JustRalph
07-01-2008, 01:11 PM
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080628/NEWS/806280347
This sucks..............
Ex-harness racing horse found alone on highway
Getaway Hall may have been abandoned by his owner
By AL KEMP
The News Journal
Just a few years ago, Getaway Hall was a standardbred harness racer not to be taken lightly by other horses or horsemen on the track.
In the home stretch at Dover Downs, Harrington Raceway or Pocono Downs, he was always a threat and frequently finished in the money.
That's why Townsend horseman Will Kirkwood, 75, can't understand how the now 13-year-old gelding came to be wandering along Del. 71 near Middletown last Friday. Or why his owner has not come forward, even though he or she surely must realize the horse has been missing for a week.
But others can.
Abandonment of former racehorses is "a big, big problem," said Nicolette Montgomery, an instructor at C Line Stables in Odessa. There are 60 to 70 horses in the barns at C Line, and many of them are retired racers, she said.
Tony Domino, who keeps 10 racehorses at his Domino Barn in Port Penn and remembers Getaway Hall as a stalwart contender, lamented the unfortunate fate that sometimes befalls racehorses that suffer injuries or grow too old to earn money for their owners.
"They're athletes is what they are. They race their heart out for us, and it's disgraceful what can sometimes happen," he said.
This horse tale has a happy ending, though, thanks to a trainer named Adrian Wisher. Wisher, who remembered Getaway Hall's racing days, heard about the animal's plight and Kirkwood's dilemma in keeping the unclaimed horse.
~more at the link~
This sucks..............
Ex-harness racing horse found alone on highway
Getaway Hall may have been abandoned by his owner
By AL KEMP
The News Journal
Just a few years ago, Getaway Hall was a standardbred harness racer not to be taken lightly by other horses or horsemen on the track.
In the home stretch at Dover Downs, Harrington Raceway or Pocono Downs, he was always a threat and frequently finished in the money.
That's why Townsend horseman Will Kirkwood, 75, can't understand how the now 13-year-old gelding came to be wandering along Del. 71 near Middletown last Friday. Or why his owner has not come forward, even though he or she surely must realize the horse has been missing for a week.
But others can.
Abandonment of former racehorses is "a big, big problem," said Nicolette Montgomery, an instructor at C Line Stables in Odessa. There are 60 to 70 horses in the barns at C Line, and many of them are retired racers, she said.
Tony Domino, who keeps 10 racehorses at his Domino Barn in Port Penn and remembers Getaway Hall as a stalwart contender, lamented the unfortunate fate that sometimes befalls racehorses that suffer injuries or grow too old to earn money for their owners.
"They're athletes is what they are. They race their heart out for us, and it's disgraceful what can sometimes happen," he said.
This horse tale has a happy ending, though, thanks to a trainer named Adrian Wisher. Wisher, who remembered Getaway Hall's racing days, heard about the animal's plight and Kirkwood's dilemma in keeping the unclaimed horse.
~more at the link~