HORSE LESSONS
Tour lets people learn about caring for equines
GREENFIELD, N.Y. » The Saratoga County Board of Supervisors and the New York Thoroughbred Breeding and Development Fund teamed up with CCE Equine and Cornell Cooperative Extension of Saratoga County for a free horse farm tour at five locations in Saratoga County on Saturday afternoon.
“The purpose of this tour is to give the public a chance to interact with horses and view some local farms and gain access to them that they normally wouldn’t be able to have,” Carter Older of Cornell Cooperative Extension said.
The five farms featured this year were: Avanti Stables in the town of Greenfield, Old Friends at Cabin Creek in the town of Greenfield, Sand Hill Farm in the town of Galway, Birsh Family Farm in the town of Galway and Stormy View Stables in the town of Ballston Lake.
Old Friends at Cabin Creek specifically have retired thoroughbreds at their farm.
“Part of the concept of Old Friends is to provide a dignified retirement, but also raise awareness,” said coowner JoAnne Pepper. “So the more people we can get in and educate them about horse racing — how long horses live because they can live until their late 20s, and their racing careers are such a small part of their lives so they need places like this.”
The farm currently has 15 retired thoroughbreds. People had the opportunity to tour the entire farm on a sunny afternoon and learn a thing or two about thoroughbred horses.
“At the race track, so many horses retire young. The average age is like five, and they are lucky to make it to that age sometimes,” said Pepper. “If they are sound, and if they are just not into [it] or racing slow, they
can be retrained, which is a wonderful thing to have a second career. But some of them do get injured — not life threatening, but [they are] unable to be ridden or have a second career — so the need for sanctuaries for them to go to is pretty important.”
Older said the organization changes the farms every year to create more va- riety, but the overall theme remains the same about providing the public access to a rich tradition -— which is notably associated with Saratoga Springs — in Saratoga County.
“Horses in Saratoga are huge,” said Older. “You can’t come to Saratoga without hearing or being interested in health, history and horses, so to have a day where you can, for free, bring your family and walk around five different farms is such an opportunity for people to take ad- vantage of.”
Pepper’s farm has been featured on the tour before. She realizes the importance of horses to Saratoga County.
“The economy thrives because of horses, and that’s why they need to be treated with respect and to have a place to live out their lives naturally,” said Pepper.
Saratoga County is the permanent home to approximately 4,200 horses.
Visit http://ccesaratoga. org for more information.