Never underestimate the power of a Thoroughbred mare.
Anyone who has ever had one knows they're in their own league when it comes to personality, determination, and heart. For Kyle Rothfus and husband Sean Smith, a series of mares started them on a path that has led to moving to their own farm, launching a charity and trying to tackle one of horse racing's most difficult aftercare challenges.
Run Binky Run left the racetrack in 2017 at the age of nine after a 96-race career was cut short by Hurricane Maria. By then, “Binky” had been sold and sent to Puerto Rico, where she was one of many horses whose barn had lost its roof, leaving her standing in deep muck. The result was a raging skin infection and serious hoof problems. She was offered for adoption by Caribbean Thoroughbred Aftercare, and a friend sent Rothfus her adoption ad.
“Binky” was a turning point for Rothfus, who had become enamored with horses as a child and began cleaning stalls at a farm near his home in Pennsylvania. That led to a dressage career with Hilltop Farm in Colora, Md. In his time training Warmbloods, he also did side work at the Thoroughbred yearling auctions in Kentucky. After a few years as a working equestrian professional, he was burnt out and exhausted, so he got out of the barn and moved to Las Vegas for a non-equine job. Rothfus spent 12 years with no horses, but when he decided he wanted to be in the barn for fun, he chose a Thoroughbred.
“I fell in love with the breed because they're intelligent, they're a little reactive; they're sensitive without being stupid,” he said. “They're just lovable.”
He had bought the Shakespeare mare Lady Macjazz from a DreamHorse listing in 2014 and prepared her to compete in dressage at the 2015 Thoroughbred Makeover, but a last-minute injury had knocked them out before the competition. As many riders do, he then became fascinated with the challenge of training a horse for the Makeover and adopted mares for the 2016 and 2017 editions. When he heard Binky's story, he stepped up to adopt her and took her to the 2018 Makeover in the competitive trail division.
Binky opened Rothfus' eyes to the plight of horses, especially hard-knocking mares, in Puerto Rico. Worthy of Wings (who retired at 13 with 138 lifetime starts) and Secret Paradise (who retired at 11 with 162 starts) followed Binky in earning places in the barn.
“I've always had a special spot in my heart for mares in general, but particularly really hard campaigners,” he said. “They're never marketed well. Those horses that are like 10 coming off the track and they've run 80+ times, they're harder to transition. They take longer.”
Rothfus is one of those people who seems to be everywhere on social media; you may know him as Kyle The OTTB Mare Guy on Facebook. He's posting about each of his horses, their training progress, and he's also reading a lot – keeping an eye on posts that come through his feed on horses looking for homes, the conversations people have about Thoroughbred aftercare. Often, he would try to help connect people who wanted to help a horse with a rescue organization or reach out to former racing connections to let them know one of their ex-runners may need help.
He quickly realized that when it comes to Thoroughbred aftercare, mares are in a particularly difficult spot. They're often leaving the track or the breeding farm later, which may mean they come with injuries or have spent years without a saddle on their backs.
“As I started to do all that work, I realized the broodmares are the bigger challenge,” he said. “I still want to network and help the war horse mares, so when they need a home I can have a spot for them to go, but the broodmares that are 16, 17, 18, now what we're focusing on is giving safe landing spots for broodmares retiring from breeding.”
Playing off Worthy's name, he decided to launch Mareworthy, an organization dedicated to education, networking, and some limited sanctuary for Thoroughbred mares in need.
Rothfus and Smith moved from their base in Ohio to a farm outside Georgetown, Ky., last year – which was quite a learning curve for Smith, who had limited horse handling experience before waking up to broodmares in his backyard. (He's now a pro, and is the origin of the couple's racing nom de course, Horse Husband Stables.)
Rothfus approaches the problem of broodmare aftercare from a variety of angles, as is his wont in life. His catchphrase on his resume is “I fail faster” because he says he's willing to try anything and everything, with curiosity and humility, and learns quickly from what doesn't work. As a result, Mareworthy's work is multi-faceted. The farm has limited stall space for sanctuary residents, but the organization does take on a few, and Rothfus maintains contacts with accredited non-profits around the country to get an idea of who could step in with a home the next time he encounters a mare who needs somewhere to go. He's also interested in gathering data about how many broodmares leave production each year and need rehoming.
Education is another component of his work. Many times, he believes retired broodmares are at risk largely because someone in their past didn't make a plan for them.
“Dispersals often tend to be, the kids inherit the farm, they don't know what to do with the horses, and they find an auction,” he said.
That's often the starting point for a mare to end up in a neglect situation or in the bail pen pipeline.
(Read our previous reporting about the bail pen economy here.)
Rothfus is eager to connect people with estate planning resources and contacts at non-profits who can find horses appropriate new homes. He can also talk them through the decision-making for euthanasia, which he believes can sometimes be the best option for an older horse who absolutely must leave the farm. Many times, he said, broodmares end up in a bad spot because many people don't know sending them to a horse trader or a livestock auction may put them in a dangerous situation.
He also visits Kentucky Thoroughbred auctions and keeps an eye on older, barren mares who go through the ring as no-bids. Then he reaches out to consignors to let them know he can help find them a home if need be.
He's also the person who may call a breeder or former owner if he sees a post about a mare in trouble – not because he believes they're always able, obligated, or willing to help, but because many people in the Thoroughbred industry still don't know how the bail pen economy works, and have no other way to be notified if a horse they once loved has fallen on bad times.
Mareworthy can also serve as a legal facilitator in cases where a new home has been identified; an owner can donate a mare to the organization, which can then adopt the horse to an already-waiting home. Mareworthy's adoption contract gives the non-profit the legal right to check up on the horse throughout its life, providing the donating owner peace of mind that the mare isn't disappearing into the ether with no follow-through.
Of course, a lot of this work has Rothfus monitoring the bail pen pipeline.
“I said we'd never get a horse out of a feed lot; we've gotten five horses in seven months,” he said. “I never thought I'd give money to a kill pen. Grisham [a recent acquisition who's 24 years old], I looked at her and thought 'She didn't choose to end up where she did. It's not her fault. So I have to look at the horse's part in it, too.'”
Ultimately, he hopes to reduce the bail pens' supply of aged mares by connecting with owners before they call a dealer or livestock auction.
Rothfus says he does all this because he believes in horse racing and wants it to succeed – so much so, he has become a small-scale breeder. He bred his first Makeover mare (who was a private purchase) to Vertiformer, resulting in Lady Dyanaformer, who won just under $50,000 on the track before retiring.
“I want to support and protect racing because I think the sport is good. I think it's the most natural thing you can do with horses,” he said. “It's an interesting industry to just be getting into when it's, I feel, in kind of a precarious spot. I have three, four years potentially until I'm going to be running these babies…am I going to have races to enter them in? That's a scary thought.”
The days at Mareworthy can be long ones – anyone who runs an equine charity knows it requires the combined skills of a farm manager, a pasture expert, an engineer, a veterinary technician, a fundraiser and a marketing genius – but Smith explained why it's all worth it to both of them.
“At the core of it is always the horse,” he said. “It's recognizing, from beginning to end, that you appreciate the horse. It's the horse that matters, the horse that you're all cheering for.”
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