Off Track Thoroughbreds

Prodigioso as he looked after being rescued from Florida backwater, and after he had recovered.

On a desolate stretch of road slicing first through sugarcane fields and then everglades in the Homestead region of South Florida, it must have felt like burning hell last July to an ex-racehorse waiting for the next thing to go wrong in his young life.

Emaciated and scared, Prodigioso shifted his weight gingerly on four painful feet that oozed with thrush. His back pasterns were flayed open with deep burns, probably ripped by rope, and a painful looking burn was raw and ugly on his lower lip.

His right eye, freshly blinded, somehow, showed him shadows that must have scared him as he waited to find out if bad people were coming for him.

Prodigioso
New name: Pipe Dream
Sire: Southern Leader
Dam: Spirited Affair
Foal date: March 14, 2007When the SPCA showed up with an emergency trailer, Prodigioso was afraid of everyone. He trembled as he exited the trailer and gingerly walked to a waiting stall at Thoroughbred nonprofit Florida TRAC.

“It took him a solid six months of just being a horse and gaining weight to regain his confidence,” recalls Celia Scarlett-Fawkes, vice president and intake director of the charity that serves ex-racehorses that run on Florida tracks.

“It took quite a lot of time to get him to walk out of his stall door. He was newly blinded, we don’t know how. He could have run into a tree branch, we don’t know,” she says.

For eight months, Scarlett-Fawkes and her volunteers nursed Prodigioso back to health. And as he filled out, and his wounds healed, his faultless conformation and pretty way of moving were revealed. By the time his before/after photos were posted on Facebook, Scarlett-Fawkes realized she had a “pretty little mover” who attracted plenty of interest.

Prodigioso jumps in 2-foot-9 green horse show Aug. 10. Photo courtesy Reeds Photography

But once people learned the petite beauty was blind in one eye, most takers fell by the wayside.

Except for Niagara, Canada horseman Marilyn Lee-Hannah and her equestrian daughter Robin Hannah.

“When I first saw his picture, we were overflowing with horses. We have lesson horses, show horses, boarders, horses of all breeds, and we do rescues when we can,” Lee-Hannah says. “But I told my daughter about Prodigioso because he reminded me of a little horse we used to have, who I really loved, and she said, ‘Mom, we’re full. We already have too many horses.’ So I told her that he’s blind in one eye, and she said, ‘Well then, we have to have him.’ ”

The logic made sense to the softhearted horsemen who worried for a half-blind horse who was a dead-ringer for a favorite they used to own. That’s when they contacted Scarlett-Fawkes and offered him a home.

Well familiar with the Canadian equestrians and the good work they do at Sherwood Farm, Scarlett-Fawkes was thrilled when Lee-Hannah called. “The right person comes along for the right horse, and they are the perfect family for him,” she says.

Since his arrival on May 10 at his cooler northern home, Prodigioso has gamely learned to jump, and has proved to be the smartest mind they’ve ever worked with, Lee-Hannah says.Well familiar with the Canadian equestrians and the good work they do at Sherwood Farm, Scarlett-Fawkes was thrilled when Lee-Hannah called. “The right person comes along for the right horse, and they are the perfect family for him,” she says.

“He learns incredibly quick. He really wants to do everything you want him to do,” she adds. “Because of the vision thing, seeing new things and places is harder for him, but he’s calm, calm, and for a horse who’s only been jumping for a month and a half, he’s amazing.”

He is learning so fast that mother and daughter have dubbed him the whiz kid, and the weekend of Aug. 10, the stunning little beauty debuted at the Niagara Cup Series for green horses and handled the new environment with aplomb.

Tucking his knees to his chin, he beautifully jumped the 2-foot-9 jumps, all the while, trying his heart out for his new friends.

“I feel really humbled that a horse who has been so mistreated can still trust humans,” Lee-Hannah says. “It’s shameful what we do to them, and they still love us.” — Originally published on Aug. 16, 2013

Immortal Wink is a warhorse who raced 142 times before his career ended in Puerto Rico with no options. Over the weekend, he was welcomed into the herd of the TRF’s Ocala facility.

The Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation (TRF, Inc.) this week welcomed racing warrior Immortal Wink into the herd of the nation’s largest horse charity following an all-out effort to retire him last month from a Puerto Rico racetrack.

The 10-year-old gelding raced 142 times, earning north of $100,000, before he made the last leg of his journey home this weekend. Following quarantine at racehorse charity Florida TRAC, he was vanned to the TRF’s Ocala Fla. facility at the Lowell Correctional Institution. Upon arrival, he was to begin retirement life working with inmates at the Lowell Correctional Facility participating in a unique racehorse/prisoner program called Second Chances.

Indeed, it was a second chance for Wink when the TRF agreed to provide a retirement home for the warhorse.

Immortal Wink
Sire: Gimmeawink
Dam: Uppermost Inmymind, by Loach
Foal date: March 6, 2006
Earnings: $111,193 in 142 startsWorking with horse advocate Michelle “Shelley” Blodgett of Florida and Wink’s co-breeder Kathy Von Gerhard on an effort to retire Wink, Diana Pikulski of the TRF assisted with their fundraising before offering the final piece of the puzzle: a lifetime home for the hardworking gelding.

“Immortal Wink is a true warhorse. We were thrilled to help his connections get him back to Florida, and even happier that we were able to offer him a lifetime of grass and companionship,” says Pikulski, director of external affairs.

Pikulski says the TRF was inspired by the horse’s story.

Acknowledging that Puerto Rico lacks resources to provide aftercare to a retired racehorse, and that returning a racehorse to a retirement facility on the mainland is no small feat, she says she was thrilled to help the Thoroughbred beat the odds.

“His story is what got me,” Pikulski says. “The number of races he’s had, and his age, made him of real interest to us. The most challenging part of any horse rescue is providing the long-term care. For us to be able to offer him a position, with the help of everyone who fundraised and assisted in this, made the whole thing possible. The whole thing is the guarantee of lifetime care. This is what we’ve committed to give Wink.”

News of Wink’s departure from quarantine was tweeted by a race fan NotCloudyAllDay, a person instrumental in drumming up interest in the Thoroughbred to begin with.

After publicizing Wink’s lack of retirement options in Puerto Rico, Wink’s co-breeder Kathy Von Gerhard and horse fan Michelle “Shelley” Blodgett united to do something about the horse’s predicament. Please see earlier story: http://offtrackthoroughbreds.com/2016/07/15/after-142-starts-immortal-wink-flies-on-home/

After launching an online fundraiser, the pair connected with Pikulski to obtain a place for the racehorse at the TRF. In an earlier article, Pikulski said the TRF was honored to take the horse. “He is a warhorse and we are thrilled that his connections could get him back here— which isn’t easy,” Pikulski says. “We are happy that we can offer him a lifetime of grass and companionship.”