A racehorse brings joy to a disabled child
Timmy Summer’s frail arm rose slightly away from his wheelchair, as he willed it toward the giant animal. A moment later, his small hand rested against the soft spot just underneath the bay gelding’s muzzle. Yielding to the little boy’s touch, and his own apparent desire to draw even closer to the child, the Thoroughbred leaned hard against the stall door that separated them, stretching forward, getting closer. To the amazement of the child’s mother and to others in the barn, ex-racehorse Dick G, who battled it out on the hard scrabbled track to win $30,000 in his career, became […]
Share this:
Clubhouse Q&A: Totally Thoroughbred Show
This interview was originally published on July 18, 2012. When Maryland Jockey Club Racing Secretary Georganne Hale helped dream up the idea of the Totally Thoroughbred Show at the Pimlico racetrack last Saturday, she thought, at best, she’d attract a total of 105 horses to complete in seven classes, each with 10- to-15 horses. Oh how she miscalculated! In a good way. Some 300 horses and more than 800 entrants hauled into Pimlico July 14th to strut their stuff in the steamy Maryland heat last weekend. Sleek and gleaming, yet cool in the “big atmosphere,” former racehorses gently carried tots […]
Share this:
Home sweet home for Hotstufanthensome
When Hotstufanthensome limped off the van at New Vocations, his legs were “a mess.” “He could barely walk,” recalls former New Vocations trainer Lisa Molloy. “We had him X-rayed and we found factures in his front leg and a big hole in his suspensory branch.” But what no amount of medical testing could show that day, two years ago, or during his subsequent four months of stall rest and six months of rehab at New Vocations, was how the pint-sized racehorse would eventually charm people into looking out for his welfare, even after it first appeared he had no hope. […]
