Spring hay drive!!!

MNRRP SPRING HAY DRIVE

 We are running low on hay and racing season is quickly approaching!

If you support our efforts and believe in our cause, please consider donating. $4.50 covers one bale of hay so anything helps. We are a 501(c)3 organization and your donation is tax deductible. We'd also be more than happy to accept actual hay donations.

To help you can:

• Send your donation online via paypal - http://www.paypal.com/  using email address donations@paypal.com
• Make your check out to MNRRP mail to Annie Ringwelski - MNRRP 925 Alysheba Rd, Mailbox 323, Shakopee, MN 55379
• Contact us at retiredracehorses@yahoo.com for hay drop off locations.

Minnesota Retired Racehorse Project relies solely on donations and 100% of funds go directly back into the program to support the horses. Please help us continue to give these wonderful athletes a second chance!

Springtime at the Minnesota Retired..... YAK... program?

 Today the thermometer near the fire station in Elko read 62. Sunny skies with a nice breeze. Ahhh spring is here.... finally. After what seemed like an unusually long (and very trying) winter it felt nice to be in a tee shirt. Although I am extremely happy with the warmer weather, I am not so thrilled with the thawing and the mud that comes with it. After battling a flooded barn for nearly a month, it was time to finally get down to digging out. The two inches of water that had covered the entire floor of the barn left a disaster of ruined hay, shavings, feed bags, supplies and 4 saturated stalls. Overall we lost nearly $250 in this flood, pale in comparison to the devastation caused by Japan's tsunami, but unfortunate nonetheless. As a struggling non profit organization, every penny counts for us and $250 leaves a substantial hole.

In addition to the springtime thawing and mud come the shedding horses. You can brush a horse for an hour with a shedding blade and still be pulling off the same amount of hair as when you began. I do believe today I collected enough hair to make myself a fully insulated parka and snowmobile suit. I sure wish there was a market for that - with 8 horses I'd have that cornered.

Anyway you look at it, the horses look goofy. One mare of ours in particular resembles more of a yak  rather than a Thoroughbred. She is currently available for adoption if anyone is interested.







I did do a bit of research on yaks and found them to be very interesting creatures. For example: 



You can go Yakback riding





You can pack your yak





You can have a yaksack race

You can buy matching yak tack





You can have an attack yak

You can race at the local yak track

And you can go to a yak rodeo

I think with the versatility of the yak, I may be on to something here. That said, I'm done yakking. (sorry, I couldn't help it)

MNRRP at the Minnesota Horse Expo

April 29, 30, & May 1

Minnesota State Fair Grounds

MN Horse Expo website

If you live in Minnesota or the surrounding area and plan on attending the Minnesota Horse Expo, make sure to stop by and see us. Instead of having a booth this year, we will be bringing three horses and representing both MNRRP and the Minnesota Thoroughbred Association. In addition we will also be speaking each day at 2pm at the new venue in the cattle barn.

The three horses accompanying us are all MNRRP alumni. Bailey Road, Lucky Ducky, and Cinnaminst. All three have raced at Canterbury Park within the past few years and have been transitioned into new careers. We will be exhibiting in the breed demonstrations daily, sporting English, Western, and Racing tack. We are really striving to promote the versatility of the Thoroughbred.

If you haven't experienced the MN Horse Expo, I strongly suggest it. Imagine three entire days devoted to nothing but horses. Vendors, demos, speakers, a tack swap, and a rodeo.... oh and don't forget the fair food. Yep, corn dogs and cheese curds! You seriously cannot beat that.

If you have adopted a Thoroughbred from us in the past and have an interest in exhibiting at the Expo, it's not too late.  Contact us for details at retiredracehorses@yahoo.com . You will need to pay for your own stalls and care for your own horse. This would be a great way to promote your discipline, our program, and Minnesota Thoroughbreds. If you cannot exhibit, please email us a short story along with photos of you and your adopted horse in their new vocation. Weather it be polo, trail riding, dressage, or pasture pet - we'd love to highlight you.

Make sure to check out the link to the expo website, (You'll find us on the last page of the speakers)
See you at the expo!!!

Embrace Techonlogy!

This past week I've found myself without a computer. The laptop I was using was 6 years old and well past it's life expectancy. After many months of intermittent grinding, it finally died, taking all my photos, documents and contacts along with it. My life seemed to come to a screeching halt. A field trip to Best Buy and a visit with the Geek Squad informed me that I could pay $350 minimum to fix the hard drive and $100 for a data retrieval. Fantastic!

I decided to purchase a new laptop and retrieve data at a later date. Of course I couldn't seem to just pick a computer... I had to shop around, compare prices and performance. Each day that went buy I'd panic thinking of unanswered emails, horses that needed to be placed, bills that need to be paid online etc. FINALLY I couldn't stand it anymore, I broke down and bought a laptop. It's nothing fancy - I went with a larger memory and a slower processor - after all in this economic time I would fall under the category of "horse poor".

So now I'm back up and running. There is so much going on and a lot of news!. I hope to post again tomorrow and share. Stay tuned!

Q&A - Importance of registration papers

A conversation between a previous adopter and I sparked today's topic regarding registration papers for retired racehorses. This is not the first time this has come up and I'm sure it won't be the last. So below are a few questions I've seen over the past couple years. I hope you find them helpful.


Q) I need my adopted TB's Jockey Club papers so I can compete in horse shows.
A) Currently there are no breed specific shows for Thoroughbreds that would require JC papers in order to compete.

Q) Does the value of my retired racehorse decrease because I do not have JC papers?
A) No. If your horse has raced or has been in race training he or she has a tattoo. The tattoo is specific to that horse and is traceable via the Jockey Club website and is proof the horse is registered.

Q) I need to transfer ownership into my name. If I don't have the papers how is this possible?
A) The Jockey Club does not track ownership like other breed associations do. You don't send in a fee with the information and get the papers back in your name. If you do have JC papers on your horse, a signature on the back is all that is required.

Q) Why was I not given the registration papers when I adopted my retired racehorse?
A) Minnesota Retired Racehorse Project retains ownership of the horse for a period of six months. After that time, if we were provided papers they will be given to the adopter. Many times we are not given the papers as the trainers want to insure the horse is not raced again.

Q) If I really want a copy of my retired racehorse's Jockey Club papers how can I go about getting them?
A) You can request a copy of your horse's papers via the Jockey Club website. You will need a bill of sale or contract and will be required to pay a fee.

Q) When would I need my retired racehorse's Jockey Club papers?
A) You would need Jockey Club papers and a bill of sale in order to race or breed your horse.


So as you can see, registration papers for a retired racehorse adopted from us are obsolete. I too used to think a piece of paper made the horse more valuable, as you can track bloodlines, compete in breed shows etc. With the Jockey Club providing free tattoo research, proof the horse is registered is at your fingertips. If you are planning on selling it all boils down to educating the buyer.

Day 7...... I'm building an ark.

We are going on day 7 with no access to water via the pump in the barn. I found it broken upon my return from vacation and have been hauling buckets from the house ever since. The barn and the pastures are rented and luckily the house is currently unoccupied so I am able to use faucet in the bathroom tub to fill each bucket. There are two 100 gallon water tanks in the pastures along with the 40 gallon tank in the barn for the small critters. The house sits a good distance from the barn -  the driveway and yard, due to the alternating freezing and thawing, now resemble an Olympic size ice rink. This makes the journey to get water entertaining to say the least. On more than one occasion I've found myself flat on the ice covered in water. I'm fairly certain I can hear the horses laughing.

In addition, the barn is flooded. I've tried to keep up with the water and the ice but it's been a daunting task. Shoveling water into buckets and hauling them out of the barn is time consuming and tends to get a bit disheartening when the water seems to collect as fast as it is removed. When the ice and snow thaws, there is literally a river running through the back of the barn. A small crack in the foundation allows the water to continue into the pasture however if that gets clogged or freezes, the water backs up and floods the barn. In places it's a few inches deep. Our four stalls are now useless and the goat, donkey, and miniature horse are living in the isle. I cannot say I will be disappointed when our lease is up. In the mean time I'm seriously considering building an ark.

Ahhhh Vacation....

So sorry for slacking on the posts as of late. I was on a much needed vacation. Although I had grand plans of not seeing ONE horse while away, I ended up spending quite a bit of time with them and actually enjoying it. Seems I just cannot stay away from them no matter how hard I try. It is, however, much different when they are not your own and you don't have things to worry about like flooded barns, broken water pumps, frozen hoses, empty water tanks, hay shortages, and manure management. (I never expected to feel so refreshed not having to worry about horse poop).

For those who didn't know, I escaped the frozen tundra of Minnesota for seventy degree New Mexico. Albuquerque to be exact. It was a spur of the moment decision to visit someone I hadn't seen in many years. Although I missed my daughter and maybe Matilda the mini donkey, I must say I did not want to come back. It was sunny every day and I reluctantly returned sporting a killer farmer's tan. Albuquerque was amazing. I enjoyed nearly every minute, climbing around mountains, basking in the sunshine, and tossing rocks in the Rio Grande. I enjoyed the adobe architecture and the cultural history and I love the fact you can have horses in your own back yard.  Nothing like Scott County Minnesota's stuffy zoning restrictions. I could appreciate the  unique beauty of the desert combined with the towering Sandias Mountains. The company wasn't bad either.

While on vacation, I also took the time to drive up to Denver for a couple days to visit friends. We rented horses and plodded along through the Garden of the Gods. It was relaxing to hop on an old, deadbroke trail horse and not have to worry about what was hiding behind the next rock waiting to eat him. A refreshing break, and quite the difference from riding off-the-track Thoroughbreds. 

So now I'm back to the snow and cold, broken water pumps, frozen hoses, flooded barns, empty water tanks, hay shortages, and yes.... poop.

Welcome home!