Ewing was raced at Colonial Aug 8. That, apparently, was his final race as his owners then shipped him down to Florida for “reschooling” and “reeducating” – whatever that means. Today, the TDN reports that Ewing “passed away Tuesday at trainer Mark Casse’s farm in Ocala, the result of a freak accident.” (Yes, yet another “freak accident.”) The details, according to Jon Green of the ownership team: “He was out in a paddock and something spooked him and he went to go jump the fence and unfortunately didn’t clear [it] and hit a post. As he was going over it, he cracked his skull open.” Imagine that scene.
Green then added some crucial context: “Unfortunately, we forget sometimes that these horses get cranked up in the sense of being ready to be race horses and it takes a little while to get that training out of their system. … He was still pretty high-strung, just coming off the racetrack. It was an unfortunate incident for sure.”
So while this is technically not an industry kill, who and what do you suppose made this poor boy, just three, so “cranked up” and “high-strung”? How very sad.
I can’t stop thinking about this poor horse. It’s tragic how many end up like Ewing. I’ve witnessed quite a few off track like Ewing. I have absolutely no confidence the people at the place in Ocala could fulfill their obligation to his welfare. “So while this is technically not an industry kill, who and what do you suppose made this poor boy, just three, so “cranked up” and “high-strung?” OTTBs don’t have the skills to cope with a new environment particularly at three. All they know is confinement, high energy grain, exercise, and racing, and drugs. And people who think they have the wherewithal to train these horses are unskilled and incompetent. Heartbreaking.
Rebecca, I agree with your assessment in many ways. There are three categories of horses: 1) hot-blooded, 2) warm-blooded, and 3) cold-blooded.
Thoroughbreds are in the hot-blooded category and need very gentle and sensitive handling oftentimes more so than the other two categories. Since they are so athletic for the most part, they react and move much more quickly especially when younger.
When I worked as a groom for a short time in 1977, I was responsible for 3 geldings and 1 mare. One of the geldings had the kind of disposition that I would have liked to have taken him out of the stall and put a western riding saddle on him and go for a trail ride. He had a great disposition. Of course, I never did that because he was not my horse.
I have to disagree that Thoroughbreds are, by nature, high stung and hot wired. The same is said about Arabians, and having worked with that breed, I can tell you that 99% of it comes down to handling. Calm, consistent, INTELLIGENT handling builds trust and causes the horse to be far less reactive to their environment than the bully treatment that passes for horse training, especially on the track. And I had a track-bred Thoroughbred filly that I got as a yearling, and she was not a natural nut case. An oddity? Possibly, but I’ve never owned a horse that had behavior issues once I started working with them, even my track bred Arabian. Thoroughbreds have minimal training, inconsistent, rough handling, constantly changing high stress environments, no emotional and psychological support from either other horses or the humans around them, and chronic pain and illness. That would drive ANY horse crazy, regardless of beeed.
My guess is that he may have been drugged up which may explain him being cranked up.
Horses are prey animals and being domesticated doesn’t rid them of the instinct that something is always out there,ready to attack. No more than an hunting instinct has been removed from dogs. Add to that, many racehorses go from track to track with little or no pasture time. I have Amish friend who has bought harness horses at a track near Buffalo, NY. He’s gotten them to his farm-and they’re terrified to go into a pasture! He says it’s like a combination of they’ve forgotten what it’s for, and being terrified to be in an open space where predators also may be lurking. He pairs them with a retired horse-he keeps his retired horses to ease new horses into their new lives, and to train his kids on how to care for a horse and tack it up, and be calm and patient with mistakes made by kids. Then, he puts both horses in an area fenced off from the pasture, by a temporary rope fence. Other horses are free to come meet the newcomer, he or she is free to make friends or ignore the others for a few days, before they realize, things aren’t so bad. The companion horse keeps them calm simply by being calm themself. After a week, tops the new horse is ready to be turned out with the other horses, be given their place in the pecking order by the lead mate, and settle down to grazing, mutual grooming, playing, and rolling in the grass or a dirt spot. And maybe a week later, training for pulling a buggy on the toad starts.
Was this horse paired up with at least one other horse who was used to being in a pasture? Why wasn’t he put in a run out, where he could be outside, and get used to the sights and sounds and smells of this new place?
Maybe a big part is that these horses are still so young. They’re mentally, intellectually, and emotionally immature. Their brains, as well as their bodies, still have a lot of growing up to do. If a horse of 7 or 8 had been out alone, into a paddock, would it have panicked? Or would it have listened, sniffed, looked around, maybe moved to another area, and when no mountain lion came running at it, given a mental shrug, and gone on grazing. If an expert in horse behavior says this poor guy was just too young to understand what was going on around him, and was on edge from the moment he stepped off the trailer, I’d not be surprised.
You’d have to have dementia to “forget” that Thoroughbred racehorses are high-strung, spirited, or “cranked up” horses and also that it is the nature of horses to get spooked of something and react.
There should be a punishment for the individuals (Jon Green and Mark Casse) involved in the death of this horse because they obviously were mentally out to lunch in giving the proper care and attention this horse required to keep him safe on a farm in Ocala, Florida also known as the “Horse Capital of the World” besides Lexington, Kentucky.
I’d like some clarification on the “reschooling and re-education”. I would hazard a guess that since he was so wired out of his own skin in a paddock that he was completely sky high on the track and couldn’t be handled safely even with barbaric methods used by what passes for human beings on the race courses.
Yes, 1000 times YES, Elizabeth!
Calling this death a “freak accident” tells us how the owners characterize it. It doesn’t, by itself, establish the full sequence of events. Ewing’s death deserves a factual explanation. Change in surroundings, routine, handling, or training can be stressful for horses. A horse adjusting to a new environment may react unexpectedly to a noise, another animal, or something he perceives as a threat. We don’t know whether any of those factors applied to Ewing. Records of medications administered before his death, witness accounts and how he approached the fence might help us to know circumstances surrounding his death. A necropsy might establish the nature and severity of the skull injury, while toxicology could potentially identify certain substances. Neither would necessarily establish exactly what he was experiencing behaviorally. The best solution to avoid future “freak” accidents is not to race horses at all. In the age of AI and robotics, race robots instead. I’m sure the engineers at Boston Dynamics can design four legged race robots that humans would find entertaining.
EXACTLY, Sue!! We did the same thing! SMALL paddock, SAFE fencing (no metal T-posts, no wire fencing of any kind), and tranquilizers – we even used what the vet referred to as a 30-day tranquilizer.
They “FORGET”? Geezus…
You would think that these people having millions of dollars to spend (or should I say billions?) plus huge tax breaks, and having years of experience with Thoroughbreds and knowing their temperaments, that they would have the foresight and the money to build fencing that would prevent these types of freak accidents from happening.
I know freak accidents can and do happen to horses especially horses that have racing bloodlines but have never been raced. One of my sisters told me about one of the horses she owned that had racing bloodlines but had never been raced. He was out of a beautiful AQHA registered mare with Thoroughbred bloodlines that went back to a Kentucky Derby winner.
The mom horse, Wilma, came to them and did what she could do to get the attention of my sister and her husband. I think of the mare acting like “Lassie” on the famous television show attempting to get them to come with her and find out what is wrong. It turned out her colt (not sure how old he was but I think he was maybe 2 years old at the time) had accidentally impaled himself on a metal fence post. They managed to get him un-impaled somehow and he did survive the ordeal.
Whenever we had some high strung horses come off the track, we would put them in small paddocks first, and/or give them a small dose of ACE to prevent them from the potential of getting too excited. Imagine going from almost zero turnout or hand-walking/handgrazing to complete freedom in a pasture. Some are so damaged they don’t know how to navigate that transition. Or I would either lunge or free lunge them first to get the spunkiness out first. Sounds like this poor guy was failed by his humans, again.
Look at that face…he more than likely wanted to escape the nightmare he endured. Sad sad sad