A 2nd chance for rescued mare & new owner
Her coat bleached red in the Florida sun, her body sapped from starvation, the mare was tired when she rested her head against the chest of SPCA volunteer Susie Martell, and made a friend for life. “Something just drew me to her. She was the skinniest of all the mares the SPCA had rescued in June … and there was a sweetness in her that I was taken with right away. Every time I went out to her paddock, she would walk up to me and rest her head on me,” Martell says. “I fell in love with her right […]
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Lainey Ashker and Al win Millbrook: ‘I belong’
When Lainey Ashker and her 15-year-old off-track Thoroughbred Anthony Patch trounced the competition at the Millbrook Horse Trials earlier this month, the proudest moments came in the dressage ring, with the perfect execution of the canter work on which they’d worked so hard, and in her own head, as she finally realized she really did belong up there competing at the highest echelons of the sport. “I think the biggest thing for me was to be in that group of people and to be competitive,” Ashker says. “It’s great to feel you belong. I’ve always known I had the work […]
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Answering a call from Wooden Phone, chosen
In his heyday the plain bay with the unusual moniker Wooden Phone was undoubtedly the topic of many excited conversations. In 19 starts, he amassed more than $800,000; even beating the pants off Hall of Fame champ Tiznow in 2001. But off the track, his prowess as an athlete did not quite translate into a winning personality. So says Suzanne Minter of LOPE (LoneStar Outreach to Place Ex-Racers), “He had a lot of stress issues and was very attached to his buddies in the pasture; popping his lip in distress, and rearing and spinning at the drop of a hat. […]
