Finally — something horrifically newsworthy in the already bloodcurdling sport of harness racing.
But sadly, a few horses had to die in agony and one semi-prominent racing personality had to pretty much lose her mind and cast herself in an all-too-real version of “SAW VII – The Silent Hoofbeats” for somebody in the real world to take notice.
Have you ever heard of a woman named Monica Thors?
Odds are that you have not because she belongs to the widely UNKNOWN and equally UNKNOWING harness racing community wherein she is now looked upon as the most evil horse abuser on the face of the earth.
It’s pretty hard to be the worst horse abuser in harness racing. It’s like trying to be a Sumo wrestler with the world’s jiggliest man-boobs.
Let’s start by explaining that HARNESS RACING — for the uninitiated – is the kind of horse racing where they have wheels and buggies and drivers instead of saddles and jockeys.
Yes, I know that I am vastly (and intentionally) over-simplifying any and all descriptions of this kind of horse racing because no matter how basic I make the description, virtually no one will know what the hell I am talking about, and I don’t feel like explaining anything more than to say that Monica Thors is a woman who is connected to horses in several ways — many of which are imagined or self-invented.
THIS IS WHAT SEEMS TO HAVE HAPPENED.
Beginning about three years ago, the buzz in and around the world of the trotting horse, was that one Monica Thors — very well known in racing circles — was keeping a stable of horses who could not walk. They could not walk because Monica — whose own feet seemed to have left the ground — had allegedly cut off their hooves with a dremel tool.
Should I end the story there?
I can’t — it’s too exciting and awful. Would you drive right past Jayne Mansfield’s car wreck?
STOP RIGHT HERE FOR A MOMENT AND TAKE A DEEP BREATH IF YOU DECIDE TO GO ON.
Okay — so you are a thinking and rational human being, right? And, because you are a thinking and rational being, you are immediately aware of the fact that this woman is probably insane and in need of serious mental help, right? Good — because if your first reaction was to run over to New Jersey USA and cut off Monica’s feet, you are not qualified to read this blog. You are, however, highly qualified to enter the world of the often misguided animal rights activist and harness racing overall because many of these individuals are unable to grasp the fact that this woman, in my opinion, has some serious mental illness.
Remember my rule — you are there to help the animal and not to crucify the abuser — especially if the alleged abuser is a certifiable mental case.
OKAY, SO THIS IS WHAT SEEMS TO HAVE HAPPENED.
Dremel, dremel, toil and trouble.
It was reported that Ms. Thors was keeping a very tidy stable of horses who — basically — had no feet because she cut them off.
It is also alleged that Ms. Thors used a grinder or paring knife or electric dremel to file those hoofs into nothingness in an effort to cure a serious hoof disease that she is alleged to have intentionally caused.
And — partially because of Ms. Thors’ penchant for whittling the hands (and feet) of time away — some of the horses either died, or could not stand, or were held aloft by a sling which hung from the ceiling until they perished or were put down.
Information about how some of the horses met their death is currently not very clear and we can only hope that they were humanely destroyed.
Whichever the case, it’s safe to assume that the dead horses were far better off than the living.
The horses in question — and nobody really knows how many are, or were, involved in this mayhem — all suffered from a serious disease process of the foot called Laminitis — or in layman’s terms, they were “foundered.”
I’ll save you all the long and boring scientific explanations but sufficed to say that a horse with laminitis or founder is in grave danger and is usually in excruciating pain because their feet are falling off. I know that is a very unscientific explanation, but basically that’s the gist of it.
The main bone inside walls of the hoof begins to rotate downwards due to the inflammation within the vascular structure of the hoof. Gradually, as the bone rotates and the inflammation worsens, the hoof begins to fall off.
There are some effective treatments –medically and mechanically — and sometimes the process of foundering stops on its own, but once the foundering has begun, the damage is mostly irreparable. Many foundered horses have to be put down in spite of dedicated medical intervention.
A horse founders or gets laminitis for several known reasons although the mechanism for why this happens is not fully understood. What is understood, however, is that a human being can intentionally cause a horse to founder, and this seems to be what Ms Thors is being accused of doing. The question is, why? We’ll get to that in a moment.
One easy way to make a horse founder is to feed it too much and to deprive it of exercise. This is what Monica Thors has been accused of doing.
Allegedly, Ms. Thors has fed her horses to the point where their obesity eventually led to founder or laminitis.
Then, for some unknown reason, she took the foundered horses and tried to heal them by using a dremel to carve away the damaged hooves. This is a technique that is sometimes used by skilled blacksmiths and veterinarians.
I can only assume that Ms. Thors is not a trained blacksmith and I know for a fact that she is not a veterinarian, but she has, in my opinion, imagined herself to be a great healer and a pioneer in the treatment of laminitis.
It all boils down to the basic fact that Monica Thors has been observed and accused of intentionally causing her horses to founder and then coming to their rescue with her own haphazard cures. That seems to be the general idea of what’s going on in in the macabre world of Monica Thors. Pretty crazy, eh?
Please allow me to again state that we are, after all, civilized beings and what I am describing does not sound like the behavior of a normal person. There is something not right — right? Good.
As long as we understand the basic fact that Ms. Thors could very well be mentally ill, we can continue like mature adults and not say things like, “Somebody should cut off her feet” or “She should die with her body hanging on a sling like her poor horses.”
Yes, believe it or not, a lot of people in the harness racing business and in animal rescue and Facebook — the final frontier for every moron on the face of the earth — have said things like that.
These are simpletons who live in a world full of puppies and kittens — a place where people never suffer from mental illness and everything is beautiful. But then you some to that Rainbow Bridge. I’m about to lose my temper so let’s move along.
According to sources, Monica Thors — an immigrant from Sweden — arrived on the harness racing scene over 30 years ago and fashioned herself as a horsewoman and a horse photographer. She seemed nice enough and very highly professional. She even got herself married to one of harness racing’s most famous drivers, but over the years, in spite of her well-heeled connections, Monica started to get on everyone’s nerves.
“She was overly zealous about everything and very self-important and imposing and intrusive,” said one source.
“She bought an expensive bunch of cameras and fashioned herself as the world’s greatest harness racing photographer. It was like she totally invented herself and created an image. It got to the point where everybody had to get Monica (Thors) to photograph their horses, but the thing was that she wasn’t really any better than anybody else and she charged a lot of money. Some people got hip to her quick and I think she was gradually dismissed by most people as being a weirdo and an overall pain in the ass.”
The years went by and Monica Thors continued to do whatever it was that she imagined she could do. You have to admire her work ethic. She set out to be the most famous trotting horse photographer in the world and she kind of succeeded.
She did indeed photograph several harness racing champions and she was internationally known for her work at the Meadowlands Racetrack — the leading harness racing track in North America.
Monica Thors even tried her hands at being a harness racing driver, but that’s a hard nut to crack for a woman in harness racing and that career went nowhere — but at least she tried, and for a few moments she had lured in a few investors. They didn’t stick around for long and luckily they departed with their feet intact.
Seems like Ms Thors has tried everything.
Heck, she’s even making a movie called “I AM A HARNESS RACEHORSE” –
So now she is, on top of everything else, a producer-writer-creator – cinematographer – director and publicist. The movie even has its own trailer. You can go over and watch it on YouTube. Naturally there is no actual “movie” but there is a trailer. A lot of producers make movies that way — so Ms. Thors has that pretty much nailed down.
While Ms. Thors’ invisible movie is in pre-production, she is has embarked on other ventures because she is, after all. an expert in just about everything.
Her most recent incidental sideline is working as a blacksmith who specializes in foundered horses. The trouble with that is that a blacksmith’s job is essentially an art or a highly skilled sort of craftsmanship. You just don’t hang up a shingle and proclaim yourself to be a blacksmith. You’ll get found out real quick — so to speak. The other troubling aspect to her burgeoning career as a laminitis expert is that she is accused of making the horses founder in the first place.
Naturally, since the field of blacksmithing is held in such high regard, Ms. Thors had to become one — or at least describe herself as one — but only after the services of a masterful one were needed, In my opinion she declared herself to be that master. Pity the poor animals.
Allegedly, Monica Thors has declared herself to be an expert in so many things but her endless expertise has gotten out of hand — and that’s where the horror began and where it remains today.
Remember how we spoke earlier about laminitis and founder? Well, aside from a veterinarian, a highly trained blacksmith is usually a foundered horse’s only other friend. No foundered horse can find the road to recovery without a blacksmith who is trained to repair the foundered hoof or hooves in painstakingly slow stages.
Part of the process involves gradually removing pieces of the foot and allowing then to grow back. It’s like repairing a quilt one small square at a time. It can take months or years for a foundered horse to be returned to good health.
Ms. Thors, it is said, does not seem to understand this, and because she has anointed herself as an expert in just about everything, her barn became a house of horrors when she reinvented herself as a blacksmith who specializes in curing horses who have foundered.
LET ME EXPLAIN THE MESS
A horse’s hoof is essentially a big hunk of toenail. It’s dead tissue that grows like a fingernail and every now and then it needs to be trimmed and shod. This does not hurt the horse and it’s an essential part of competent and healthy horse care.
Deep within that big toenail of a hoof you will find living tissue — nerves — blood vessels — tendons — bone — and all the things you would find anywhere else in any living creature. Rarely, a blacksmith might trim or pare a horse’s hoof just a teeny bit too much and he nicks the living part of the foot.
When a blacksmith accidentally does this, it is said that he has “quicked” the horse. His knife has gone a little too deep and the horse feels a quick flicker of pain and there might be a spot of bright red blood — like a pin prick on your finger.
This is where we get the expression, “You cut me to the quick.”
Ordinary folks say it to mean that they have felt an unexpected twinge of pain or harm inflicted upon them.
A horse who has been “quicked” is in no danger and the problem resolves itself quickly. Horses get quicked all the time, and a horse who has never been quicked has probably never been trimmed or shod.
Again, trimming and shoeing a horse in captivity is part of basic care of the animal. If you don’t take care of a horse’s feet, you are not only neglecting the animal, you are gradually crippling it. Don’t worry for now about what happens to horses in the wild. That’s not the issue here.
Anyway, there is an old expression that has been used by horsemen for centuries: NO FOOT, NO HORSE.
This does old saying doesn’t seem to apply to Monica Thors.
She doesn’t just cut to the quick — she cuts to the bone. I will not show you pictures of what she has done to horse’s hooves — you can look that up all by yourselves. It’s gruesome.
Yes, it is true that sometimes a skilled blacksmith can trim out dead hooves as part of the treatment, and it looks pretty gruesome, but in Ms. Thors’ case, and in my opinion, she doesn’t know what the hell she is doing.
I also believe that she doesn’t know what she is doing because there is something mentally wrong with her. I am not a psychiatrist and I am not qualified to make any medical diagnosis of any illness, but it should be patently clear to anyone with an ounce of common sense that this woman needs help — big time.
HERE’S THE THING
There is a movement afoot — so to speak — to have the NJ SPCA haul away whatever horses Ms. Thors has left and for her family in Sweden to come and get her the mental help she seems to need. The trouble is that it’s not an easy thing to do.
The horses belong to her and the NJ SPCA seems to be dragging their heels — just like Monica’s horses. They don’t seem to have a leg to stand on — just like Monica’s horses. They can’t throw their weight around — just like Monica’s horses.
Listen — It’s not easy to take away someone’s pets and it’s nearly impossible to get someone put in a mental health facility. Ms. Thors is a highly intelligent woman and she puts forth a very good and authoritative persona. People are easily charmed by her.
My fear is that the lynch mob who want her drawn and quartered are unaware of laws and logic. The sick horses can be put out of their misery in an instant, but what happens then to Ms. Thors? You don’t just show up at someone’s home with a net and a straight jacket and assume you can toss them into the loony bin. If you think it’s that easy, you’re the nutty one.
I truly believe that if Ms. Thors were to arrive at her barn, in the state that I believe she is in, and finds her horses taken away, she will snap. What will that mean?
Be careful what you wish for, folks. You think this is ugly now? Wait until you see what might happen next. Every great act has an even greater encore, and this is one I don’t want to see.