from Halters For Hope

Columbus, OH — If you don’t have a champion Standardbred in your barn this holiday season, you can have the next closest thing — his or her halter.

The Halters For Hope program, which provides harness racing fans with halters worn by some of the sport’s brightest stars in exchange for a donation to a Standardbred in need, can ship the halter of your choice in time for Christmas.

There are halters available for immediate shipping from 2008 Horse of the Year Somebeachsomewhere, whose handlers at Hanover Shoe Farms outfitted him in a succession of eight halters to maximize the donations to Standardbreds in need of a home. That pacer’s stud book for 2013 is full and closed, so if you can’t get your mare in to him, at least you can get his halter.

On the trotting side, Chocolatier, Broadway Hall, Crazed, Andover Hall, SJ’s Caviar and Credit Winner all have gently worn halters available.

Some of the grand ladies of the sport are represented in halters from the recently deceased Hall of Fame broodmare Rich N Elegant as well as Cathedra, D Train (dam of Hambletonian winner Donato Hanover), Breeders Crown and Hambletonian Oaks champs Moni Maker and Broadway Schooner and Hattie, dam of millionaires Holborn Hanover and Hyperion Hanover.

All but a few of the halters are brown leather and are standard horse size; those who might like to inspire their own steeds by dressing them with an equine star’s halter can do so.

The current available halters include Broadway Hall, Real Artist, Allamerican Native, American Ideal, Explosive Matter, Shadow Play and The Panderosa.

Prices range from $125 to $300. Please click here for available halters and billing instructions.

Proceeds benefit charitable groups that care for and find homes for Standardbreds in need. More than $6,000 has been raised to date through the sale of these gently worn halters. In the case of all-breed groups, donations must be used only on Standardbreds.

The groups include: Racer Placers, Rockin T Equine Rescue, Helping Hearts Equine Rescue, Central Virginia Horse Rescue, Ontario Standardbred Adoption Society, American Standardbred Adoption, Heading for Home, Horse Lovers United, New Vocations, The Starfish Group, Changing Fates Equine Rescue, TROTR (Therapeutic Riding and Off Track Rehabilitation) and the Standardbred Retirement Foundation.