Letters toWT
Dear editor, As a longtime reader, and breeder of Thoroughbred and Warmblood horses, I was incredibly disenchanted with your article in the May/June 2018 issue. The article "No Foal Left
Behind–The Ethical Nurse Mare Solution" was highly disappointing. I am curious where the writer of this article obtained her research? As a longtime breeder, I continue to be amazed by the misinformation that circulates about nurse mares, and the fact that Last Chance Corral is noted as a “savior” of these unwanted foals. I wish you would bother to research and read the truth about "nurse mares" in the Thoroughbred indus- try before publishing such nonsense. Last Chance Corral claims that every single Thor-
oughbred foal is taken from its mother and placed with a nurse mare permanently just in order to send the mare(s) to the breeding shed. This is laughable. From just a math standpoint, Last Chance Corral's statements aren't even possible. This would amount to almost 30,000 nurse mare foals needing adoption every single year. This statement is used over and over to pull at
Editor’s response: We thank the reader for her letter of concern about this topic. Our article did not publish a claim by Last Chance Corral that all Thoroughbred foals are abandoned when their dams are rebred. We assure you that that type of statement would have been questioned. The author’s research did however uncover the practice of breeding a mare just so that she could then be utilized as a nurse mare which in turn would abandon a foal. Our goal was to present an alternative to that practice. We apologize if the article offended anyone, however we wanted to get the dialog going about the potential harm to foals born in some nurse mare operations.
Dear Warmbloods Today, I am the proud owner of a half-Oldenburg/half-Arabi- an who is ISR registered and whom I am just starting to show under saddle. I stumbled upon your magazine at a tack shop and
heartstrings and gather donations, which in turn, turns people against the Thoroughbred industry. While I accept that non-profit organizations and fun- draisers actually lie (gasp) to gain funds, where does this money actually go? Frankly, where the money goes and why it's needed should be honest questions. Roughly 0.05% of Thoroughbred foals require a nurse mare and only for extenuating circumstances - a prolapsed uterus, colic, laminitis and/or death. Seri- ously. The decision to use a nurse mare is not made lightly. The maternal bond between the dam and foal is something that shouldn't be taken for granted. Thoroughbred mares are not taken off of their foals
to be rebred—this is nonsense. The foal is left in the stall alone for the few minutes that the mare is rebred. Period. Again, I can't tell you how much this article
offends me. 12 July/August 2018 T Kathryn Gearhart, Irish Meadow Farm
just love it! Please sign me up for a two-year subscrip- tion.
Loretta in Concord, NC
Dear editor, As usual, the magazine continues to look terrific. I want to tell you how much I enjoy your regular ‘Con- formation Corner’ column especially your recent (May/ June) article on conformation. Like the horse, my box- er whom I compete can’t hide his conformation flaws; form follows function, as we say…can’t do the job if they don’t have the build. I know I’ve told you this before but I truly enjoy
reading your Publisher’s Welcome. It’s sweet how you wrap things up in a nice tight package. So happy to see that Warmbloods Today is still going strong. I wish you much continued success. As always, I remain your friend and big WT fan!
Anne in South Hampton, NH
Editor’s response: Thank you Anne for your kind words and continued sup- port. Warmbloods Today is celebrating its tenth year in publishing culminating with the 10-year anniversary is- sue in March/April 2019.
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