New Vocations Louisiana Aftercare Initiative Hits Full Stride

Just eight months after retired jockey Rosie Napravnik first initiated talks with both New Vocations and the Louisiana Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (LAHBPA) about creating better aftercare options for retired Thoroughbreds from the state's four tracks, a satellite facility of the nation's largest racehorse adoption charity is up and running and has already adopted out five horses while currently housing 10 others awaiting new homes.

That's a pretty quick turnaround from concept to reality. And to underscore how interconnected the lives of racetrackers and racehorses are when it comes to aftercare, Napravnik told TDN she is grateful to see that a durable gelding she rode to back-to-back stakes wins in 2012 and 2013 is currently the star of the barn at Equi-Best Equestrian Center in Covington, where New Vocations has been basing its Louisiana operations since March.

Heavy On Themister (Lion Tamer), now 11, was a three-time Louisiana-bred stakes winner over a 68-race career that ended with 15 victories and $725,350 in earnings when he was retired one year ago this week.

“He was really cool to ride, very classy,” Napravnik said of the gelding, with whom she partnered to win the Louisiana Champions Day Classic S. at Fair Grounds and the Louisiana-Bred Premier Night Championship S. at Delta Downs prior to her own retirement from the saddle in 2014.

“He has the right build, a desirable personality, the soundness, and the brain–just what everybody is looking for in a second-career sport horse,” Napravnik said. “I really loved that horse, and I was so pleased to find out that he would be going through the New Vocations program.” (View Heavy On Themister's adoption page here.)

Anna Ford, the Thoroughbred program director for New Vocations, added that “he's a nice, classy, what we call 'war horse.' The people that donated him really wanted to make sure he got into the right place for his retirement. The amazing thing is, with all his starts and everything he's done, we only had to give him just a little bit of time off. We did some chiropractic adjustments, just minor things, and he's one of the sounder horses in our program.

“He wants to have a job,” Ford continued. “He just loves interaction with people. The last couple weeks, Equi-Best had a pony camp, so the barn was full of little girls. He just took it all in, and loved the attention–ate it all up. We've promoted him as being able to do some jumping, or he could do some dressage or be a trail horse. It's all about finding that right person who is going to appreciate him for who he is, and partner with him for his next stage of life.”

Ford said New Vocations was not specifically looking to open an adoption facility in Louisiana when Napravnik first pitched the idea last autumn.

“Although our goal is always continuing to expand and increase our capacity, our next facility was not necessarily going to be in Louisiana,” Ford said. “But we recognize that where there's a need, we try to help out. So we spent a good four months hashing through funding and location details, and it just came together so well that we knew we just had to open a facility in Louisiana. But it all started with Rosie, because she let us know that there's a really great need down there, and we go where we're needed if we can find the right connections, the right facility, and the funding to do it.”

Napravnik said that her career switch from being a jockey to an assistant for her husband, trainer Joe Sharp, gave her a different perspective on the adoption needs that are specific to Louisiana. The couple's home is in Kentucky, but Sharp's horses are stabled at Fair Grounds for the duration of the track's five-month winter meet.

“I became a little bit more aware of how many horses have issues that might make them not competitive as racehorses, but that don't prevent them from doing something in a second career,” Napravnik said. “Aftercare has taken such big steps in the last five to seven years that it just became so much more in my face, especially in Louisiana. The horsemen have just been begging for alternatives and outlets for these horses, and I think they're starting to appreciate having a unique program like New Vocations down there.

“There are so few organizations like New Vocations in that area,” Napravnik continued. “There are a lot in Kentucky and on the East Coast, but not down in the southern states. With some of the exploiting of horses that were ending up at livestock auctions in Louisiana and Texas, it just came to a point where it was a big problem, and it was a no-brainer to partner with New Vocations. I've always known that I would be involved with an aftercare organization in some way, and with this all the pieces just fell together.”

The Covington facility is the eighth New Vocations stable to open since the non-profit racehorse adoption program was founded in 1992 (six cater to Thoroughbreds and two to Standardbreds). Its five other Thoroughbred facilities in Kentucky, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania have rehabilitated, retrained, and rehomed nearly 7,000 horses over the better part of three decades, with almost 500 retirees served by the program each year. About 90% of horses are able to be rehomed as “riding sound,” Ford said, most within 60 days of being retrained.

All of the New Vocations locations are accredited by the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance (TAA), which means the facilities have been determined to have met or exceeded requirements in the areas of operations, education, horse care management, and adoption policies and protocols.

Ford said when New Vocations branches out into new states, the preference is to work with a pre-existing facility, like Equi-Best in Covington, which provides not only stabling but oversight by two trainers.

“Currently, we have 10 horses there and we've already adopted out five others,” Ford said. “Although 10 doesn't sound like a very big number, our goal is adoption. We want to get the horses rehabbed and adopted into homes so we can take in more horses. Long-term, we would like to have 20 [stalls], and that probably will mean branching out of that facility and utilizing two facilities. Our goal in the next 12 months is to have 40 or 50 horses adopted [out of Louisiana].”

New Vocations partners with The Right Horse Initiative, which is a collective of industry professionals and equine welfare advocates working together to improve the lives of horses in transition.

“The Right Horse is giving us a grant for $100,000 to help us run the Louisiana facility for the first two years,” Ford said. “We have also received donations from owners Barry and Joni Butzow, Bradley Grady, Andrea Pollack, and trainers Carl Moore and Bret Calhoun.”