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Research Update: Horse Welfare In Therapeutic Riding Programs

Animal-assisted intervention, including therapeutic horseback riding, is designed to promote improvement in a person's physical, social, emotional, and/or cognitive functioning and is directed or delivered by a practitioner with specialized expertise. Although there is abundant research on the benefits of therapeutic horseback riding to human participants, there is little information regarding effects on horses involved in such programs.

Therefore, the goal of a recent research project, conducted by researchers in Kentucky and Pennsylvania, was to gather data regarding horse use and care in Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International (PATH Intl.) affiliated therapeutic horseback riding programs in the United States to help establish a foundation for a standard of care.

A 20-question survey sent to 659 PATH Intl. affiliated therapeutic horseback riding programs returned a 40 percent response rate. Demographics demonstrated that the average number of horses in each program was 10; geldings outnumbered mares; most horses were between 16 and 20 years of age; and Quarter Horse or stock-type breeds predominated.

The average session length was 8 weeks and the average lesson length was 45 minutes. Horses were typically ridden by clients 4 days each week and 2 hours each day. Most horses were donated to the programs, participated for approximately 7 years, and left because of aging. Limb lameness and back soreness were the top health issues noted, with only a small percentage of colic and ulcers reported. More horses received nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) for a lameness issue, chiropractic adjustment, and massage than any other supplemental care or complementary therapy.

Based on data gathered in this survey, therapeutic horseback riding horses were not worked excessively. Horses were ridden less than PATH Intl.'s maximum recommendation of 6 hours each day and 6 days each week. Horses in therapeutic horseback riding programs also appeared to have fewer reported health issues as compared with data in other national reports. The abstract is available here.

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Stay Lucky Picks: Turf Spotlight at Kentucky Downs

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Santa Anita To House ‘Free Animal Doctor’

Santa Anita will provide a home for the not-for-proft Free Animal Doctor, which will provide free veterinary surgeries for at-risk animals. Officials at Santa Anita are working with Free Animal Doctor to make the organization’s services available to the track’s backside community and other community groups at no or low cost.

“There is a need for this type of small animal veterinary assistance locally and nationwide,” said Santa Anita’s Aidan Butler, Acting Executive Director, CA Racing Operations for The Stronach Group. “We are well positioned to provide the assistance needed for the Free Animal Doctor clinic to administer necessary care for these precious animals, and we’re honored to do so. We’ve let them know we are here to help in any way that we can.”

Free Animal Doctor (FAD) utilizes Crowdfunding to raise monies for specific pets and provides detailed itemized cost accounting which is directed by each animal’s attending veterinarian.

“This serves to self-authenticate the cost of each surgery,” said FAD co-founder Sam Bernardo, who hopes to have FAD’s veterinary “bus” fully operational in Santa Anita’s parking Lot 7 by Sept. 15. “Once the money is raised for each individual animal’s procedure, no additional money is accepted.”

Though a variety of surgeries will be performed, the majority of the procedures will be spaying and neutering of pets.

For additional information and or to contribute to the cost of a procedure for an in-need animal, visit www.freeanimaldoctor.org.

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Still Embattled In Civil Suit, Ahmed Zayat Files For Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, Listing String Of Racing Creditors

Ahmed Zayat, best known in horse racing as the owner of 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah through his Zayat Stables, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection on Sept. 8. Paperwork filed in United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey lists a long string of trainers, veterinarians, transport companies, and others as creditors for expenses totaling tens of millions of dollars.

Unlike Chapter 13 or 11 bankruptcy, Chapter 7 does not involve the filing of a repayment plan. Rather, a bankruptcy trustee is appointed to gather and sell assets and pay creditors when possible. Some of the debtor's property may be exempt, but anything nonexempt will be liquidated.

A lengthy list of creditors attached to the filing revealed a number of horse trainers owed amounts in the six figures, among them Bob Baffert, who is owed $227,884.17, Brad Cox ($194,836.19), Mike Maker ($120,921.88), Richard Baltas ($316,070.12), Steve Asmussen ($102,541.10) and Todd Pletcher ($125,598.69). Rudy Rodriguez, who was awarded a judgment by a New York court for $394,437.19, is also listed. Jorge Navarro's JN Racing is owed $63,822.01.

Veterinary hospitals Hagyard Equine Medical ($38,999.53), Rood and Riddle ($54,346.77), and Kentucky Equine Medical Associates ($19,937.32) are also on the list, as are numerous therapists, individual veterinarians, van companies, and others.

Several financial advisement companies and individuals are listed, with notes they are owed six or seven figures each. One $250,000 debt is listed for the PMG Operating Account, whose address corresponds to Meadows Gaming.

Some, though not all, of these creditors' claims are marked as disputed.

Zayat and his racing operation were named in a civil lawsuit earlier this year in Fayette County Circuit Court from New York investment firm MGG Investments, stemming from a $30 million loan he took out in 2016. MGG won a summary judgment in the amount of $24.5 million earlier this year, representing the remaining balance Zayat Stables owes on the loan. Zayat Stables has countersued, and the bankruptcy paperwork listed the final amount owed to MGG as unknown for the moment. Control of Zayat Stables has been placed into the hands of a court-appointed receiver, who has raced a few of the stable's remaining horses and sold many of them, with an aim to maximize profit in the court of liquidating the operation.

Cedarview Capital, a New York hedge fund, is owed $7.9 million. In documents filed as part of the MGG suit, Zayat indicated he had paid over $1 million in interest to Cedarview, and stated it was one of the lenders he took on alongside MGG. In emails dated January of this year, Zayat claimed to have traveled to China in an attempt to attract investors to inject cash into the stable in order to “make the company fiscally functional” and to repay MGG and Cedarview.

In 2009, Zayat Stable filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after Zayat was sued by Fifth Third Bank for allegedly defaulting on $34 million in equine loans.

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