Horses seized in Va. case blossom at prison farm
Two ex-racehorse Thoroughbreds rescued last year in a raid on a Virginia farm filled with starving horses, have blossomed under the gentle care of inmates who learned horsemanship and life skills through the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation’s (TRF) Second Chances program. Since arriving at the James River Work Center, where Second Chances trains inmates to care for and love former racehorses, OTTBs Clem (JC: To Clem) and Ollie (JC: Oligopolist) have regained weight, had the shine return to their coats, and in one case, even started re-training as a riding horse. “Both horses are absolute sweethearts,” says Brooks Clement, a professional Thoroughbred […]
Share this:
Brave OTTB rides from Calif. to Ala.; indomitable
The chips were already stacked against Ray’s Storm before he entered the post parade at the California track. Then his luck got dramatically worse. As the gate sprang open, another horse slammed into him, hard. He stumbled. He appeared to almost to fall. But rather than quit, like so many horses might have, Ray’s Storm dug deep and fired his “back burners,” recalls Maureen McKenzie. And just about a minute later the racehorse who’d been a bettor’s long shot that day rocketed across the finish line in first place, winning a little money, and a lifetime place in the heart of an instant fan. It […]
Share this:
A $10 bid saves her ‘horse of a lifetime’
Bidding was lackluster on the October afternoon that Sondra Fallon topped the meat buyer by $10 to buy a scrawny, cribbing, miserable little horse. “Why would anybody want her? She was skinny and miserable, and she was cribbing,” Fallon says. “The only time she didn’t crib was when she was being ridden. She was the opposite of what I was looking for too.” But, after searching up and down the aisles of the Unadilla Auction’s big fall sale in New York three years ago, ruling out horse after horse for her newly started lesson program at her barn, Fallon kept […]
