For you families who have someone interested in performance horses.

weimedog

~SPONSOR~
Damn Yankees
Nov 21, 2000
959
2
Take a look at www.fingerlakestap.com once in a while.

This is an organization designed to give track horses a new life and a new home. We have been involved for a while and sometimes absolutely amazing horses turn up for adaption.

We went up this weekend and took on two mares. Its tough because for what ever reason they have a bunch of good horses. In particular there are a couple of really nice geldings we had to leave..One named "Afleet Command", and one named "Sindbad". Both big boys and both have all kinds of potential for someone who understands true performance horses.

My wife & girls rebuild & train them...and we had a couple of stalls open up so we took on the two Mares. Both are absolutely awesome.

If you have family members who also like those long travel suspensions and amazing fast types of four legged off road vehicles, its worth taking a look from time to time at that finger lakes thoroughbred adoption program web site. Sometimes the horses that turn up for adaption are just unbelievable. :nod: Right now is one of those times...for only a few days is my guess.
 

bsmith

Wise master of the mistic
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Jun 28, 2001
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I've got 3 old track horses and turned into pets. Usaully find some great animals, but see some leg problems later on due to the age at which they are trained so we never pushed to hard.

Once they closed our race track down we pretty much lost that option. SOunds lake a great organization!
 

weimedog

~SPONSOR~
Damn Yankees
Nov 21, 2000
959
2
Yep, we have seen all kinds of issues go thru the rescue program..as you mentioned.

We had one that came to us in really bad shape. Pin Fired like no tomorrow (Because there WASN'T for this guy!), way back on his heels, split bulbs, Terrible thrush, Rain Rot all over his back. Swollen hocks. His backend was tied up from standing in his stall for a couple of months. Basically a miserable animal. And was he pissed at the world! Bit one of his handlers fingers off.

How did he get there?

His first owner raced him 3-4 times a year. Usually in the top three. He won past the six didgits mark. Was a well treated horse there. After 3 years and around 15 races they sold him to another person who raced him 15 times in one year! He won the first, then started dropping back. They pushed (beat him) to get the results out of him. Got to the point where his attitude was pretty rotten so the handlers didn't want to deal with him...and then he bit one. They just left him there with his blanket on until we got there a couple of months after his dissagreement with that handler.

Now a year later he's pretty much all healed and ready to build. Great horse. He's from the "Storm Cat" blood lines and quite a capable horse.

We have found that many can be salvaged given the time. Most don't want to bother. Horses are like capital equipment to most horse folks. Almost like the motorsports main stream...if it isn't new and clean....(I ride vintage bikes as well...wonder if there is a parallel?)

We run into a few ready to train right from the track. Have to know what your looking for and be at the right place at the right time.

Couple of good signes when your looking:
1) A horse only has a couple of races because he's too slow. (Big feet & legs or just too immature to train just yet)
2) A horse with a BUNCH of years on the track with no break down..totally sound. We have one with four years of track time and a bunch of wins. Big long legged guy who's tough as nails. If they don't have issues after a few years.....chances are they are not going to.
3) An UNRACED big gelding.
4) Big Feet. (Longer than they are wide)
5) Big Legs.
6) Soft eye.

The best one we ever got was a big fellow who the trainers claimed was too stupid to run. Too much of a pain in the butt and they wanted him OUTA there! NOW! He was angry and wouldn't let anyone in his stall. He was big at three years old and just pissed off at the world. Took 1 1/2 hours to get him on the trailer. Then he proceeded to kick the crap outa of trailer for about 1/2 hour. Then silence....

My daughter and I had called ahead to another farm to pull into their indoor arena so when we got him out of the trailer he couldn't bolt....called ahead and said we have a MONSTER in the trailer. (Thats this horses name now)

TO make a long story short, he walked off the trailer dead calm like nothing happened; he's the best horse on our farm right now. Most talented, Best personality. Most capable. 16-3. around 1300lbs of muscle. Sweetest eye you have ever seen. Is 4 coming 5 and is the horse of a life time for my oldest. She's taking him to a couple of hunter-pace and combined training type events next year. He's special enough we will bring him along slow. He won't be mature enough until he's 6 or 7.

Bottom line? There are both good and bad...sometimes the bad ends up good and visa versa. One thing I can say is you really don't know for 4-6 months what you truely have with ex-track horses. And MOST wouldn't know how to tell or what to do to bring them around.

Every one in a while we see a couple of good ones....like this past week and like to spread the word. I wish we had the resources at times like these. Guess a horse owner decided to get out of the game and some of his stuff was sold and some ended up at the rescue. They are a bit "ribby" cause they weren't well cared for...other than that I'm not seeing anything bad. An ocselette on one, maybe a spur on another. Neither effecting performance. The Dr. who runs the program is brutally honest about any problems with the horses...everyone who's interested enough to visit gets an thorough and honest assessment of each horse. She's been dead on on ALL the ones we've had over the years.
 

Jaybird

Apprentice Goon
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Mar 16, 2001
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Charlestown, IN
It is a shame how some so called "trainers" are so anxious to hit the board that they send in the babies before their knees are closed up. This is torture to what may actually be a fine race animal if let mature before racing.

My father and two uncles have trainers license, and I was a groom and exersize boy when I first left the military. I have seen it all.
When I was taking care of a few head, I had a wonderful 1/4horse that I ponied with.
I found that using a pony you could get a baby in far better shape much faster than putting some overweight exersize boy on their back...as I was. It also seemed that the horses that worked with pony's were far better actors than those who were never worked in that fashion. It seems the pony's teach the kids how to act around others on the track. A well schooled pony is a very good actor, and takes absolutely NO crap from a rowdy baby. Very good role models, if you will.

I have found ther are only two types at the track...those who only think of themselves and the possibility of hitting it big, and those who are in it for the love of the animals and the sport. Rarely are the former ever successful to any great degree.

You get my highest respect for your efforts, dog!
 

weimedog

~SPONSOR~
Damn Yankees
Nov 21, 2000
959
2
thanks.

The role model thing is so true. We take the horses off the track and put them in with a couple of Percheron's after a week or so. Seems like after such a big change, the thoroughbred's look for some direction..and by putting them in with the big draft horses it actually takes the edge off their hyper attitude. ALL the ones we have done this with have responded better then the ones we haven't. No exceptions.
 

kmccune

2-Strokes forever
LIFETIME SPONSOR
Jul 3, 1999
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Well I can't say hat I like horses at all, except running around the pasture. (I worked at a thoroughbred farm for race and show horses as a kid and got a very bad impression of the stubborn beasts :fft: )

But my Chiropractor and family are horse people so I passed it along.
 

TwinSpar

AssClown WannaBe
N. Texas SP
Aug 18, 1999
6,886
115
I can't stand the age that they run horses at the track. So many great animals get ruined physically. On top of that... the abuse is absolutely retarded. More damage layered onto the physical part. I cared for a mare that threw the most amazing colt but you couldn't go near her in the stall without a wheel barrow at a minimum for protection to hide behind. She was flat out violent.

We had her in a pasture and some unfortunate family brought their kids out to look at the place when it was for sale. One of the kids (roughly 8 years old) decided to perch on the fence. From the barn I saw the mare beeline for the kid from about 100 yards away. Yelling at distance didn't enough to warn the family. The mare came flying in at speed, slammed down like a reigning horse and bit the living hell out of the kids head. The colt had been weened and gone for 3/4 of a year at that point. It wasn't parental protection.... she was sadly... mentally damaged beyond repair I think.

My mother had a track horse that wasn't nearly as bad but the effort required to turn them into trusting animals is massive. My hats off to you dog!! :cool:
 

Jaybird

Apprentice Goon
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Mar 16, 2001
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Charlestown, IN
Goats can calm a horse too. Not sure what it is about a goat, but if you have a bad actor, especially when in a trailer, a goat seems to have some sort of magical calming effect on them.

I know that many times the guys who haul for Sallee van lines will have goats in the trailer with the horses.

Twinny reminded me of a episode I had when I met a guy years ago...it's a long story and not even really believable...so I won't tell it unless anyone is interested. But do any of you old timers remember the show "Thats Incredible"? The show once featured a big clydsdale named Butterscotch that could drive a car. I met Butterscotch and his owner once. A most unbelievable event to say the least.
 

weimedog

~SPONSOR~
Damn Yankees
Nov 21, 2000
959
2
Thats an unusual picture...the Clydsdale is BIGGER than a car. Bet he can just pull it..
 

Jaybird

Apprentice Goon
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Mar 16, 2001
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Charlestown, IN
LOL...I'll tell the story, and I swear to all of it being true!

First, the clydsdale supposedly was a very bad actor. In fact, the story goes that he killed a man on a ranch in Utah somewhere. Apprently noone could even get the thing corralled to get a halter on he was so wild.

An old man named Ham Morris, who lived in my area, had heard about the horse and actually flew out to Utah.
The way he told it was that he simply walked out to the horse and talked to him for a few minutes to see if he was worth saving, and simply got on him and rode him back to the barn with only a handful of mane. He claimed they were gong to kill the horse, but he convinced them to let him keep it. (when the guy told me the story he was about 85 years old and had the horse for about two years)

I know..I know..but bare with me here, it gets much better....LOL

Ham paid a horse van lines to haul Butterscotch back to KY on a 747. Ham said that he hearly tore the plane apart mid air, and that he would never put him back on a plane again.
Which is pertinent to why I got to meet him in the first place...

Anywho,
A buddy of mine told me that Ham was interested in hiring somone to haul Butterscotch to Nevada, and as I had a tall trailer at that time and was hauling horses from a training facility to Churchill Downs for money, he recommended me to Ham.
Apparently Ham and Butterscotch were invited to be in a spot of a movie being shot in Las Vegas, and he was going to van Butterscotch, rather than risk another aircraft.

So, I got an interview with Ham and Butterscotch.
When I arrived on the farm, the first thing I saw was an exersize rider coming out of the woods on a thouroughbred. Fully tacked up and working...but Ham was a trainer of a different color, and his boys worked his horses through single track in the woods to get them fit for the track. Very unconventional to say the least.
I knew this was a different sort of place, run by a different sort of cat, right off the bat.

I met Ham in the shed row of one of his barns. Like I said, he was a very old man, clad in bib overhauls and chewing a big wad of tobacco.
I shook his hand and he asked if I had met Dog and Duck yet?
"I don't think so" I answered...and as I did, here came a little terrier mix of some sort around the corner.
"Say hi to this fella, there dog" Ham said...and the little terrier came over and raised up his paw to me. I kid you not!
Obviously I shook it and said howdy.

Then Ham holleredl "Hey duck!"
And around the corner waddled a white duck.
"Do a lil dance fer our guests, ducky" Ham said. And sure enough, the duck started wobbling from side to side from one leg to the other.
I swear I was stone cold sober...
But I for sure had that twilight zone, deja vu-ish, weird feeling.

But it got better...
It was time to meet Butterscotch.
Butterscotch was in a stall just down the shed row. He was a giant of a horse, with a sort of mixed odd coloring to him, not like the perfect clydsdales you see pulling the beer wagon.
He also had albino eyes. A very paleish blue/pink. Very erie to look at.
It was easy to believe that this horse could easily kill a man by his size and look. However, he seemed to be one of the most gentle creatures.

I had already heard about Butterscotch's driving ability, as he had already been on the TV show, "Thats Incredible". But I sure wanted to see it in person.
And Ham did ask if we wanted to see him drive. And of course we couldn't wait.

Ham just swung the door of his stall open and told Butterscotch: ''mon, Butterscotch lets go for a little ridey..."
Butterscotch came out of his stall and headed down the shedrow to the end of the barn and went out.
We followed him out back where there was a big pink Cadillac setting.
This car had the top and back chopped out of it, and had little pullies and chains with garden hose around them hanging form little pipe stands all over it.
Butterscotch grabbed one of the chains with his teeth and pulled. The back of the car was rigged with a spring-loaded tailgate and it layed down into a ramp out the back.
The horse walked up into the car and pulled on another chain. The rear ramp came back up into close position behind him.

Then Butterscotch grabbed a chain up in front and tugged. The car started to turn over, but wasn't starting.
Ham said: "Choke er a lil bit, Butterscotch!"
The horse grabbed another chain and gave it three short tugs, then went back to the start chain...and Vroooom..it started.

I was certain that someone had slipped LSD into my Choc-o-la at this point...and all I could do was laugh in amazement.

Buttersotch reached over and pulled on a lever, and the car started moving. Now, Butterscotch couldn't really steer the car, and all it did was go around in a big circle at about 10 mph.
After a few laps, Ham hollerd out to Buttescotch that he had been driving long enough and was about to run out of gas.
So, Butterscotch pulled an another chain and the car came to a halt. He then pulled the stop engine chain, and reached around and pulled the tailgate chain, and backed out of the car.
Of course, he pulled the tailgate up chain before he walked back to the barn and into his stall.

Folks...I **** you not!
That is how it happened. It was like one of those dreams you have that feel real, only this WAS real.

Ultimately I didn't get to haul Butterscotch, as the movie line changed and the horse never got the part. But I was sure glad to have had that once in a lifetime experience that I will never forget.

Ham Morris is long gone now. He was a good simple man who had lots of money, and spent most of it on his race horses and farm animals.
Ham was a horse wisperer. A real honest to goodness horse wisperer. He had a very special connection to all animals, and they with him.
He was one of the most interesting people I have ever had the previledge to meet.

Duck, Dog, and Butterscotch were no sloutches themselves!
 
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