By David Harry

Staff Writer

Royas Romeo has won more than $250,000 in a decade-long harness racing career. But it’s the ribbons he has won in retirement that help show his true worth to Cady Flaherty.

Riding the horse she now calls Romeo, Cady, 14, finished second to her older sister Cindy, 18, in the year-end awards for top riders from the Standardbred Pleasure Horse Organization of New Jersey.

The sisters and their horses won enough trophies and ribbons Feb. 21 at the annual banquet in New Jersey to fill a stable. At the same time, they’ve shown how retired harness racers can be retrained for pleasure riding.

Cindy, who rides Cisco, and Cady also fared very well last September at the annual 4-H competition in Springfield, Mass., where they competed against pleasure horses and riders from New England.

The Flahertys have four horses and a pony retired from racing, despite Jill Flaherty’s initial reluctance to adopt a standardbred horse for her daughters.

“I had complete misconceptions, I thought they were crazy horses you couldn’t do anything with. I was wrong,” Flaherty said. The trotting horses are featured at Scarborough Downs, Bangor Raceway and at agricultural fairs throughout the summer and early fall.

Flaherty and other members of the Maine chapter of the standardbred organization will host a “Meet the Standardbred” open house 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, March 28, at Tractor Supply on Route 1 and Southgate Drive in Scarborough.

Jill Flaherty grew up raising and riding pleasure horses, and Cindy described herself as a “horse crazy little kid.”

Cady said she was afraid of horses until Cisco came to the family farm on Scottow Hill Road. Cady said the gentle and friendly Cisco, who raced under the name “Somekindapill,” quickly won her over.

Cindy and Cady are not the only riders in the family: Jill has also won honors with her retrained standardbred, Cilver, and 8-year-old Jessica is riding Party, a pony that raced at Caribbean tracks.

Romeo, who was given to Cady by former owners Randy Bickmore and Richard Knight, ended his racing career in November 2008 after 10 years on the track. Industry standards maintained by the United States Trotting Association allow a horse to race until it is 14, but that is a long career, said Robyn Cuffey, who keeps retired standardbred horses at her Buxton farm.

Cuffey works with the Maine chapter of the Standardbred Pleasure Horse Organization to place horses in new homes and said the supply is always greater than the demand.

“I rarely get a 14-year-old,” said Cuffey. She estimates about 60 percent of horses trained to race run only once.

Don Marean, past president of the Maine Standardbred Breeders and Owners Association and a board member of the Maine Harness Horsemen’s Association and the trotting association, said a lack of speed or unfit temperament can doom a racing career.

While a racing career may end at age 3 to 5, a standardbred horse can easily live another 20 to 25 years, Cuffey and Marean said.

Marean, who has raised horses for more than 25 years, said some retired horses are placed with Amish families and some are used for reproductive studies at the University of Maine in Orono. A likely end for horses that do not find homes is slaughterhouses in Canada or Mexico. He said he is uncertain how many horses may be retired in the course of a year, but his “gut feeling” tells him only a small percentage are placed locally.

Cuffey said there is no shortage of horse she could take in.

“On any day, I could have 10 more,” she said.

Marean said owners have “a moral obligation” to their horses and that includes ensuring retired horses are not placed with owners who cannot properly care for them.

“Horses are defined as livestock,” Marean said. “I would prefer to send them to humane slaughter than have them die by inches in a backyard.”

Cuffey said she understands why some owners will auction off horses that cannot compete.

“I don’t begrudge them because they may ship a horse off rather than give it to someone who may not take care of it,” Cuffey said.

Marean said he has asked for $100,000 in the next annual trotting association budget to start a rescue and adoption program for retired horses, perhaps by providing grants to help care for them. Marean said the vote will occur this weekend and he is optimistic the provision will pass.

Marean said the provision came at the urging of Marilyn Goudreau, president of the Windham-based Maine State Society for the Protection of Animals. Goudreau said the independent, nonprofit center is now sheltering 84 horses seized because of neglect.

A portion of the horses are retired standardbred horses, she said, but all breeds are sheltered and neglect may occur because owners no longer want to make the effort required to care for them.

“The true picture is overbreeding across any breed,” Goudreau said.

Pplacement and adoption are important because the health of a horse may be so poor by the time it reaches a shelter that it can’t be ridden, she said.

In Maine, Marean said he is hesitant to push for including money for adoption or rescue programs as part of the distribution from the Hollywood Slots racino revenues in Bangor. He said he is worried any alterations to what is called the “cascade fund” that distributes revenue for race purses and horse breeding and training will lead to more tinkering by legislators.

Marean said he will support designating revenue from a racino in southern Maine to go to rescue and adoption efforts.

Cuffey and Brenda Bryant, president of the Maine SPHO chapter, said standardbred horses do need retraining after they retire from racing.

Bryant, a Kennebunk resident, said her husband, Gary, has been training standardbreds to race for more than 25 years. She does not keep any retired horses, but does help place them in new homes.

Standardbred horses have not been under saddle and run with their heads held high instead of in a more rounded fashion, Bryant said.

Retired standardbreds must learn to canter after racing with a gait called pacing or trotting, but because the horses have spent so much time at tracks and around people, they do adapt well to new owners, Bryant said.

Because standardbreds have pulled the racing carts called sulkies, they also can be trained to pull carriages, Bryant said.

“I sometimes joke that I will send my pleasure horses to Scarborough Downs for boot camp,” Cuffey said.

Bryant and Cuffey said demand for adopted horses is high, but the number of foals bred to Maine mares has declined in the last year, according to Henry Jackson, executive director of the Maine Harness Racing Commission. 

Jackson, citing data from the sire stakes program that uses racino funds to assist local breeding, said the number of mares bred in Maine dropped by about one-third to 220 last year.

He blamed the decrease on a slow economy coupled with increases in costs to keep horses. Those costs may be preventing adoptions as well, Bryant said.

Cuffey estimated the basic care for a horse to be about $200 a month, and that does not include shelter or veterinary bills. Horses available for adoption through Standardbred Pleasure Horse Organization do have adoption fees because Cuffey said she wants to be certain anyone adopting a horse is willing to make the commitment to care for it.

To learn more about the pleasure horse organization and retired standardbred racers, visit www.sphomaine.net.

Staff writer David Harry can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 219