The Thoroughbred nicknamed Ryan, who was profiled in TDN six months ago as the first participant in the Empty Stall Challenge run by the HISA Equine Recovery Foundation (HERF), has recovered well enough from slab fracture surgery to be back in training under saddle. He's currently up for adoption at New Vocations in Lexington, Kentucky, where his caretakers believe the 3-year-old gelding will be a promising lower-level equine sport competitor in his second career.Ryan's progress–after sustaining a type of knee fracture during training at Thistledown that can commonly lead to euthanization–was made possible by many helping hands over the past half-year.It all started with HERF, which is a one full-time employee, nonprofit operation launched in early 2026 by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA). HERF provides critical assistance for Thoroughbreds who sustain injuries that are career-ending but have a positive recovery prognosis by ensuring immediate access to either free or discounted quality veterinary treatment.HERF then places recovering horses with caretakers for the rehab phase via initiatives like the Empty Stall Challenge, which matches equine patients with farms willing to donate stabling, boarding, and the assistance of qualified staffers experienced in providing months of stall rest.In Ryan's case, he was hosted by Denali Stud. The 16.1-hands, long-legged bay was vanned there free of charge by Brook Ledge Horse Transportation after Dr. Alex Curtiss performed his no-cost surgery at Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital.After nearly four months at Denali, the gelding is now at New Vocations, the nation's largest rehabilitation and placement program for retired racehorses.Claire Bandoroff, Denali's marketing and hospitality director, vividly recalled the day Ryan stepped off the van.“He got off the trailer and I remember just thinking, like, 'Welcome! Nice to meet you. You're safe here. I think you're gonna like it,'” Bandoroff said. “When he arrived at the farm Apr. 23, he was fresh off of his surgery for his slab fracture,” Bandoroff said. “His plan was 30 days of stall rest, 30 days of hand-walking, and then progressing to round pen turnout, and then from there progressing to paddock turnout. And he did it all just exactly according to the book. He had no setbacks here. Donnie Snellings, our yearling manager, kind of oversaw his program.“I think anyone who's been around him could probably say the same thing: He just has the best demeanor. He's so sweet, very gentle, playful. He's very smart, and really smart about handling himself. I think that's why he did so well in his rehab, because he really just took care of himself, and I think all smart horses do that,” Bandoroff said.Anna Ford, the executive director of New Vocations, picked up Ryan's story from there.“He came to us Aug. 13. We had him settle in and get re-evaluated by our vets to be sure that he could go on to training. He got cleared Aug. 28 and they started riding him Sept. 21, and he's doing well, so we're going to keep riding him,” Ford said.“Everything looks like it's healed well. Time will tell if there are going to be any further changes to that joint. Mid-level impact would be my guess [for near-future activity level]. He's just started doing stuff, so it's hard to know right now what they're going to clear him to do long-term,” Ford said.“He seems pretty straightforward and laid back. I know his first ride was pretty uneventful, so that's always good. He seems like he has a good mind, because I think he's going to end up being more suitable for like a lower-level career, and those types of [adoptive owners] tend to need a horse that's a little bit more laid back and secure with themselves,” Ford said.'Just scratching the surface'HERF is just in its infancy and is still fine-tuning some of its procedures and protocols. But one thing is becoming clear to those who either run the program or have participated in it as volunteers: If it flourishes and expands, it is poised to have a meaningful effect on reducing the Thoroughbred fatality rate from catastrophic injuries, simply because it is going to save, rehab and adopt out horses whose fates might otherwise have been decided by adverse economic factors.Joe DeFrancis, who was previously the majority owner and chief executive of the Maryland Jockey Club, now chairs the HERF board. He said the key to the initiative is that HERF provides options for lower-level owners and trainers on smaller racing circuits who want to do the right thing for their horses but simply cannot afford to.“These are marginal players in the sport, most of them, and they're faced with really difficult economic decisions,” DeFrancis said. “They're struggling to get by and they don't have the money to pay the medical bills at retail that it would take to provide a surgery, provide the aftercare from the surgery, and rehabilitate a horse that, by and large, is going to have no further economic value to them. And people shouldn't be criticized for that, or made to feel in any way uncomfortable, or at fault.“Think of HERF as a pipeline,” DeFrancis said. “So from the moment that the horse gets injured and the owner basically says, 'I can't really deal with this injury,' HERF steps in and takes ownership and complete responsibility for the health, safety, well-being, and treatment of the horse.”HERF will have a $1.4 million budget for fiscal year 2027 to build upon its first year of operations.“We are funded solely by donations, and so we are solely dependent upon the charitable goodwill of individuals and organizations that care about horses,” DeFrancis said.“One of the major economic pillars that supports our existence is 'in-kind' contributions from members of the industry. Whether that's people that have farms providing a stall to help a horse do that short-term rehabilitation middle phase, or whether it's equine hospitals like Rood & Riddle or New Bolton doing surgeries that are deeply discounted or completely gratis, or transport companies providing free vanning services, based upon our 2026 experience to date, in-kind contributions covered roughly one-third of our expenses, and we're hoping that continues on a go-forward basis into 2027,” DeFrancis said.“But the rest, roughly a million dollars of cash need, we're hoping to raise in contributions from individuals and organizations,” DeFrancis said. “That's our goal.”As part of the analysis for that budget, DeFrancis said HERF examined equine fatality data based on HISA's four most recently published quarterly reports.“There were a total of 177 racing fatalities over that period for the HISA racetracks that we had data for,” DeFrancis said. “That's not nationwide. There are a number of racetracks that are not in the HISA database, so we didn't have access to their data. But for racetracks that are in the HISA database, there were 177 racing fatalities. That translated into a fatality rate per thousand starts of 1.07.“And our chief veterinary liaison, Karen Hassan, looked at all of those 177 cases, and concluded that had HERF been in existence over those four quarters–we didn't begin doing business until Q2 of 2026–she estimates that we would have been able to save 37 of those horses, which was 21% of the total fatalities,” DeFrancis said.“That would have resulted in the fatalities per [thousand starts] number going down from 1.07 to 0.84. That's a 21% reduction, which is pretty significant,” DeFrancis said.“And that's just scratching the surface. We're just kind of getting going. We think in the fullness of time, when we're operational in every state, and hopefully HISA's constitutionality has been finally resolved by the United States Supreme Court, and all states that have pari-mutuel horse racing are under HISA jurisdiction, that we'll be able to get that number down even lower,” DeFrancis said.You'd think that would be a statistic HERF might be touting loudly. But DeFrancis emphasized he didn't want the HERF story to come across as being numbers-driven, because it detracts from the organization's mission.“I want to be crystal-clear about this: HERF doesn't exist to improve or polish or make better any particular statistic,” DeFrancis said. “It exists to fill a gap in the overall equine welfare infrastructure as it relates to taking care of horses at the middle and lower end of the sport. [So if] they suffer a catastrophic injury that causes them to have no further value as a racehorse, economics [don't dictate whether a horse gets] euthanized rather than receiving life-saving medical treatment. And that is the challenge and the problem that HERF was created to address.“But one of the byproducts of HERF is that in fulfilling our mission, it is addressing that challenge [of reducing equine fatalities]. We are, and we will, significantly improve that catastrophic breakdown statistic that everybody pays attention to,” DeFrancis said.The Bandoroffs with 'Ryan' at Denali Stud | Courtesy of Denali Stud'Ryan' revealedHorses like Ryan have a chance at second careers, but HERF realizes not all of their intakes will.In cases where a horse is pain-free and pasture-sound but can't go back under saddle, it will be matched with a new owner who will see that the horse “lives out its life in peace and comfort in the field, basically,” DeFrancis said.Ford said at New Vocations, “We have five from HERF here in Lexington. The majority of them are all progressing well. We have one 'question mark' horse that might need more of a sanctuary home than an adopted home.”But, Ford added, “I definitely think it'll help with the fatality numbers. Most of the surgeries are pretty straightforward. We're getting horses with these types of surgeries fairly regularly, so it's great that they're able to provide the surgeries for the people who aren't able to do that.”Mandy Minger, who is HERF's executive director (and lone full-time employee), said that, “The Empty Stall Challenge is still ongoing, and we have more people who have donated stalls than we've had horses to put in them at this point, so that's the best part. We've had six horses go through the Empty Stall Challenge, and we have about six farms that are already on deck.”One of the policies that HERF has had to adjust since Ryan was profiled in TDN half a year ago has to do with the disclosure of registered names.Minger explained that initially, HERF chose not to disclose a horse's Jockey Club name for fear that owners who could not afford the surgery might feel shamed or subjected to stigmatization, and thus unwilling to give HERF horses.But now, DeFrancis said, HERF has realized that asking people to adopt rehabbed Thoroughbreds without telling them everything that is known about the horse simply isn't practical or transparent.Plus, Minger said, rehabbed Thoroughbreds that compete in various aftercare competitions have to be identified to enter.“These horses are going to be eligible for fabulous programs like the Retired Racehorse Project, and people are very interested in their racing careers,” Minger said.“So after consulting with many people in racing, [we realized] trying to keep the horse anonymous forever was a nonstarter. And obviously, they're all [micro] chipped, and it would take anybody a minute to figure out who they were. So for rehoming them publicly, they will be under their racing names,” Minger said.DeFrancis said he hopes that decision ends up being a reasonable compromise, noting that in most cases, the better part of a year will have passed after a horse comes into HERF and the disclosure of the name occurs.“When we take a horse into the program at the beginning of the pipeline, we give him a barn name. And then when he comes out of the pipeline and is adopted out to a permanent new home, he reverts back to his Jockey Club name,” DeFrancis said.“The reason behind the confidentiality is we want to really encourage participation in the program by horsemen, by owners and trainers. We don't want there to be any possible stigma attached to participating in the program or have any owner or trainer be subject to criticism. Because–and this is really important–the overwhelming majority of them are not doing anything wrong.”Bandoroff said that at Denali, “When we saw those videos of him entering early training at New Vocations, there was just not a dry eye. He looked so excited. His ears were pricked the whole time.“All of us are really looking forward to following him in his new career. Hopefully he'll have a successful career, and he's going to be a great horse for whoever ends up with him,” Bandoroff said.“Ryan just has that 'honest eye' about him,” Bandoroff said. “That's the window into a horse's soul. It's how you can tell if they're healthy or not. And I feel like whenever we would look at him, there was just this, like, thankfulness about it.“But I also think we can probably thank him as well,” Bandoroff said. “I think having him at the farm, he brought a lot of hope to everyone that worked with him.”To donate to HERF, click this link.The post HERF’s ‘Ryan’ Ready for Second Career; Program Could Contribute to Significant Reduction in Fatality Rate appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.