Australian Vet Studies Life After Racing for Thoroughbreds

Nearly half of Australian Thoroughbreds in one foal crop were rehomed to non-racing homes after their careers concluded.
Share
Favorite
Close

No account yet? Register

ADVERTISEMENT

Identifying a knowledge gap, Melbourne, Australia-based veterinarian and executive member of Equine Veterinarians Australia (EVA), Meredith Flash, BVSc, decided to find out more about Thoroughbred horses and what happens to them when they leave the racing industry.

“Equine vets care about the health and welfare of horses so it was important to look at how many of the horses bred each year go on to race, and where they go when leaving the Thoroughbred breeding and racing industries,” she said.

Flash’s research involved studying the racing careers of 4,115 Thoroughbreds born in Victoria, Australia in 2005. This is the first time that horses from a foal crop have been followed from birth to nine years of age or retirement from the racing industry.

Flash said that about “three-quarters (74%) of the group officially entered training with 88% of those horses participating in at least one race

Create a free account with TheHorse.com to view this content.

TheHorse.com is home to thousands of free articles about horse health care. In order to access some of our exclusive free content, you must be signed into TheHorse.com.

Start your free account today!

Already have an account?
and continue reading.

Share

Written by:

Related Articles

Stay on top of the most recent Horse Health news with

FREE weekly newsletters from TheHorse.com

Sponsored Content

Weekly Poll

sponsored by:

Where do you primarily feed your horse?
306 votes · 306 answers

Readers’ Most Popular

Sign In

Don’t have an account? Register for a FREE account here.

Need to update your account?

You need to be logged in to fill out this form

Create a free account with TheHorse.com!