an Associated Press article about it (here from the York [Penn.] Daily and here in pdf format from the AP) and you can watch the National Geographic news video about these horses.

Through Lisa, Elaine met and visited Greg and his wife Linda at their home on the other side of the island. In addition to owning thoroughbreds themselves, they have made it their mission to save/rescue as many of these beautiful animals as they can. Now, in less than a week we are working on building an informational and fundraising website. Once again, this is all in high we-need-the-site-up-last-week gear. We are going to the east side of the island to meet with Greg and Linda tomorrow. More news on this when we get back.