Woman's passion saves horses

Horsewoman Genevieve Crawford is surrounded by racehorses who could be part of her rehoming crusade after their careers are over. Photo by Stephen Jaquiery.
Horsewoman Genevieve Crawford is surrounded by racehorses who could be part of her rehoming crusade after their careers are over. Photo by Stephen Jaquiery.
Horses have given plenty to Genevieve Crawford in her young life, and now she is paying them back tenfold.

Miss Crawford (20), who works for Roxburgh harness racing trainers Geoff and Jude Knight, has rehomed dozens of former racehorses in the past three years.

The words of her late grandfather John Crawford keep coming back to her:

``Saving one horse won't change the world, but it will change the whole world for that horse.''

Miss Crawford has now changed the world for 79 former racehorses, who might otherwise have been sent to their deaths at a meatworks.

Miss Crawford was recognised for her remarkable efforts when she was named as the region's young achiever of the 2015-16 season at the Otago Harness Racing Awards at Forbury Park earlier this month.

She grew up on the family farm between Lawrence and Waitahuna and first sat on a horse with her grandfather when she was 6 months old.

It was the death of her grandfather about seven years ago that changed her world.

``When he passed away all his broodmares were supposed to be dog tucker, but I felt sorry for them all, so I rehomed all four or five of them,'' Miss Crawford said.

She started working in the school holidays for the Knights five years ago, and full-time for them three years ago.

The Knights offered to pay her to rehome some horses during her part-time stint with the stable, and the passion has grown from there.

Only ``seven or eight horses'' retiring from the Knights' stable in the past three years have not been rehomed, generally due to injury. More than 50 horses from the stable have been successfully rehomed, along with more than 20 from other stables.

Miss Crawford is conscious of animal welfare issues coming to the fore, particularly after it was announced in July the New South Wales greyhound racing industry will be shut down, after a damning report.

``I just think that with that all happening and when someone asks New Zealand racing what are we doing, if we can't give the proper answers, they have the right to shut it down,'' she said.

``But if we can say `well, we rehome them and the statistics are not that bad', then they probably can't do much about it.''

The horses are broken into saddle and are taken on treks before Miss Crawford advertises them for sale.

She has kept tabs on the rehomed horses and has taken several back after she felt the new owners were not looking after them. The process is not a money-making venture for Miss Crawford.

``All the money goes straight up to the freeloaders in the top paddock. Nothing's made off them.''

Miss Crawford had her first drive as a junior at Forbury Park last week behind two horses trained by the Knights and chances are she could be rehoming them when their careers are over.

``The least we can do is repay them because if it wasn't for them, we wouldn't have a job.''

matt.smith@odt.co.nz

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