[GenuineRisk]

It's an interesting topic to bring up- second careers for racehorses. I think we forget how very young they are when they're retired, and also that they probably have more of an inner life than we really give them credit for. I work at a zoo (as most of you know) and stimulating the animals' minds is one of the major concerns at good zoos- in the wild, an animal is usually barely two steps away from starvation, so there's no time to be bored. You can't be bored if you don't have free time, and retired horses, I think, can be given too much free time, depending on the horse.

I imagine the motivation for Tagg & Co. making Funny Cide a track pony was partly that they love him and want to keep him around, but it's probably also good for him- he has something to do every day and had to learn some new skills to do it. I think those Japanese stud farms that see that most of the stallions are ridden every day are really smart to do it- I know they do it to keep the stallions more docile, but it's probably good for the stallions' minds, too- gives them something to do.

My uncle's best mount (best as in easiest) when he was a cop was a former racehorse, named Seven (his star was in the shape of the number 7) and the horse could do just about anything. Long memory, too- when Seven was in his 20's, the police did a parade or something at Penn National and my uncle said the second they stepped out on the track, Seven's nostrils flared and his eyes got big and it was all my uncle could do to keep him reined in while they were on the track. Tee hee.