Second-Chance Horses

By Eclipse Press

Second-Chance Horses is a collection of true stories that are just a small reflection of the amazing things ex-racehorses can accomplish once they are re-trained for new careers. From serving as mounted police horses to working in human therapy programs to competing on the Olympic level, ex-racehorses are proving there is plenty of life after the track.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Eclipse Press
• Release date: Jan 22, 2010
• ISBN: 9781581502916

Eclipse Press

Eclipse Press is dedicated to the enjoyment and welfare of the horse. Titles range from practical aspects of hands-on horsemanship to equine art and retrospectives on the great Thoroughbred racehorses.

Book preview

SECOND CHANCE HORSES

By staff and correspondents of Blood-Horse Publications

Copyright © 2009 Blood-Horse Publications and The Keeneland Association

Smashwords edition

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means, including photocopying, audio recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the copyright holder. Inquiries should be addressed to Publisher, Blood-Horse Publications, Box 919003, Lexington, KY 40591-9003.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2008911904

ISBN: 978-1-58150-211-4

United States

First Edition: 2009

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

CONTENTS

Foreword

Banion

Buckingham Place

Congomambo

Declan’s Moon

Desert Air

Fighting Furrari

Funny Cide

Getaway Hall

Hapsirishpub

Kona

Lindros and Impropriety

Phinny

Riverdee

Samson

Swamp Line

Trader

Truly Triton

With Ease

Rescue Resource Guide

Photo Credits

About the Authors

FOREWORD

Those fortunate enough to have owned a horse know that it can be one of the most enjoyable and satisfying aspects of their life. I have known very successful people who own large businesses, several estates, and every possible toy, but who receive as much pleasure from owning a horse as from any other material wealth. There is something truly magical in the bond that forms between people and horses. I have seen this mystical relationship transcend people of all ages, from young girls to hardened businessmen. It cuts across different breeds of horses and a wide array of disciplines.

At its best, this relationship between a horse and its owner will truly enhance a person’s life and provide for healthy and happy horses. At the very core of all of this joy and pleasure, however, is a deep responsibility. Along with the thrill of owning a horse comes the commitment to its care, health, and well-being. Simply put, you can’t have one without the other. The stories in Second-Chance Horses make that clear. Not only have the ex-racehorses profiled in these chapters escaped uncertain fates to succeed in second careers but their owners and caretakers have become better people in giving these horses new beginnings.

This special relationship between a person and a horse, of caring for and enriching each other’s lives, is one close to Keeneland’s heart. Keeneland supports the broad-based effort of ensuring that racehorses have dignified lives once their careers on the track are over.

We hope you enjoy these inspiring stories. Proceeds received by Keeneland from the sale of this book will be donated to organizations and individuals that are finding appropriate homes for horses in need of loving care.

Nick Nicholson

President and CEO

Keeneland Association

Chapter 1: Banion

By Rena Baer

There’s no question that Banion is beloved at Central Kentucky Riding for Hope, where he is a mainstay in its equine therapy programs, but there is a question about who the Thoroughbred really is.

Common sense tells me he’s a twenty-four-year-old former racehorse named Banyan House who plied his trade on Kentucky tracks for a few years. But the ID number tattooed inside his lip matches that of Hurry to Flag, a nineteen-year-old Thoroughbred who once raced on the dusty tracks of Texas and Oklahoma. And, surely, the tattoo must be right?

Well, a lot of years have passed, and tattoos can get more difficult to read as they fade with time. And, unfortunately, the physical descriptions on their pedigrees identify each as being dark brown. Listening to the former trainers talk about each of the horses’ good natures and tall, lanky frames - it sounds like they are describing the same horse.

I started researching this story going out to the Riding for Hope program at the Kentucky Horse Park to visit the horse I had been assigned to write about. As they brought him out for a look-see, a staff member handed me a printout of his pedigree and told me he was a former racehorse named Hurry to Flag. He was very peaceful and at ease as we all fawned over him. He’s a gentle 17-hand gelding blind in his left eye and with only limited vision in his right. His back is starting to sway slightly, but his nature is not old.

He is a social horse whose perceptive instincts make him an ideal equine assistant for non-mounted therapy. When someone in the program is learning how to care for horses and lacks confidence, the staff at Riding for Hope say Banion is a patient teacher, withstanding awkward movements with aplomb and affording a beginner the same respect as a seasoned veteran. If he senses someone is in a cheerful mood, he’s more than ready to play, nudging them with his nose and nickering. And when he sees that someone is sad, he offers comfort by standing quietly beside the person.

Program director Denise Spittler told me that Hospice uses Riding for Hope’s non-mounted therapy to help people who are grieving. A bereavement counselor will come out with someone who has lost a loved one. The two will talk as they decorate Banion’s tail and mane with colorful beads. He’ll stand quietly between them, enjoying the attention, and helping facilitate the counseling session with his presence alone. The conversation flows more naturally over a peaceful horse outside a barn on a sunny Kentucky day than in an office somewhere.

Program participants and volunteers are always telling the Riding for Hope staff how special Banion is, said Spittler.

He’s been in the program a couple of years and he’s a shining example of a former racehorse that has gone on to a purpose-filled new life. But his story, I learned, is really a lot more compelling than that.

In researching Hurry to Flag’s breeding and racing career, I found out that no one remembers him at the Anson, Texas, farm where he was bred and raced more than a decade ago. He was bred by Hassel R. Spraberry, a building contractor who with his wife, Bonnie, owned Hi-Lo Farm. The couple always kept a few broodmares at the fifteen-acre farm, breeding them and keeping some of the offspring to race.

Hassel loved to watch them being born, raise them and feed them, and then put them in training and watch them run, Bonnie Spraberry told me about her husband, who died of cancer in 1995. She now runs the farm with her son, and though neither remembers Hurry to Flag, records show he was the product of their broodmare Hurry to Play being bred to Lt. Flag in 1988 for a $500 stud fee.

Hurry to Flag was born on March 16, 1989, at the Spraberry’s Hi-Lo Farm, named for the highs and lows of horse racing. The Spraberrys and their trainer at the time, Jack Fry, first raced him in late 1991 at Trinity Meadows Raceway, which had just opened that year in Weatherford, Texas. The minor-league track, which is now a training track, drew a decent-sized crowd, sometimes reaching 20,000, and owners and trainers fondly remember it as a nice meet in its day.

For the Spraberrys, though, Hurry to Flag quickly proved at Trinity Meadows to be more adept at providing the lows in their farm’s name rather than the highs. He finished in the back of the field in his five maiden special weight races at distances between five and 7 1/2 furlongs. His best performance as a two-year-old came in a maiden claiming race in which he finished fifth.

As a three-year-old, Hurry to Flag wound up in the hands of owner Scott Miller, scoring his first win while running in a six-furlong maiden claiming race on May 13, 1992. The colt raced fifteen times that year, primarily at Trinity Meadows, bringing home a second victory there under trainer Dickie Brown, in a 5 1/2-furlong allowance race on September 12 and running to a third-place finish six days later in a 6 1/2-furlong claiming race at Remington Park in Oklahoma.

I caught up with Brown, who remembers Hurry to Flag fondly, not so much for his skills as a racehorse - though he did say he was decent at short distances - but for his good nature and smooth ride. I lived on a cattle ranch near Tulsa, and I would run him out in the pasture, said Brown, who still trains racehorses at Blue Ribbon Downs in Oklahoma. "He was such a nice horse that I could ride him across creeks and push the cows up with him.

I could do just about anything with him, he said. He was different.

Injuries prevented Hurry to Flag from racing until late July 1993. He ran his first race that year with Skip Lawrence listed as his owner. He was claimed back by Miller, who ran him twice in August before Lawrence claimed him back from Miller to get Hurry to Flag’s only finish in the money that year - a third in a claiming race. Lawrence ran him three more times with Brown remaining the horse’s trainer the whole time.

I asked Brown whether it was a friendly tug-of-war between Miller and Lawrence. No, he said, they both really liked and wanted that horse.

In the end, Brown told me, injuries forced Lawrence to sell Hurry to Flag, though he’s not sure to whom.

Meanwhile, I had begun backtracking Banion’s history from Riding for Hope, eagerly anticipating the place where the two stories would come together. First I talked to Tina Cassar, the vet for Riding for Hope, who was instrumental in bringing Banion to the program. She had learned about him from Ben Stivers, a fellow equine vet at Hagyard Equine Medical Institute in Lexington, who had ridden him as a trail horse until he got too busy with work. When Cassar heard Stivers describe Banion, she thought he sounded ideal for the Riding for Hope program.

Upon meeting Banion, Cassar said she found the horse in good condition. She described him as inquisitive and intelligent. Not a donkey head. He’s a fun, easy horse, like a big kid inside, but with a lot more maturity.

I called Stivers, who told me he had been relieved to find a good home for his horse. Banion had been a delight to trail ride despite his vision problems, but work had gotten too hectic and Stivers didn’t want the social horse to live out his life in a field by himself, especially as he was an exceptional horse that looked out for his rider. He recalled how he had been riding Banion through overgrown fields and brush when Banion’s foot became entangled in some old wire fencing. Rather than try to bolt or rear, like most horses would, particularly higher-strung Thoroughbreds, Banion came to a complete standstill, lifting his hoof and standing quietly until Stivers could extricate him.

I knew then what a good horse he was, Stivers said.

He told me he had gotten Banion from clients Steve and Debbie Jackson. The couple, who also race Thoroughbreds, rode him for years as a hunter and were distraught when leptospirosis, an infectious disease that may cause some serious health problems, began robbing Banion of his vision. They called Stivers about euthanizing Banion, and the vet instead offered to give him a home. When I talked to Steve Jackson, he said the last thing he had ever wanted for Banion was a bleak existence, and when the leptospirosis that had blinded his left eye began to creep into his right eye, Jackson felt grim about what the future held.

I didn’t want such a great horse to suffer, he told me.

Jackson said Banion had been a magnificent hunter. He was the epitome of a horse that had a much more fabulous second career than first career, Jackson said. And now it’s phenomenal he’s at Riding for Hope.

I asked Jackson where he had gotten Banion, and he told me Midway College’s equestrian program, where his wife worked at the time. Jackson said the horse wasn’t working out for the program, so he took him home and within a couple of months had him broken as a hunter.

Later he said he found out Banion had been trained as a racehorse by the father of a friend.

So did you know Dickie Brown, Jack Fry, or the Spraberrys who bred him out in Texas? I asked him.

No, Jackson told me, He was bred and owned by Alex Campbell.

Are you sure? I asked. His tattoo identifies him as Hurry to Flag.

Yes, I’m sure, he told me. We called him Banion because his name as a racehorse was Banyan House. You need to check with The Jockey Club.

His story made sense. No gaps. No periods during which he was unaccounted for and a plausible explanation for the name Banion. But still there was the question of the tattoo. Plus, I’d seen Banion. He certainly did not look or act like a twenty-four-year-old horse, and Pat Kline, director of Riding for Hope, said the vets had estimated his age more in line with Hurry to Flag than Banyan House.

A call to The Jockey Club, which I thought would clear things up for sure, only further muddied the waters. It turned out that Banyan House’s tattoo number was very close to that of Hurry to Flag; only the first letter and an additional number separated the two. It seemed like more than coincidence that four numbers were the same; but it also seemed unlikely that if those four digits were still readable and accurate, wouldn’t the first letter and the absence of a last number also still be discernable?

It was a frustrating place to be when I needed to write a definitive life story about a single racehorse that had gone on to a new career. I started thinking that perhaps I needed to have their foal registration photos dug out from the recesses of The Jockey Club files to see which horse more closely resembled Banion.

But thinking more about it, I decided I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. During my research I had grown fond of the story of the gangly Texas cow horse who had somehow found his way to Kentucky and then to the Riding for Hope program. Still, I couldn’t deny common sense, and the story wouldn’t be complete unless I found out a little bit about Banyan House’s history and how he wound up at Midway College.

Peggy Entrekin, who is