Equine advocate works tirelessly to protect ex-racehorses – when she isn’t donating vital body organs to strangers!
The most remarkable people often don’t realise just how special they are.
In the past seven years, horse advocate Erin Dupre has donated a kidney and part of her liver to strangers and taken on three stepchildren after marrying a fighter pilot – all the while campaigning tirelessly to save for horses in kill pens.
Remarkable indeed, you might think. She doesn’t, of course. “I don’t think I’m amazing,” she laughs. “It’s my own life; I just live it.”
As if on cue, Dupre is forced to delay our call for an animal-related emergency. One of her three horses – “I also have a crazy rescue donkey” – has to undergo colic surgery. Thankfully, by the time we speak, he is doing much better.
As is Dupre, despite just three months ago going through extensive surgery to remove part of her liver. If you’re squeamish, best not to read on.
‘Something really epic’
“I turn 50 in November and wanted to do something really epic,” she says.” For most, that might be a skydive or a bungee jump, or maybe a long trip.
Not for Louisiana-based Dupre. “The hospital here is one of the few which does living liver transplants in children,” she explains. “I donated a portion of my liver to a three-year-old girl. They removed the left lateral lobe of my liver and they placed that in her. Because she’s so tiny, it will grow into a new liver.
“My own liver will regenerate but off the right side, not the left, and everything in my stomach cavity kind of moves and grows into a new space,” she goes on. “But when my stomach growls, it growls in my underarm. I called the hospital and they said it’s totally normal.”
That’s about where ‘normal’ ends for Dupre, but her good friend, the dual Triple Crown-winning trainer Bob Baffert, attempted to add a dose of realism to the situation. “What, regenerates like a crab leg?” he quipped.
In all seriousness, the recovery, even for someone who rides and runs daily, was tough. “This one was harder, but it wasn’t necessarily the liver itself,” says Dupre.
“I have a quirky GI [gastrointestinal] tract and, just like a horse, I colicked after the operation, so I had to stay in hospital longer than planned. I was on a liquid diet for two months, but I feel normal now – I’m allowed to ride.”
Does she plan to donate anything else? “I think I’ve been banned from donating any more organs!” she laughs. “At least until I die, when they might as well use my parts.”
Dupre’s connections in racing stem from the 1998 Kentucky Derby, won by Baffert-trained Real Quiet. “I remember it like it was yesterday,” she says.
“I had kind of a dim view of racing at that time, but I was working at Rood & Riddle and Dr Larry Bramlage took me on his rounds all that week. I thought it was incredible, seeing everything which went on around the backstretch. I’ve loved it ever since.”
Eventually, she turned it into a career, working for Kentucky Equine Research, which saw her travel to visit trainers and racetracks all over the States and internationally.
What is more, 2025 isn’t the first time that Dupre has saved a life. “In 2018 I was a living kidney donor to a man I didn’t know,” she says.
“That was because my ex-husband, a month after we got married, found out that he had polycystic kidney disease and would eventually need a transplant. I checked into it, and that was the plan.
‘Hey, how’s your kidney?’
“But his kidneys lasted longer than our marriage. 14 years later I heard about someone needing a kidney and called my ex-husband and said: ‘Hey, how’s your kidney? Do you mind if I give mine to someone else?’ He said: ‘Sure, go ahead!’
“So I donated to a stranger, and it really wasn’t that hard – not that painful – and I travelled to Dubai for the Dubai World Cup a month later. How often do you get to save a life?”
You’d think that would be enough excitement, but it led to Dupre finding love. Her social media exposure because of the donation led to a meeting with Matt Dupre. Her very own fighter pilot, he currently flies an F-15 Eagle for the Louisiana Air National Guard.
“Matt was stationed in South Carolina where I used to ride horses,” she says. “My social media was public at the time due to the kidney donation, and he contacted my horse friend to ask about me.
‘Never boring, right?’
“Then he called me up to ask if I wanted to go snowboarding and within 24 hours had flown to Lexington to meet me. We got engaged four months later and married two months after that and we’re still married. Never boring, right?!”
Matt had three small children from his previous marriage – not necessarily an easy situation for all concerned. “It was so incredibly difficult,” she admits. “They were four, six and eight when I met them and the eldest one put me through the ringer, because I’m eight years older than their dad.
“We all get on great now, in fact his ex-wife and I did a 12-hour road trip with the kids the other day to watch him fly his jet in St Louis.”
When not donating body parts, working or looking after her family, Dupre is a passionate advocate for rescues: dogs, horses … probably any animal you care to mention, frankly.
She does a bit of photography and videos with Vidhorse, while it also tallies that she currently works for Qalibra, a German company making equine CTs than can scan the horse’s whole body.
“I’m a bleeding heart, across the board,” she says. “Growing up in Lexington, I thought that all Thoroughbreds lived a lovely life. I was surrounded by beautiful farms and wonderful horse people. But horses of all types, breeds and disciplines can end up in 
bad places. Over the years I’ve had quite a few off the track, some of whom I rehomed.”
It’s not just horses she’s canvassing for. “One of Bob [Baffert]’s grooms, Silvestre Garcia, needs a kidney and I talk to Bob more about that than anything else. He’s been on TV, lobbying for him.
“I read a study and apparently people involved with animals are the most likely to donate and horse people rank very highly,” she says. “I know of quite a few people across Kentucky who have donated kidneys.”
For Dupre, this is normal. For the rest of us, she, and those like her, are amazing human beings.
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