Saved From Slaughter, Roxie's Ringer Going Strong at 38

No one knows if Roxie's Ringer is, at 38, the oldest living Thoroughbred in the U.S., but he could be. In 2016, the TDN found a then 37-year-old named Prospect Point who passed away last year. But whether he holds the record or not, Roxie's Ringer is a heart-warming story of survival and longevity.

He is owned by Marla Walther, who bought him in 2002 when told by a horse broker that if she didn't buy him he would be sent to a slaughter auction. Walther, then living in Virginia, wasn't looking for a horse, but shared a mutuel friend with someone who said they couldn't find a buyer for Roxie's Ringer, so they were going to send him to slaughter.

“I wasn't buying him because this was a horse I was searching for or the horse I had to have or that I wanted him for a specific purpose,” Walther said. “I was taking him basically to rescue him.”

Walther knew nothing about the horse, not even his racing name. She was told when she bought him that the horse was 17 years old. Once she looked up his lip tattoo, she discovered he was actually 22.

“When I found out what his real age was, I thought, 'Geez, he's really old,” she said. “But it didn't really matter He was still healthy and still enjoyed being ridden and I still enjoyed riding him. They were off by five years, but it was irrelevant.”

Roxie's Ringer wasn't much of a racehorse. A Nebraska bred, he spent his entire career racing in the Cornhusker state, running mainly in $2,500 claimers. He made 60 career starts, won four races and earned $16,100. He last raced in 1986.

Walther has no idea what his history was from the time of his last race until she got him–or how he made his way to Virginia. She kept him on her farm and used him for trail rides. In 2005, she moved to an urban area in Johnstown, Pennsylvania and could not keep the horses on her own property. Eventually, she would sell two of the three she owned–but not Roxie's Ringer.

“He was too old to sell as a pleasure horse and I wasn't going to take any chances that he would go the slaughter auction,” she said.

So she boarded him at a nearby stable and continued to ride him until about six years ago.

“He's got a heart condition, an enlarged heart,” she said. “I've gotten on his back a couple times, but haven't actually ridden him in a while. He's been retrained to be ridden other than as a racehorse, but he still has that racing mentality. If you get him in a group of horses on a trail ride he wants to be in front and so he would go and go. I would have to keep constantly checking him to keep him from tearing off. I was afraid with his heart condition he could really hurt himself. He could have a heart attack, so I quit riding him.”

Otherwise, the horse Walther calls “Shamrock” or “Rock” is doing fine, considering his age.

“He's hanging in there,” she said. “He has some problems. We had to change his grain. Keeping weight on has become difficult because he has a harder time eating. He has lost some teeth. He is old, but he's still plugging along.”

The horse is 38, nothing more than a pasture ornament and the bills keep coming in–for where he is boarded, for vet work, for farriers, for the horse dentist. Walther admits some people don't understand why she is doing what she is doing. They don't get it.

“He's a great guy,” she said. “I wish I could spend more time with him. I'm raising two kids, have a job and a household to run. I just keep him as a pet. People think I am crazy. Why are you paying all that money to take care of an old horse? It's because I care about him and he's part of my family.”