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Veritably Icy melts hearts, inspires family

One pale Thoroughbred changed everything for them. Almost overnight, Xan Owens and Michelle Arani went from merely considering horse ownership to the outright purchase of two Thoroughbreds— one for them, one for their teenage daughter—and racing toward their dream of establishing a nonprofit for horse advocacy. “Never did we think we’d wind up owning one horse, much less two,” Owen says. “And the idea of a nonprofit wasn’t even in the ballpark!” So much of it began by fluke. Race name: Veritably Icy New name: Silver Sire: Mr. Integrity Dam: Mighty Icy Age: 15Two years earlier they had decided to […]

Hoy is desensitized at the "car wash" obstacle.

In honor of Ferdinand, ex-racer given good home

Still reeling from the news that Kentucky Derby winner Ferdinand had been destroyed in a Japanese slaughterhouse, Sandy Porter-Gonyea spotted something that would change her life. Emblazoned across a full page of the 2003 edition of the New York newspaper she was reading, was a picture of Ferdinand winning the Kentucky Derby. And beneath it, was a photo of a dinner plate and the statement: “Eat an American Champion.” At that moment Porter-Gonyea promised herself this: “If I was ever ready to buy a horse, I’d buy an off-track Thoroughbred,” she says. “I decided I was going to save at […]

After Rolex, Ashker ready to take on the world

That horrible day vanished from thought as Laine Ashker burst from the start box aboard Anthony Patch. Galloping toward the first obstacle at the 2010 Rolex Three-Day, each stride put emotional distance between the young rider and the devastating accident that claimed the life of her horse Frodo Baggins, two years earlier. The black New Zealand Thoroughbred, who was lovely enough to appear in the movie Lord of the Rings, was euthanized, and Ashker was airlifted to a hospital with multiple broken bones, two collapsed lungs, and a severely fractured jaw. For two months, after the fall, Ashker remained hospitalized. […]