For participation this year please click to "Auction", read the bidder rules, click on "Register To Bid" and follow the directions. To receive an invitation to the auction, please e-mail your mailing address to Liz@speedbeam.com to be added to TCA's mailing list.

The TCA Board of Directors then reviews these applications between April 1 and the June board meeting, contacting the many references before making its decisions based on merit and available funds. All grants are distributed before the end of June of each year.

In special cases emergency grants will be considered at any time of year, with the same criteria as above, based on the natural disaster that occurred or the plight of the non-profit.

According to the most recent TCA IRS Form 990, posted on this website, over 96 cents of every dollar raised is donated directly to the annually accredited charities.

If the charity you are thinking of is not on the TCA list of grantees, that organization, as long as it has a 501 (c) 3
non-profit status and fulfills the TCA Mission, may submit an application for a grant which will be reviewed by the
TCA Board of Directors.

Another designation option is "Sector Designations". TCA's Mission outlines five sectors of charities we grant to and by designating your sector preference, you can be assured your donation dollars will be directed toward your specific affinity.

Later, stallion seasons were added and, after several years, in 1997, when funds raised at the annual auction neared $1,000,000, Thoroughbred Charities of America, (TCA), was created to enable many other non-profits caring for ex-racehorses to receive grants as well.

TCA is a fund raising non-profit organization which works both independently and with other groups to raise monies, which are then allocated to non-profit organizations that work toward improving the lives of racehorses and the people who work with them.

TCA's primary focus is with Thoroughbred organizations that retire, rescue retrain and adopt out ex-racehorses. TCA also grants for equine research, public education programs, scholarship funds to horse farm workers' children, backstretch and jockey programs and therapeutic riding programs.

At TCA's Stallion Season and Art Auction, they have raised over $15,000,000 to date which has been distributed to nearly 200 different Thoroughbred non-profit organizations with over 96 cents of every dollar granted out, largely due to their dedicated founders and volunteers.

In 2009, grant distributions of $879,547 were allocated to 82 different organizations in the United States with percentage breakdown by TCA's Five Charity categories as follows:
1) Equine rescue, rehabilitation, retraining, adoption, retirement and euthanasia: 49%

2) Education and scholarships: 19%
3) Backstretch, Jockey, Chaplaincies, Medical Care: 15%

4) Research into equine diseases and disorders: 11%
5) Therapeutic riding programs which utilize Thoroughbreds: 7%

According to USDA data through 2006, about 70,000 horses per year were slaughtered in the United States. 25,000 a year were shipped to Canada and 7,500 a year were sent to Mexico, whose number jumped to 40,000 annually last year with the closure of
USA slaughterhouses.

Approximately 17% of the 70,000 horses slaughtered each year in America are Thoroughbred's – nearly 12,000 horses every
year. Aside from the horrors of the slaughter process, designed for cattle and not the long neck of horses, the transportation to
the slaughterhouses is largely unregulated, with long hauls of mares, foals and stallions mixed together, lacking food or water.

Approximately 3,000 Thoroughbreds are retired from racing each year. When considering adopting a new horse, for the many post-ractrack career options there are, consider adopting a horse from one of our annually accredited non-profit "Groups we Support".

The cost of maintaining a horse per month is $200 or $2,400 per year. So the cost of disposal of an unwanted horse in relation to the cost of ownership is negligable and considered part of the responsibility of the owner.

As a horse may pass from owner to owner and in many cases become devalued, it is important to consider the economic impact on those who become the final owner of the horse. Responsibility begins from the moment of the breeding decision, with the knowledge a living being is being created and must be cared for, until the time of it's death. As each purchase ensues for the horse in it's lifetime, it's care and disposal must be taken into consideration on the sale price of the horse each time.

Hormone Replacement Therapy
For women entering menopause who decide to take hormone replacement therapy, (HRT), doctors usually prescribe synthetics. The most popular one is called Premarin, and derived from Pregnant Mares' Urine (PMU), thus Pre-Mar-in, though other conjugated estrogens with similar names are used. These estrogens are often called “natural”, however, they are not natural to a woman's body. Medical evidence has demonstrated the increased risks of breast, uterine, ovarian and cervical cancer linked with these widely used “synthetic estrogens”. Premarin and the equivalent is very big business and most women are uninformed and their doctors don't educate them because most women wouldn't think to ask if the drug comes from a pregnant mare.

Inhumane Drug Factory Horse Farms
The pregnant mares' urine is farmed through the drug maker's factory farm. Many mares of breedable age whose fate is not the slaughterhouse, end up at Premarin Factory Farms. Each pregnant mare is hooked up to a machine which collects the urine used to make the estrogen replacement drug. Each mare is kept in a confining stall with their heads tied to prevent them from moving, exercising or lying down. They are given a minimum amount of water to keep the estrogen hormone concentrations as high as possible. Each mare spends 10 months of her 11 month gestation, hooked up to a painful urine collection catheter. They get two weeks off to foal their baby yet the death rate of these foals is about 40%. The mare is immediately bred again upon her next heat, 10-12 days after her foaling and any surviving foal orphan, without enough colostrum from the minimal nursing, are usually sold to slaughter. Let's end the PMU foal orphans once and for all.

Hormone Replacement Alternatives
Bioidentical hormone therapy, often called “bioidenticals” has been effective at relieving the symptoms of menopause and are a true replacement. They are designed to be molecularly “identical” to our body's production of these life sustaining hormones. Bioidenticals are derived from plant extracts and are obtained from a compounding pharmacy. Not all doctors are familiar with this type of hormone replacement therapy. If you choose to use bioidenticals, it is best to find a physician who specializes in this type of protocol.


Suggested reading and studies;

Reiss, Uzzi, M.D. with Martin Zucker, Natural Hormone Balance for Women. New York: Pocket Books Health.

Schwarzbein, Diana, M.D. and Nancy Deville. The Schwarzbein Principal II. Health Communications.

Lee, John R., M.D., and Virginia Hopkins. What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause. New York: Warner Books.