Prior to the intervention of Dr. Richard Bowman, the bulk of racehorses retiring from Minnesota racetracks were sent to slaughterhouses in Mexico or Canada, reports the Star Tribune.
A vet with the Minnesota Racing Commission, Bowman was first asked to help find a retiring racehorse a home in the late 1990s. Now, he gets asked for help several times each week. When he learned of how many horses needed assistance in finding homes when they could no longer race, he opened his 4,000-acre cattle ranch in North Dakota to Thoroughbred and Quarter Horses that are too injured, old, lame or slow to continue their careers as racehorses at Canterbury Park in Shakopee, MN.
At the ranch, which is nine hours from Canterbury Park, he focuses on rehabilitating and adopting out as many horses as he can (nearly 600 so far). The horses that are too unsound remain in his care at the ranch indefinitely—there are 35 such horses on the ranch currently. Now a 501(c)3 charity called Bowman Second Chance Thoroughbred Adoption, the program is famous for welcoming every horse in any condition, taking in the horses many others will not.
Each horse that enters Bowman's program is assessed for personality, temperament and ability. Once rehabilitated, the horses that are adoptable are paired with an adopter. Bowman's horses have been adopted out all over the United States; they do everything from hunters, jumpers, eventing, cattle work, polo ponies, dressage and other disciplines.
Bowman is one of three Minnesota Racing Commission veterinarians, along with Dr. Christy Klatt and Dr. Lynn Hovda. The trio are tasked with ensuring the horses racing at the state's tracks are sound and healthy to race; they also assist with rehoming nearly 60 racehorses each year.
Some of the horses are adopted directly from the track; those in need of temporary shelter go to Hovda's farm. Most of the horses head West to the Bowman ranch, where they settle into a less-pampered lifestyle before they are prepared for adoption. In addition to horses retiring from racing finding homes, the veterinarians team with Canterbury Park officials to pull two to three horses with ties to the state's tracks from kill pens each year. They are able to prevent these horses from being shipped to slaughterhouses outside the U.S.
Learn more about Bowman Second Chance Thoroughbred Adoption here.
Read more at the Star Tribune.
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