Horses Work For Kentucky
Though I am not shy about sharing my opinion in person, I try to leave this blog as impartial as I can – most of the time. This issue is one that is so, very important to my family and won’t be getting the same, unbiased treatment. If you live in Kentucky you are surely affected by the horse racing industry, and I am sure you’ve heard it’s having a tough time. For the past couple weeks I have begun work on a project about how the racing industry affects everyone. I am looking for stories of small farms having a tough time making ends meet, of families who are moving to other states where gambling helps fuel the racing industry, for little groceries going out of business because their neighboring farms are, too. For all of you that fear the fall of the industry and how it will change our great commonwealth.
Though the slots bill has been stopped for a bit, I feel that it is important for me to document the struggles our neighbors and dear friends are facing. All this in hopes that putting a face on the industry’s fall will help to communicate to those on the other side of the issue just how important our horses are.
If you know of families, people, farms who are being affected by our state’s failing industry, I would love to meet them. Love to document them and tell their stories. Quiet for now, but I’m sure you will hear more about this from me. I was raised on a horse, fed by the efforts of many of them and my college scholarship came directly from horses racing and earning money. My business depends on friends and family; a whole community dependent on horses.
I hope that my love affair with horses will be able to last a long time. That I will be able to take my children and grandchildren riding at great barns where they will meet great people, as I have. That you and yours will continue to thrive because of the horse.
I hope that you will view these images from a rally last week and think about how your life and business would be different if the horse industry in Kentucky didn’t exist. Feel free to post comments about the changes. The conversation must continue.
