Thoroughbred aftercare is one of the most, if not the most, important issues in American racing. Since the turn of the century, an added emphasis on equine welfare has led to a variety of programs and organizations dedicated to rehoming, retraining, and rehabilitating retired racehorses across the United States.
However, when the American Association of Equine Practitioners announced the winner of the A. Gary Lavin Equine Welfare Award at their Dec. 10 President's Luncheon, it was not an organization from the mainland U.S. that won. Instead, it was Caribbean Thoroughbred Aftercare, a 501(c)(3) non-profit based in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico has gained a notorious reputation for the lack of equine welfare over the years, causing major concern from American racing stakeholders, as many of the horses are former American runners who ended up in Puerto Rico after several exchanges of hand.
Puerto Rico is home to about 1,500 racehorses at Hipódromo Camarero and another several hundred at breeding farms, riding facilities, and more. In 2017, Kelley Stobie and Shelley Blodgett founded CTA and have worked tirelessly as the Caribbean's lone aftercare organization, aiming to rescue horses out of bad situations and return them to loving homes in the States. CTA takes in about 40 to 60 horses a year. In 2018, its disaster relief efforts following Hurricane Maria earned a Special Eclipse Award.
Following CTA's reception of the AAEP award, Stobie spoke to BloodHorse about her background, the struggles CTA faces, and why aftercare in Puerto Rico should be a top priority for industry stakeholders.
BloodHorse: What does it mean for you and CTA to be honored by the AAEP with the A. Gary Lavin Equine Welfare Award?
Kelley Stobie: When I got the email, I was super excited. We had the Eclipse Award back in 2018 and a few others, but it's been quite a while since we've been presented an award, and lately there's been a lot of talk about what happens to the horses once they get to Puerto Rico. They offered to pay for my flight over and give a speech in front of veterinarians from across the United States. I was very honored for us to be picked because there are so many amazing groups out there. It was nice that they chose us.
BH: How did you develop your love for horses and aftercare?
KS: My mom used to train polo ponies in England and had a few off-track Thoroughbreds there. We moved to Canada when I was 12 and she started the first Canadian polo club. She had a couple of horses from Woodbine and they were so amazing. I never played polo, but I was a groom. I loved taking care of them, ponying them, and exercising them. Then I moved to Saint Martin and I was working at a riding school there run by a Canadian lady. She had off-track Thoroughbreds from Puerto Rico. I started to learn more about the breed and had no idea about the situation in Puerto Rico. I just thought these horses were so cool and athletic.
BH: When did you make the move to Puerto Rico, and how did CTA come to be?
KS: I moved to Puerto Rico in 1996 and worked for a Thoroughbred training center. The owner would rehome his homebreds as jumpers or whatever. After being at the track so much and seeing dead horses all the time behind the clinic, I was like, 'What's the deal, why are there all these dead horses?' Everybody would say we just euthanize them because there's nowhere for them to go. The amount of horses being euthanized was a concern. Of course, some horses were going to the riding schools or jumping centers, but at that time there weren't many of those. There was no organized program or organization trying to figure out what to do with them.
The owner of the farm I was working at, we started a group called 'Save the Horses'. It wasn't a non-profit at that time. I was in charge of that program and we would take horses in from the track. That fell flat on its face because he didn't want to keep doing the expense or become a non-profit. Then in 2016, Shelley Blodgett and I started up Caribbean Thoroughbred Aftercare. We were the successors of Save the Horses.
BH: When you first got started, what were the hurdles you had to go through to get your reputation out there?
KS: We had no facility and we had no money. We got hit by Hurricane Maria in 2017 and had very little money. We contacted the TAA, and even though at that point we weren't accredited, they did a roundtable and started up an emergency grant for people who care for Thoroughbreds but aren't accredited. That grant really helped us.
We boarded the horses at the farm of the original person I worked for. We had 10 stalls. I had my horses in those 10 stalls, paid the expenses, and took care of the horses. But we didn't have any turnout. I'd pony the horses around the farm and my kids would ride the horses for me just to get them out. The farm had turnout, but they didn't let us use it. Off-track Thoroughbreds need to decompress and have time to mentally and physically get the track out of their systems. Those were the two biggest hurdles at the time, and nobody wanted to donate to aftercare because they were like 'Why should we? We'll just euthanize them, it's always been like that.'
BH: Do you have your own facility now?
KS: My husband and I have a small farm, it's only four acres. He saw my frustration after Hurricane Maria and in 2018 started putting up fencing, built me more stalls, and we started to bring them home. That's where we are now. We have another small piece of land behind us that we're renting, so the facility in total is only nine acres and we have 25 horses at a time. We have eight small paddock-type turnouts that we rotate the horses on.
BH: How did you first try to change the 'just euthanize' mentality of people to put a larger focus on aftercare in Puerto Rican racing?
KS: In 2017, before Hurricane Maria, we called for an industry meeting and requested the racing commission to have some funding dedicated to aftercare. It was a lengthy process. We didn't get the funding until 2019. When Hurricane Maria hit, the government took all the accounts where there was funding for anything and froze it all because they wanted to use it for disaster relief. I think the first check was $50,000. They were very accepting in the beginning, they loved the presentation that I did. They agreed that it was a good thing for the industry. We did get some support from owners in the beginning, but the more we've moved along and the more we've found out what's actually happening with these horses at the track, we've lost the funding. We get way less funding now than we used to.
BH: What is the reason behind that? Why would they pull the funding?
KS: They're hoping that if they don't support us we'll close down. They don't want the public to know what's happening to these horses at the track. Unfortunately, we don't have enough homes for them in Puerto Rico, so 60% of our horses we fundraise and we rehab and retrain them and send them back to the States. The more horses we send back, the more people are asking 'How was it possible these horses were racing in this condition?' It's not my intention to bring that bad publicity to Puerto Rico, but what they're doing to the horses is pretty inhumane. If they're not going to fund us, we're going to have to find money elsewhere. I'm not going to close down.
BH: Where do you get most of your funding currently?
KS: Private donations, connections, grants. We're constantly writing grant applications. We'll contact breeders of horses and they'll either fundraise to get the horse home or share our fundraisers when we do them. A lot of tracks now have their own aftercare funds. Like Parx Racing has Turning for Home. I'll call them if I have a horse that previously raced at Parx and they'll send some funding. Gulfstream Park, 1/ST Racing, they're great. They've supported us so much in the last four years. I don't think we would have been able to ship a lot of horses without their help. Take the Lead up in New York, they've been fabulous with any New York-breds or horses that ran the NYRA circuit, they'll always help with some funding.
BH: You've said before that when CTA ships a horse back to the States, you lose money on the deal. Is that one of the major problems for CTA as far as impacting your ability to operate?
KS: Definitely. It costs us $4,000 per horse. That's with quarantine, the flight, ground transport up to our layover farm in Ocala, bloodwork, and health certificates. When you're not getting support from your industry and the people bringing the horses to the island, it's really hard. It's hard for me because I have to call these people all the time—racetracks, previous connections, breeders—and beg them. Can you donate $500, $200, $1,000?
Owners have said to me I'll give the horse a home, I'll take it back, but I'm not paying to get it back because the Puerto Ricans are the ones who took it to Puerto Rico. They're right. I think in Puerto Rico there should be some fund or import/export fee that is paid so there's money in a pot. Every quarantine and every flight I'm always missing funding. We have to use our operational money to make up for it. There should be money available somewhere to fly these horses home.
BH: Resolute Racing's John Stewart recently posted on X about sponsoring a trip for industry members to visit Puerto Rico and 'observe firsthand the situation of the welfare of horses.' What are your thoughts on that and why is it important for people in American racing to see?
KS: That was one of the things after Hurricane Maria, everyone was calling me constantly saying you need to do this and you need to do that. You can tell me all you want, but until you're here and dealing with it—then they'd talk to big owners or the track and they'd say I was exaggerating things I was saying. I got fed up and told the TCA and the TAA why don't you get on a plane and fly here? The TCA did, there was justification in everything I said. They were like, 'Yeah, this is awful.' There were horses in closets and horses roaming the racetrack. It was a nightmare. I always tell people to come to Puerto Rico. I'll take you to the racetrack, I'll show you what's really going on. I think it's really important. We do have good people in (Puerto Rican) racing, but I think the neglect and lack of education on what Thoroughbreds need is above and beyond the good people we have in racing.
BH: Why is this such an important issue for you to continue to tackle despite all the financial and other hardships?
KS: Nobody in the islands has the passion and love for these horses to do what I do. I want to give up all the time, but I know if I give up the organization will disappear. When my mom, who was an amazing horsewoman, died in 2017, it hit me so hard and she was so proud of me and everything that I had accomplished with the CTA team. The days I feel like I can't do it anymore and am exhausted, I see all these beautiful horses in my backyard. I know they wouldn't be there if it wasn't for me. When I come to Kentucky and see them retired, these things make everything better. I have to keep fighting and keep trying. I want CTA to grow, we're trying to get more land to have a sanctuary, kind of an Old Friends thing in Puerto Rico, but we need people with deep pockets. Anybody out there who wants to support us and fund expensing and shelters and horse feed, we're open to it. But yeah, I think it's my mom that keeps me going every day.
