Happy Thanksgiving!

He who thanks but with the lips
Thanks but in part;
The full, the true Thanksgiving
Comes from the heart. "

The prose was listed on a Facebook friends page and I had to stop and pause. How succinctly and sweetly was the poem about giving thanks. We make a lot of the meal, the football and the travels that it takes for many to be with their family during this time.

Tomorrow most will be thinking of shopping for the holidays, the money that will be spent trying to find the perfect gift (with possibly much less money than in years past), and well the stress of managing it all. Forgetting completely, the day before where everyone says "Happy Thanksgiving" to each other.

But giving thanks, truly giving thanks is such an easy thing to do every single day. It's a habit that can be developed in a short time and with a loving, full heart of thanks, your life can change without you even knowing it.

I know this to be true with The Second Race. The beginning of our organization started with a true leap of faith, and with a vision to give thanks to the race horses that had entertained and gave so much to provide the enjoyment and relief from my stressful job every weekend.

I love going to the races and in 2003 at the Breeders Cup I decided that somehow, someway I would be part of horse racing. Fast forward to 2009 and I couldn't imagine that the way I would become involved would be to start a national network to transition race horses off the tracks across the U.S.!

I am thankful that God put the thought into my head years earlier, and then made a way for me to make this dream come to fruition. It meant that I lost my job for the second time in as many years, that I literally had nothing to stop me ( a divorce earlier in the year had been finalized), and that I realized that things were just things, and I was able to begin the funding of The Second Race, with my own collection of racing memorabilia.

I am thankful that so many people, complete strangers on Facebook and Twitter, caught the vision right along with me and encouraged me to proceed. I had a goal in mind that if I could garner at least 2500 Facebook friends, that I would launch our website and never look back. Which of course we did. We have an online community that will start on January 1, 2011 with much more in store for the new year.

I am thankful that the horsemen at the race track have been so encouraging, have allowed The Second Race the privilege to assist them to transition their horses to the next step along the path of their lives. Without them, The Second Race would not exist.

I am thankful that a friend, made the most amazing donation of a piece of their beautiful ranch "the peninsula" to house The Second Race foster horses, and that we have been able to leap ahead with our plans to safely provide a respite for the horses from the track.

I am thankful that we continue on, with the help of mentors that allow us to share our frustrations, joys and tears with us. Doing what we do is a labor of love, nothing more, no one is ever going to get rich helping ex-race horses. There are more monetary costs than can ever be recouped, but it is with thankfulness from a heart so full that we wish all a Happy Thanksgiving, not in part with our lips; but with a full heart.

To see the current ex-race horses awaiting sponsorship or adoption visit our website at www.thesecondrace.com