Reward for Your Service

This horse is on the AC4H website,looking for a home. He is a 19 year old Standardbred named Peppercorn, currently in a dealers lot in PA. Born in PA, and last owner on record lived in Canada. After his racing days were over, he was sold to the Amish who used him until he was used-up and then sent him to auction, where he would have been sold for slaughter. He is covered with rain-rot, and as you can see, very emaciated. Believe me whan I write: the Amish are not the sweet gentle, caring people that you see on TV, and read about in books! Nineteen years of serving man, and then man was going to serve him on a plate!! Interesting that he was born in PA, raced in Canada, and then back to PA, where he was going to be shipped back to Canada. Read my Sept. 27, 2010 blog "Where Have You Been" So, would any of my readers like to save this guy? I'll pay the $200, and also ship him within New England.

Whats wrong with this ad?

Every now and then, I browse Craigslist to see what people are selling. Needless to say, I always check-out the ads for horses. Read this ad and tell me what you think. Belgian for Sale A STALLION that is 3 feet wide at his shoulder!!! And he's not registered!! What in the world would anyone do with a unregistered stallion? Breed him to your unregistered mare? Are there not enough unwanted horses in the US? If someone wants to raise a colt/filly, go to the auctions, where you can buy one for $125. You could probably get a registered colt/filly for $225!! Not only would you get your "baby", you would save one from slaughter. Yes, foals are slaughtered. The meat is like veal, and the Europeans pay top dollar for foal/baby meat!! I sure hope the other horse next to the stallion, in the ad photo is not a MARE!!! GRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!! PS. Whats with the logs? Does that look safe?? Good Grief!!!

Tattoo Search

Mark purchased another polo horse. She was in a polo lesson program in Newport, RI. Guess she was too much for the beginner students. It happens to be the same place where we bought Eva (Read "The $500 Polo Pony" 1-23-09). The first time I saw her, I thought "Arabian, how odd for a polo horse!". She has a dished face, and short back. I was surprized to see that she had a lip tattoo. Thoroughbreds are required to be lip tattooed in order to participate in an offical TB race.The tattoo consists of a letter followed by 4-5 numbers. A foreign born TB will have an asterisk followed by numbers. The letters corresponds to the horse's year of birth. 1971-1996/A-Z; 1997-2010/A-N. If the TB is 25 yrs old or older, it will only have a letter and 4 numbers. The Jockey Club is wonderful about helping with researching a lip tattoo. In the past it usually has only taken a couple hours from submission of a Tattoo ID Form to recieving the info on the horse. Sometimes pictures are required, but it is an easy process. Well, the new horse, who came with the name Saffron, had a horrible tattoo. Jenn, Mark and I all took guesses as to what it read. The letter looked like an F,P or H. This meant the year of birth could be 1976,1978, 1986, 2002 or 2004. The numbers looked like 4, 1, and 0. I submitted what little info I had, guessing the letter was an "F". Mark had been told she was 8 or 9. She definately wasn't 4 or 24! I also took a photo of the tattoo, and after a few emails back and forth with the Jockey Club, a match was found. The winner was/is F44602, and they were able to find this match with my submission of F_1_0_!! I was/am very impressed. Saffrons registered name is "West Ballerina" Born April 5, 2002 in Iowa. --insert soapbox--For those of you that think a slaughter plant in another state will not affect your horse here in MA, take note! Iowa! I also have horses from FL, TX and CA. A slaughter plant in ANY state puts ALL horses at risk.--off soapbox---Back to West Ballerina. So after all the research, we found out we have a TB from Iowa, who was an unuccessful race horse, who was from unsuccessful parents. Why oh Why do they breed these horse!! Well she was fortunate enough to find her way to Mark, is a great polo horse, very sweet, and Mark promptly changed her name to "Mudslide"!!!

What an Experience!

A horse auction is held in New Holland,PA every Monday. It is known as the biggest horse auction east of the Mississippi,especially if your are a "kill-buyer" and deal in horse meat. They buy the horses cheap, and when they have double-decker trailer load, ship them to Canada for slaughter. The meat is shipped to Europe and Asia where it is considered a delicay. The horses are mostly young-who wants old tough meat, and most are healthy-who wants meat from a sick animal! How sad to see weanlings in the pens that sold for $50, or the gelding whose mane had been braided. Guess his previous owner thought he would be bought by someone that would provide a loving home. Instead, he was bought for meat! Minis, donkeys, ponies, drafts, Standardbreds, paints, QHs, TBs, Warmbloods, Arabs, and the list goes on. Because of the economy, no ones buying horses but the "kill buyer". Why do people keep breeding so many horses? Well enough of this for now. I had found out about a TB polo mare that was in a kill-buyers pen. The KB was waiting to acquire enough horses to ship a load to Canada. Another Chance 4 Horses had pictures of her, and a very short video of her trotting, on their website. Tom and I decided to drive to PA and rescue her from her nightmare. Turns out she is registered, only 9 years old and as sweet as sugar. Her mane was roached, top of her tail shaved in what I call "polo" fashion, and had recently had her feet done, as there was no new growth on her hooves. It looks like they took her from the polo field to the auction! She was stocked up a bit in her hind legs, but that has gone down now that she is home and can move around freely. Shes about 100 lbs underweight. Why, why, why? What did she do to deserve this? Was she too slow? Didn't turn fast enough? Why was she thrown away like yesterdays newspaper? Was it too much trouble to find her a home? If nothing else, have a vet humanely euthanize her. Whats that cost, about $200? Was her previous owner so desperite for the $150 he got from the KB? Well she is safe now. Our plan is to rehab her, and find her a loving home. We hope this works-out, and we can rescue more polo horses. I heard today that a bunch of them had just been dumped at New Holland for next weeks auction. Wish I had more land and money!!!

On a Mission

Sorry I haven't posted in over 2 weeks. I am currently in PA on a rescue mission. Picking-up a bay TB polo horse. She was spotted in a Kill-Pen at the New Holland Horse Auction. Has a "lovely" USDA inspection sticker on her rump. Shame on whoever sent her to this HELL. Will tell you the entire story when I return to my regular computer, instead of my laptop!!!