It’s a Saturday afternoon, and despite almost-winter temperatures and blustery winds, one barn in the far corner of the Kentucky Horse Park is teeming with activity.
Susanna Thomas, director of the Maker’s Mark Secretariat Center, gently kneads the neck of an ex-racehorse, looking for a knotted muscle in the mare’s neck. The horse, nicknamed “Tidings,” has been adopted by one of several onlookers, there for her second “get to know you” session with her new horse. Elsewhere in the barn, a group of visitors checks out a gelding being exercised on the track by a family member, and they scout out a new dressage prospect. A student from a recent career fair is lingering to interview Thomas for a class assignment. There are horses everywhere, people everywhere, and a dog wagging back and forth between conversations.
In other words, it’s just another Saturday at the Secretariat Center.
The facility, founded in 2004 with industry support as part of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, is a reschooling facility for off-track racehorses to help them find both their second career and their next home. Now an independent organization, the Secretariat Center is a constant source of puzzles for Thomas, a lifelong rider and instructor. Each horse has its own story, its own personality and no ability to speak English, leaving Thomas and barn manager Catherine Flowers to unravel the mystery. Thomas does a masterful job of translation, with colorful metaphors to help hopeful adopters understand which horses might be potential matches; one horse is Jimmy Stewart from It’s a Wonderful Life (geeky and lovable), and another is Bellatrix Lestrange from the Harry Potter series.
“We have Meteor Shot, or ‘Shooter,’ and he’s just a shiny bright meteor. He’s enthusiastic, he’s energetic, he’s fiery … he’s like having one of those little sparklers,” Thomas remarked of one gelding. “Not for everybody — not everybody can handle a meteor — but for the right person, he will forever provide them with smiles and pleasure.”
Thomas has worked to establish relationships with several breeding farms and horsemen
in the area, who invite her to scout out horses that might fit in with her program.
Horses arrive at the Secretariat Center — some after their last start on the track, some off a vacation on the farm — and are put into the facility’s reschooling program. The plan begins with medical assessments (both using traditional veterinarians and farriers, and alternative therapies like myofascial massage, acupuncture and, for one gelding, a program of herbs). From there, the training begins with natural horsemanship, lessons on ground manners and “bomb proofing” desensitization exercises. Then, horses are exercised in-hand, on lunge and long lining, and receive introductions to a variety of different equine sports. The center keeps detailed records on the horse’s responses and provides adopters with “baby books” chronicling the journey.
“Honesty is key to me,” Thomas said. “Truth is by far the more arduous path. I could flip a lot more horses if I didn’t tell you a horse has had a previous medical issue. I’m going to tell you everything I know, everything we’ve done to it, and everything we’ve found out about it.”
The tactic has worked.
“My biggest friend has been word of mouth,” she said. “I am so honored that I have had incredible amounts of repeat business and referrals.”
For many years, the fate of a horse leaving the racetrack was an uncertain one, with many ending up in abuse/neglect situations or bound for a processing plant in Canada. Many Thoroughbreds retire between the ages of 3 and 5, leaving a couple of decades of care, attention and activity ahead of them.
In the most recent years of the center’s existence, the issue of aftercare has become a greater focus for the racing industry, with more retraining, retirement and adoption organizations than ever — a number of them industry-funded. With 17,700 Kentucky-born horses racing each year, there’s no end to the stream of Thoroughbreds retiring, and not all of them have achieved the needed credentials to be breeding animals.
And, as Thomas said, they need a purpose to survive. “Unless you’re Angelina Jolie, being good-looking isn’t enough,” Thomas quipped. “You need a job.”
MMSC horses have gone on to compete at the A-circuit as hunters, open jumpers, at the advanced level of eventing, and to become Pony Club mounts, polo ponies and trail horses. After horses leave the Secretariat Center, Thomas and her staff track them in their
new lives, even if they are resold.
In the midst of the reschooling journey, the center remains open to Horse Park visitors five days a week and offers a college and high-school internship program, welcoming one and all interested in learning a little about Thoroughbreds — or about life.
“I feel that we are all put on this planet for a purpose,” she said. “We’re given some talents, and it is our job to find out what makes us happy, because what makes us truly happy is usually being of service to something greater than yourself.”
Thomas was referring to her human students when she said it, but her use of her own talents is making that discovery process possible for her four-legged learners as well.