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Rescued TB goes on to ribbon at HITS

By on August 6, 2015

Going Coastal was a “dream rescue” who turned into a dream horse for 15-year-old owner/rider Bridget Lautensack.

Going Coastal was a “dream rescue” who turned into a dream horse for 15-year-old owner/rider Bridget Lautensack. Photo courtesy Bridget Lautensack

An underweight stallion who just last March was standing in a small sandy paddock in Florida, his tail caked with manure, his frame shrinking with malnutrition, is today a treasured show pony who recently packed his 15-year-old owner around the estimable HITS Saugerties circuit.

Going Coastal’s life story made several quick turns, and looked pretty grim, before helping hands put weight on his body, gave his life a new purpose, and eventually turned him over to Bridget Lautensack, a young Pennsylvania equestrian who had her choice of several first horses, but who only had eyes for the kind Thoroughbred.

It all turned around for Going Coastal last March, when well-known Thoroughbred advocate Melissa Rudershausen got a desperate phone call from a family trying to care for the stallion after the animal’s owner suffered a sudden change in life circumstances and could no longer do so, Rudershausen explains.

Going Coastal
Show name: Mark My Word
Barn: Marco
Sire: Coastal Storm
Dam: Gertigo
Foal date: March 13, 2008“The horse had been malnourished for over a month and was in bad shape. I went to go see him and he was in a small sand paddock with no grass. The people were trying to do the right thing but they were feeding him cheap sweet feed and he had horrific diarrhea,” She says. “His whole tail was matted with manure and he was about 200-300lbs underweight. I took him in for two months, rehabbed him and he eventually went to a wonderful new home in Pennsylvania, where he has become quite a nice show horse even showing in the ‘A’ circuit.”

But on that day in March when she agreed to take him in, the only thing that known about Going Coastal, other than the obvious physical condition, was that he had a kind and gentle disposition. Feeling lousy and as yet not gelded, he was nonetheless incredibly sweet tempered, she says.

The seasoned Thoroughbred rescuer and trainer went to work immediately. The biggest challenge was getting his diarrhea under control, which she accomplished by feeding him probiotics as well as all the hay he could eat, and gradually adding a pelleted feed to his diet.

Going Coastal dappled up in good health under the care of Melissa Rudershausen of Double Rock Thoroughbred Rescue. Photo courtesy Melissa Rudershausen

Going Coastal dappled up in good health under the care of Melissa Rudershausen of Double Rock Thoroughbred Rescue. Photo courtesy Melissa Rudershausen

After about a week, the lethargic animal started to trot over to her when feeding time came, and by the second week he was galloping and bucking in his field, feeling great. “He was so happy and full of life! It was amazing to see the transition,” says Rudershausen, of Double Rock Thoroughbred Rescue. “He gained weight, got gelded, and we started him under saddle—he was a perfect gentleman from day 1. He knew his lead changes and was super quiet. Plus, he was always sound.”

With four weeks of riding under his belt, the result of good feed and exercise, Going Coastal was shipped to Pennsylvania to trainer Dawn Taylor-Bell, with whom Rudershausen has worked successfully for years.

And it was in Pennsylvania, as young Bridget Lautensack searched for a riding horse, with her mother Kathy by her side, that she noticed the bay Thoroughbred, all dappled in good health.

“He just looked so kind and sweet, and there was something about his face that made me want to know more about him,” Bridget says, before her mother Kathy Lautensack adds, “She really took to him. She just looked at me and said, ‘Mom, that’s my horse.’ ”

Though inexperienced, Going Coastal, who has been renamed Mark My Word, or Marco for short, tried very hard for his young rider. He had been training with Maria Trongo of Out of Reach Farm before his new owner took over the reins. Beginning with ground poles, he steadily progressed to 2-foot-6 jumps, and in July, placed in several classes at HITS Saugerties!

Despite the big atmosphere, and the newness of showing, Going Coastal got three 6th place ribbons in classes of 50 riders! “That was pretty amazing for him,” Kathy Lautensack says, noting that she and her daughter couldn’t be happier with the addition to their family.

“He’s come along really well,” Bridget adds. “He’s really smart and very athletic.”

— This story was originally published on Sept. 10, 2014. #TBT

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‘What’s a horse like her doing here?’

By on August 5, 2015

Banker's Heiress had a body score of between 1 and 2 when she arrived at Wishmaker Stable in Dover, N.H.

Banker’s Heiress had a body score of between 1 and 2 when she arrived at Wishmaker Stable in Dover, N.H.

On an August 2012 night when Banker’s Heiress arrived without fanfare at a sprawling animal rescue in New Hampshire, Lisa Healy and her husband John did a double take.

And they thought, “What is she doing here?”

It wasn’t that “here” was so bad. The Live and Let Live Farm in Chichester, N.H. was home to a mixed breed herd of 70 horses, and the Healy’s spent many fulfilling hours tossing hay to the motley crew.

But the bright chestnut Thoroughbred mare stood out like a peacock, says Healy who notes, “The first time I saw her, I couldn’t believe that a horse of her obvious quality would end up at a rescue; She was so beautiful; She had such a presence. All I could say was, what’s a horse like her doing here?”

Banker’s Heiress
Barn name: Goldie
Sire: Banker’s Gold
Dam: Original Heiress
Foal date: May 3, 2001
Earnings: $74,903 in 40 startsThough that question was never fully answered, because Banker’s Heiress was said to have passed through five different owners between the time of her last race at Suffolk Downs in October 2007, and the night she wound up at the New Hampshire charity,

In those four years, Banker’s Heiress, who they nicknamed Goldie, is rumored to have bounced from barn to barn in the New England area, possibly selling in a dispersal sale at one facility, before ultimately winding up like a ragamuffin at the doorstep of a charity.

In 2011, after she was discovered starved, neglected and standing painfully on two abscessed front feet, the former racehorse and great-granddaughter of Secretariat was taken in out of pity by Wishmaker Farm in Dover, N.H. And shortly after that, the once-lovely race mare became the poster horse for one of those ubiquitous social media fundraisers. “Her life was at an all-time low at this point,” Healy says. “Her foot had become infected from her bad living conditions, and her body score was between a 1 and a 2, according to vet records, which also reported she was developing laminitis in all four feet.”

After a year of TLC, she was restored.

After a year of TLC, she was restored.

Slowly, the hardworking folks at Wishmaker Farm brought Goldie back to her former self. After raising $4,000 in donations, her foot was operated on by Seacoast Equine of Stratham, N.H., and her lameness issues resolved.

But the mare wasn’t done with her travels just yet.

She bounced one more time, to the Live and Let Live Farm, where the Healy’s discovered her.

The longtime horse lovers were not in the market for a new horse, emphatically not, Healy says. With one horse in their family already, they were content with their volunteer work until the night Banker’s Heiress arrived.

“We’ve always loved Thoroughbreds. My husband grew up in New Jersey and rode them as a kid,” she says, noting that it was natural for them to gravitate toward her.

“We started helping to take care of her after she arrived, taking her on hand walks, and feeding her,” she says. “We kept telling each other we wouldn’t get attached.”

John and Lisa Healy decided to give Banker's Heiress a forever home after paying off their mortgage.

John and Lisa Healy decided to give Banker’s Heiress a forever home after paying off their mortgage.

Then when a friend at their barn, who knew the mare’s backstory, told them of her brush with death and her years spent bouncing between homes, the couple quickly decided they would be the ones to end her sad journey from home to home.

As fate would have it, the Healy’s had made the final mortgage payment on their own home, and with the newfound security, and additional financial breathing room, quickly decided there was no horse more deserving of their help than the beautiful Thoroughbred.

“We felt so bad that she ended up in a rescue. She was too nice a horse to be sitting there,” she says. “We were afraid she’d wind up, somehow, going back to a life where she was passed around from owner to owner, and we couldn’t let that happen.”

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Weekly Photo: Kangaroo Kid and his Russian

By on August 4, 2015

Maria had to claw and scratch for an opportunity to ride horses in Moscow. It prepared her well to stay in the saddle of her aptly named OTTB, Kangaroo Kid.

Maria had to claw and scratch for an opportunity to ride horses in Moscow. It prepared her well to stay in the saddle of her aptly named OTTB, Kangaroo Kid.

As a young girl growing up in Moscow, where male athletes were favored far more than the females, Maria Bogdanova-Peifer had to fight and claw her way into the saddle.

Told no more times than she could count, the persistent 12-year-old finally found a coach who softened when she pleaded: “All I want is a chance.”

Though the class of male riders all laughed when she was palmed off on an old, stiff Thoroughbred nobody wanted to ride, she was thrilled at the chance. And though there were times she could barely hold on as she bounced “all over the place” the lessons she learned in Moscow —perseverance, and a talent for sticking with her goals and to the saddle, set her up nicely for the OTTB in her life today.

Kangaroo Kid, a Kentucky bred OTTB, was appropriately named. Not only can he jump anything, but also he has rolled out his acrobatic maneuvers more than once in his early days of training with Maria. Which is where her Moscow training kicked into high gear.

“There were times I was like a fish on the other end of a fishing line” when she lunged him while he performed his aerials.

Maria and Roo tackle a jump. Photo by Matt Myers and courtesy of Maria.

Maria and Roo tackle a jump. Photo by Matt Myers and courtesy of Maria.

Today, after nearly three years together, the pair has worked out the kinks so well that he is well on his way to being a “superstar,” she says. Picking up champion and reserve champion at The Ridge Farm in New Jersey recently, and has been showing readiness to move to 1.10-1.15 meters.

“He’s still a pickle sometimes, but he stole the heart of more than a few people who were at the show,” she says. “And on the way home at a gas station, a family was filling up and they asked if their son could pat the horse. It turned out that the little boy was autistic, and Roo was such a sweetheart, giving the kid kisses! He has so much personality and keep surprising me every time!”

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