Trot Insider has learned that on Thursday, October 18, a rally and demonstration in support of the Ontario horse-racing industry will be taking place at Queen's Park.

Lily Postl, a 24-year-old recent graduate of the University of Guelph's Performance Horse Handler Program, will be hosting the Queen's Park rally on Thursday, October 18. She has said that the rally will get underway at roughly 11:00 a.m.

"Before I even graduated my course I have watched racing in Ontario go downhill with the Liberals' decision to end the slots-at-racetracks program [effective] March 2013," said Postl, who has been working as a groom and hotwalker for the last three years at Fort Erie Racetrack.

"No one in the industry knows what will happen [to] the future of horse racing, and the effects are starting to show," she said. "I have written letters and contacted politicians, but I believed I could do more."

Postl has explained that she has been collecting horseshoes from various racetracks in Ontario for about the last month. "The shoes are to represent a direct or indirect job lost in rural/urban Ontario due to the government's rash decision," she explained. "The shoes are going to be displayed on boards to show everyone just a chunk of the jobs lost in this huge agricultural sector."

Postl is calling on equine-related students, teachers, grooms, riders, local businesses and anyone else affected by the Ontario Liberals' action to join her and support the industry as a whole.

For more information, please refer to the Facebook page for the event by clicking here.