Imagining new lives for racehorses with CJ Wilson

A monthly conversation examining creatures, ecology, writing, film, music, art, science and pop culture, using three primary mediums: doodles, writing, and speech. Hosted by Juliana, she talks with documentary film makers, musicians and activists leading global protests.

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Nonhuman animals who perform labor for humans are often discarded when their bodies give out, but does that have to be the end of the story? This week, Juliana speaks with CJ Wilson who founded Win Place Home, a nonprofit that offers former racehorses a good home where their transition will be smooth and calm, giving them a confident trust to move forward in life. In this episode, they discuss reading body language, Win Place Home’s growth over the years, and the alternative possibilities for a human-horse relationship.

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Conversations with Animals is a monthly podcast hosted by Juliana examining our interconnection with nonhuman animal lives. Expect interviews with ecological writers, filmmakers, vegan chefs, animal-related spaces, artists, and more! Each month, a fresh companion newsletter is published. Subscribe: www.julianaroth.com/drawinganimals

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CJ Wilson started riding horses when she was four and grew up riding 3-day eventers. At 17, she was working as an assistant for a saddle seat trainer and eventually for his daughter until she was 26. After learning the intricacies of training, she moved to Northern California to manage a riding stable full of jumpers, dressage, and western horses. Eventually the racetrack called to her, she worked for three years as an assistant trainer in Northern California before returning to Los Angeles. CJ worked another three years as an assistant trainer at Santa Anita, Hollywood Park, and Del Mar before switching focus to being a vet tech at the non-profit equine hospital at Santa Anita Racetrack for two years. She spent another 2 years at the track as a vet assistant.

As the trainer for Win Place Home, CJ brings with her 39 years of experience with horses, 26 years of work experience, and 10 years of experience with thoroughbred racehorses at the track.  It is her dedication and true love for these animals that she works each day to ensure their future is bright.

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Juliana is a writer, filmmaker, educator, and performer. She formerly lived as a volunteer on an organic farm in Maine, out of a backpack in the wilderness of Utah’s La Sal Mountains, and worked for the Ecology Center. She was selected as a VIDA Fellow with the Sundress Academy for the Arts for her fiction. Her writing appears in The Breakwater Review, Irish Pages, Los Angeles Review of Books as well as being produced as independent films that she directs. Her web series, The University, was nominated by the International Academy of Web Television for Best Drama Writing and screened at survivor justice nonprofits across the country. Her new film, Final Curtain Call, inspired by the life of Radio City Music Hall’s Chief Organist, is currently screening at film festivals. She teaches writing at NYU.