Letter To The Editor: Why I Left My Dream Job In Thoroughbred Aftercare

Friday, Apr. 3 was my last day at my dream job. After seven years with the Retired Racehorse Project, a 501(c)3 non-profit, I stepped away from the role of managing director and an incredible team of passionate individuals working towards a simple goal in a complicated landscape: increasing demand for Thoroughbreds beyond racing.

It was the perfect job for someone who grew up horse-crazy, blessed with a way with words but lacking the talent to make it as a full-time horsewoman in any aspect of the industry. I started in late 2018 after participating in the Thoroughbred Makeover with my first Thoroughbred, Jobber Bill. I was now a professional storyteller, utilizing my talents to benefit an entire breed in desperate need of a marketing department for its life beyond racing.

No one was doing what the RRP was doing; it was a grassroots organization with a truly unique approach to Thoroughbred aftercare: promote the breed for its athleticism, trainability and versatility in second careers, and empower the equestrian community with the tools it needed to be successful with these horses. If the RRP was successful in its mission, every other aftercare organization and individual, not to mention the actual breed itself, would stand to benefit.

I loved my role. At its core, my job was to tell the stories of the individuals and the horses at the forefront of this movement. When I, and the organization, got comfortable in this world, we began to push the narrative envelope, crafting messaging intended to make horsepeople take pause and consider the full life cycle of the breed, whose racing years by necessity are often quite short.

I can look back at the last seven years and see industry shifts that are the direct result of my work: little things like wider adoption of the phrase “beyond racing” for describing the Thoroughbred life cycle, or major farms celebrating the second-career offspring of their standing stallions on their social media channels. There are bigger things too, like the development of new high-dollar show series for Thoroughbreds–a natural continuum of the foundational program of the Thoroughbred Makeover.

Those were the good moments. I also learned a lot of lessons over those years.

I learned that a lot of the work of non-profits, especially those who operate by mission at the industry-shaping level but receive no built-in industry funding, is focused on fundraising. Our role in marketing the breed to drive demand never seemed to have the same urgency with supporters as horses in immediate need.

I learned that no organization can be all things to all people, but being the organization that tries to bridge the gap between the racing and equestrian industries for the sake of the horse is a particularly unique way to be stretched thin. I was reminded often of the fable of the Little Red Hen: no one wanted to help the Little Red Hen plant, grow, or harvest the wheat, but everyone was more than happy to eat the bread.

I learned that you can have the absolute best story to tell that could solve a public perception issue for an entire industry, but that doesn't mean that your audience is ready to hear it.

For a long time, these lessons were opportunities to grow, to improve, to stay agile and evolve. I could ride on the joy that came from producing the Thoroughbred Makeover for a while.

But gradually, I fell out of love with all of it, including horse racing, the thing that had convinced me to get a Thoroughbred in the first place. Celebrating the seven-figure sale of a yearling as an industry while the RRP struggled through a $10,000 summer fundraiser so that we could feed our volunteers lunch at the Makeover will do that to a person.

It got difficult to stand at the rail and cheer for an industry that was making me feel like it didn't really want to hear my voice at all.

I count myself extraordinarily privileged to have been able to do this work that I enjoyed for more than seven years. I am equally aware of, and proud of, the progress that Thoroughbred aftercare has made during that time.

There are so many stories left to tell, and I wish my successor at the RRP the best of luck as they find their voice and take up the figurative pen to tell them. I hope the industry will be ready to hear them, embrace them, and dig deep to build a better world for the Thoroughbred.

The breed deserves it.

–Kristen Kovatch Bentley is the outgoing managing director of the Retired Racehorse Project