Some of you may remember some discussion about Jane Smiley from about a month ago, regarding her mare Waterwheel that recently went to action and sold for $1000. The mare was one of two horses prominently featured in her book A Year at the Races, and Jane Smiley owned her dam and bred Waterwheel, then raced her as a two year old, resulting in the mare breaking down. In the book she wrote adoringly about the mare and even hired animal communicators to truly understand the horse’s perspective. Ms. Smiley then bred her a couple of times before the mare went to auction. When people learned that the mare had gone to auction, there was a bit of a ruckus, and some people pointed out we should give her a chance to present her side of the story and find out if sh even owned her at the time she went to auction. I attempted to contact Ms. Smiley via her website, but she doesn’t list any way to contact her.
So Jane Smiley was on the local public radio station today promoting her new book, which apparently is not horsey but sounds like it has tons of sex, at least according to Jane. I was trailering my mare over for a lesson but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to get her side of the story. So I called up the station and described my question, and they put me on as the second caller. The prior caller and the interviewer were gushing about what a fabulous writer she was and asking her what had inspired her to write A Thousand Acres, the book she won a Pulitzer for. I don’t think she was expecting any challenging questions. I was quite polite and introduced myself as a fan who had read most of her books, and mentioned that I was also a horse person who had enjoyed Horse Heaven and A Year at the Races. I then asked her if it was true that the mare she spoke about with such deep affection in the book had been sold at auction for $1000, and if she had made any attempt to find a home for her in the horse community before sending her in foal to auction. A moment of shocked silence, followed by a fumbling and eventually arrogant response. She said Waterwheel was small and unsound, and that she was a broodmare. She said no one in the horse community would have wanted her, and that she thought she would get more money at the auction, but that the economy was poor this year. She said that if I knew anything about the TB racing world I would know that this was how things worked. Unfortunately they cut me off before I could respond, since I have spent some of time on the backside of a track and have rehabbed horses from the track. I know that not everyone may agree, but in my opinion responsible owners and breeders should not simply dump horses at low-end auctions, especially if there are alternatives. The one saving grace was that she said she has cut down to nine horses and will not be breeding racehorses anymore, since it’s not economically feasible (What, you thought you would make money at this?).
). Which means that Waterwheel had no reserve on her; she and the foal she was carrying went to the only person willing to give a thousand bucks for them, and luckily it sounds as though they indeed won the owner lottery, no thanks to Smiley.