🏇Lazy Horse Retirement and Rehabilitation Facility
Last updated
Last updated
The Lazy Horse Retirement Facility is the lynchpin of our mission. A place to rehabilitate and provide training for a great post-racing life. We have seen through our own families the impact that these beautiful animals can provide.
It takes 90 days to a year for a horse to become fully rehabilitated. This is an overview of what happens when a horse enters the Lazy Horse Retirement and Rehabilitation Center.
Each horse initially needs to be evaluated by our equine vet and farrier. This is important in identifying proper method of care in rehabilitation. It’s now time for the horse to learn how to be a horse again.
Racehorses are kept in stalls with minimal pasture time. Horses are herd animals and prefer wide open spaces. Many racehorses develop behaviors such as pacing, weaving, cribbing and chewing solid objects around them. These are some of the important behaviors that need to be identified and corrected.
Most racehorses come to us with unhealthy feet, which effect other body parts like sore backs and hocks. This is due to the thin walls of the hoof which makes horses susceptible to trauma and injury. In most cases, corrective shoeing is needed, making the relationship with our farriers important.
Identifying the correct feeding and diet can be difficult with many rescues and you don’t know what the horse was fed prior so we start with something they will eat — knowing they will be finicky. Beet pulp, sweet feed, hay cubes are all great to help get our horses adjusted to appetite. Many horses have gastric ulcers or hind gut inflammation and colonic ulcers. We use EquiVision’s ADR paste to help these horses with their appetite. After a few days, fish oil is implemented to provide good digestive help.
When it comes to training, ground work is the focus. Racehorses generally do not have the relationship with people and other horses down at the track, this is a delicate process to integrate them into their new lives. As they become more comfortable with people and other horses, we work with the horse in a variety of roles. Some horses are natural and willing sporthorses making them a great career as a Equestrian eventer or simply a great lesson horse. All of our horses are found a role they love and provided with love in return. All of this takes time and patience, but at the end you will either have a great sporthorse or a new best friend.
