I love Canter, but it’s limited to the east coast. Does anyone know of anything similiar for the west coast?
not as far as i am aware. Texas has a similar org (http://www.lopetx.org) but other than that CANTER seems mostly east coast. cheers, alex
There was a wonderful article in December Equine Journal about Finding an OTTB. On page 61, they list following CA agencies that offer retired racehorses.
California Equine Retirement, www.cerfhorses.org (winchester, CA)
A.C.T www.geocities.com/act_california
Tranqility Farm www.tranquilityfarmtbs.org (Tehachapi, CA) 661-823-0307
You can try contacting Katie Merwick at Second Chance Ranch over in Elma WA, she has a farm there that she takes on TBs and other breeds to adopt out. Nice lady, totally committed to saving/rehabbing horses and sorting out their physical problems with vets and chiros or whatever. There is another Seattle based TB rescue barn that is new but I forget their name, sorry.
Katie also rescues dogs.
Carolyn
Happy New Year.
There is a place in Nevada that gets some really nice TB’s.
Jill is the owner/operator and she is great person. She usually has a ton of horses, she will not adopt them out until they have addressed any and all issuses a horse may have.
Good luck
But … but … but … CANTER – nor FLTAP – isn’t limited to the Midwest and East Coast. 
So says the woman who bought her CANTER cutie through the Michigan chapter and can’t say enough wonderful things about him or CANTER. :yes:
Unfortunately, the problem here – or at least in Southern California – is that there are so many other places the horses can go if they aren’t competitive. Los Alamitos or the fair tracks are probably as close in comparison to the tracks CANTER serves, but even then, the horses can drop down a few more pegs in search of success.
My coach currently has three lovely young TBs from Santa Anita; she got them all because her father-in-law has runners and is a security type at the track, so he hears of those horses that need to go NOW. That may be an avenue to pursue: cultivating an inside link to the barns. You can also try canvassing the various farms and see what they have available; there’s pretty much always something.
United Pegasus!
United Pegasus is in Hemut(sp) I believe and they do a great job,just not well known to us on the east coast…
United Pegasus is GREAT! but please know that they often have mostly pasture pets (and we all need and adore them!) and PMU foals (ditto). Sometimes you’ll get lucky and find a reschoolable OTTB, but frankly it’s not often … and before anyone jumps on me, YES, I have donated money to the organization, because I wholeheartedly support it!!
I just wanted to point out that if the OP wants a horse to reschool here in Southern California, she/he needs to step outside the box. There are SEVERAL Thoroughbred farms still around the area, and pretty much all of them will have, or know of, horses that didn’t make it at the track but very much likely will have a career elsewhere.
It’s cute that ItsAlwaysSomething called www.tbfriends.com and “organization”. It’s really just Joe and his wife… however last year they rescued 419 horses! Over the years they have generated a huge group of people that help them out with hauling horses, and other stuff and now there is a yahoo group, friends of tbfriends that have raised money for various projects. It’s amazing how two peoples passion has blossomed into an amazing thing.
Katie at Second Chance is the the closest thing we have to Canter in WA, although she does not like that model. There is also Chez Chevaux, run by Melodee Shelley-Bolmgren, who specializes in TBs, although she has a smaller property, and so can’t take as many horses. Katie and Melodee work together on education issues - both of owners and of adopters.
There have been a number of not-so-pretty stories about horses given away to “good homes” and then sent to auction, so Katie advocates going through an organization like hers or at least having a contract that specifies where and how the horse can be sold. She also has access to the horse’s complete vet records at the track, including xrays, if available, and does her own soundness assessment.
Of course sometimes people looking for prospects would rather not bother with all the strings attached to the rescues, so many horses change hands less formally and it all works out fine. The good ones are often gone in a heartbeat.
My friend Julie is newly fostering two TB mares through SAFE, another rescue that works with Katie, but they come out of a neglect situation and need a little rehab first.
But if anyone is interested, you can read about them here:
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/horsebytes/archives/128719.asp
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I love Canter, but it’s limited to the east coast. Does anyone know of anything similiar for the west coast?[/QUOTE]
There really is nothing comparable in CA, in the sense that there doesn’t seem to be a formal organization that has people working with trainers at the track on an ongoing basis. All the big 501c3 TB farms mentioned - t(Tranquility, United Pegasus, CERF and also Glen Ellen Vocational Academyin northern California) largely rely on donations from owners and/or trainers at the racetrack. TBfriends (which is not a 501c3) but a fabulous “organization” also buys TBs from feedlots and directly from kill buyers, and has some friends at the racetrack that do identify TBs that need new homes fast. In any case, all of these and “Horses for Parks” (a 501c3 that accepts donated horses and sells them with the proceeds being donated to national park and trail conservation) have OTTBs in need of new homes.
I’m working on the tracks in NorCal… Golden Gate and Bay Meadows. I’ll often hear of horses that are about to get sent to lower level tracks or just re-homed. If anyone is interested in re-homing some of these guys, PM me. I’m not a non-profit… just want to help keep these guys out of harms way.
