While on a business trip to Minnesota, I became part owner of two former racehorses. I knew that Bridge was considered a horse and I encouraged her to find one that would meet her needs. Indeed she has been wanting to get back into riding badly for years, but until we moved to Ravengrove we didn’t have space for them. She had thought before about leasing one or buying one and having it boarded, but those options never really felt right.
Anyway, she was watching the Eugene livestock auction that has a horse sale once a month and was considering the timing of when to actually buy. She was contacted by someone locally who bought one at the most recent auction and she went to take a look. At one horse. Then came home with two.
I’m actually ok with that. I don’t know anything about horses, but it seems that they need to be together – and while the neighbors have horses that talk across the fence it must be different. We have both the barn and pasture space for two. Both of these are Thoroughbreds and were retired from racing in the last year (give or take). I do find it sad how disposable these animals are once they no longer make their trainer/owners money. I’m not a savior who thinks we need to rescue everything, but I do feel a bit of sadness about their lot in life.
Horse #1 (the one she was originally looking at) is Rivian (aka Jeff). We couldn’t stand the name Jeff so had to rethink that. His registered name was Miner’s Night and was raced in Grant’s Pass. He is huge at 17 hands (not sure who’s hands but he’s a big boy) and is around six years old. He is a bit flighty and needs quite a bit of TLC.
Horse #2 (the just have to have him) is Stanley. His registered name is Port Stanly and has an interesting race career. He is from Canada and made somewhere in the neighborhood of 350K in his racing career. Not as large as Rivian he is older and much more down to earth.
Both horses need quite a bit of rehab. They were at the auction and were probably destined for a kill buyer. Both were a bit underfed and desperately need some retraining. We’ve had them now about eight weeks and they have put on some weight and are responding to some retraining slowly. It’s a learning process for Bridge as she navigates how to rehab former racehorses to an off-track set of skills. I think it will be good for her and for them.
As for me – I’m just the apple guy.