Inspiring Others

By April Horowitz

(The Heart of a Horse Story, part 25)

 
One of the ways I spread the word about Heart of a Horse and its mission is by attending Horse Shows and Fairs, where our volunteers help me set up a booth to sell our rescue shirts and distribute our literature. The Equine Affaire is one of the largest trade shows for the horse community in America. On a spring weekend in 2011, a group of Heart of a Horse volunteers went to Pomona where the Equine Affair was being held. There were events for those who came with world-class horse whisperers like Chris Cox, and displays with every horse product imaginable. Thousands of people went up and down the aisles between the booths that had been set up and passed by our Heart of a Horse banner and table. People came by to talk, purchase our items, and pick up our literature, and donate to our cause.

I was there was with a contingent of Heart of Horse volunteers, including Kevin, Kandice Watts, Katie Jones and Ava Cohen. I was touched by how hard they all worked. Kandice donated her homemade horse cookies, which she called “Gourmet Horse Treats.” She passed them out free to help attract visitors to the Heart of a Horse display. Kevin gave free medical advice to horse owners who came to our booth with questions. He brought his mother, Jackie, who also volunteered to work at the booth. Ava, our youngest volunteer, helped wherever she was needed. I felt so lucky to have such a wonderful support group. Everyone who stood behind our booth had a love and passion for the work.

As we started our first day, and set up our booth I would never have guessed that the people I met and the stories they told me would so touch my heart. One in particular, showed me how the work we were doing was having an effect that was greater than anything I could have imagined.

A boy in his teens came up and introduced himself to me, and then told me his story. One day he was riding his bike with his friend, and they went down into a farm area to look at the horses and the cows. While they were there they saw some men in a field who had been drinking. He looked again and to his dismay he saw that the men had a horse tied up and were tormenting and beating him. When the boy got home he was still upset by what he had seen, and he asked himself “What would Heart of a Horse do?” He had learned about us through our website.

After thinking over his question, he arrived at an answer. He asked his dad if he would drive him back to the ranch so he could see if the horse needed hay or medicine. When they got there, the horse and the men were gone. The boy and his father went up to the ranch house and asked the woman who greeted them what happened to the horse he had seen. She told him the horse was tied up behind the barn. He and his dad went over to the barn and came upon the horse, who was on the ground bleeding. They were horrified to see that the horse’s tail was dangling where somebody had tried to cut it off. His body was covered in gashes. The boy said to his dad, if we can call a vet and save this horse, and if you will let me take the horse home I will not ask for the dirt bike you promised me when I turn sixteen.

His dad agreed to the deal. They called the vet and were able to get medical attention for the horse. Then they put the horse in a hauler and took him home. The boy told me he had named his new horse “Bucky.” Then, beaming with pride, he took out his cell phone and showed me Bucky, who he said was his best friend. He said that when he asks his dad for a dirt bike and other things now, his dad says, “We spent the money on Bucky.” But then he said what Bucky has taught him is that all those other things are unimportant. When his friends ride their dirt bikes, he rides Bucky alongside them. “The love of Bucky,” he said, “is better than any dirt bike I could ever have.” He finished his story by telling me that he wanted to thank Heart of a Horse for giving him the idea, and the courage to do it.

Of all the stories I have gathered in my travels, this is the one that inspires me most.

To be continued »

The Queen

By April Horowitz

(The Heart of a Horse Story, part 23)

 
Some of the harsher critics of racing want to just abolish it, as though that were possible, ignoring what has made it the institution it is, and the fact that it has been with us for thousands of years. There are few sights as beautiful as a horse in motion, which is one of the reasons it has been around so long. They fail to appreciate, also, that horses were born to run, and that they, too get satisfaction and pleasure out of the sports they participate in. They love the challenges and want to excel just as we do.

I got a chance to see just how much a horse can relish its performance at the track when Bo Derek invited me to watch one of the most remarkable horses of our time. It was on a bright day in June at Hollywood Park, and the horse’s name was Zenyatta, although by then she was known as “The Queen.” That day, Zenyatta was going to run in the Vanity Cup. If she won it would be her 17th straight victory, passing the record set by the legendary thoroughbred, Citation. Zenyatta was already a legend herself, the only filly ever to have won the Breeder’s Cup. She had previously been retired, but at six years old she was returning to the track for another run.

Being at the track with Bo, who has a deep love for horses and has saved so many through her work, was itself a thrill for me. She is a very genuine and kind person and has a wonderful family who joined her for the day. With Bo as our guide we visited the jockeys in their club room and I met Hall of Famer Mike Smith, who had ridden Zenyatta in 13 of her 16 wins. Mike agreed to sponsor our Heart of a Horse benefit at the Bombardier Open, and to help us in our efforts to find homes for racehorses at the end of their careers. Bo also introduced me to Zenyatta’s owners Jerry and Ann Moss, who are horse lovers themselves.

When the Eighth Race was announced we went down to the paddock where the horses parade before going on the track. I had been told that Zenyatta was something special in the paddock but it was still amazing to watch her prance before the crowd, to see her awareness of her admirers and how she went out of her way to put on a performance, eliciting their adulation and applause. People carried signs saying “Girl power!” and other slogans to cheer her on, and to express the love they had for their champion. Just to look at Zenyatta was inspiring. At 17.3 hands she was stately and beautiful to begin with. But then to see her go into her dance, standing out from all the others, throwing her head to the side as she responded to the spontaneous bursts of applause from the crowd was an experience to cherish.

To handicap her, they had weighted Zenyatta down for the race until she was carrying 129 pounds, while the rest of the pack was carrying less than 112. As was her custom, she started the race dead last, 12 lengths behind the leader, and she stayed there for six furlongs of the eight furlong race right into the backstretch. Even the track announcer showed concern as he said the first two horses – still 12 lengths ahead – “were setting it up for the Queen if she can do it.” Seconds later, I saw that with a burst of enormous energy and strength she was beginning to make her run.

Unleashing her power, she passed horse after horse, but as she came within two lengths of the lead, her stable mate St. Trinians, showed she had legs as well, and the pace between them grew torrid. Even those standing with us who were used to Zenyatta coming from behind gasped as the possibility that she might not win began to register. A seasoned Hollywood Park official whom I had met said to me afterwards of what happened next, “It was the most exciting race I have seen in forty years at the track.” Zenyatta was carrying that extra weight and St. Trianians was barreling ahead and you could feel the lungs of the crowd collectively stop breathing. Then in the last 1/16th of a mile, she lunged and gave out a final blast of energy that took her past Trinians and she won by half a length. Over the loudspeakers, the announcer’s voice boomed: “The Queen continues her legend. Seventeen in a row!”

Bo and I went down to the Winner’s Circle to join the Mosses and their friends, and trainers, and wait for Zenyatta with Mike on her to arrive. My heart was pounding as Zenyatta and Mike came into the circle, and the crowd cheered and I heard a tearful Ann Moss say to the horse, “Baby, do you hear that, it’s for you.”

Part 24: »

The Retirement They’ve Earned

By April Horowitz

(The Heart of a Horse Story, part 22)

 
The horse rescue community has concerns about the horse racing industry and rightly so. The horses are often very young, and the risks great. The pressure to win has led to bad practices like the use of drugs, which makes the physical risks to the horses even greater. As with human athletes, there is a problem of medicating the horses when they are injured so they can perform, which leads to further and greater injuries. And there is the sad fact that many of the owners regard their horses as monetary investments and have very little in the way of a relationship with them that is not connected to winning. Consequently, when their horses fail to win, or become too old to win, they are not put out to pasture and a well-earned retirement as they should be, but are sold at auction and along with the many horses who have never run but are unwanted, sent to slaughter.

All this concerned me, and I discussed it with my friend Bo Derek, who is a passionate advocate for horses and also a member of the California Racing Commission. Bo agreed that there were serious problems, but progress was also being made. The use of steroids had been banned, much as it had for human athletes and some of the tracks had set up retirement programs for their horses, when they were finished with their careers. But as with other species that depend on humans for survival and whom humans covet in return, there is a problem with over breeding. This means there will be a surplus of horses bred for racing who will never win or produce a return on the investment. As I acquainted myself with these facts, I thought his was perhaps the biggest problem of all, and that it might be helped if owners were charged a fee each time a new foal was born and if the fees could be directed to a retirement fund to support the horses that didn’t make it, or those that did when their time was done.

One woman I met who was doing something about this problem was Helen Meredith, a former jockey whose United Pegasus Foundation provides a retirement home for 63 racing thoroughbreds. Through her foundation, Helen has personally purchased these horses from racetracks and from auction sites where she negotiates with what she calls the “meat-killers” to buy them so they can be saved. I visited her on her ranch in the beautiful Tehachapi mountains and brought her a truckload of hay for her horses. All of five feet tall, Helen is a remarkable woman. Although her outdoors life has cracked and weathered her skin and given her a hardened look, underneath is a heart that is as soft and caring as any I have encountered.

She was born in Scotland and started racing horses in France when she was only fifteen years old. That was when her love for horses began and why she has devoted her own retirement years to saving her thoroughbreds. They come out of tracks like Hollywood Park, Santa Anita and Churchill Downs and have won millions in purses before they outlived their usefulness and were discarded. We walked through Helen’s pipe corrals and she gave me the history of every thoroughbred there. Music Merci had earned $1.5 million before being abandoned, while another named Time to Pass, won $539,000. All together, Helen’s horses had won over $9 million in purses in their youth, but when their racing days were over they were sent to feedlots for slaughter, which is where Helen rescued them.

I inspected her facilities and programs and found them impeccable. Her barns were up to code, and every horse at their right body weight. She said to me, “I just want to allow these horses to retire. They’ve earned this.” Then she told me, sadly, “I reached out to PETA and the Humane Society and they told me to thin out my herd, basically to euthanize them. I am very grateful for your help.”

As we moved through her corrals, I felt like I was walking through a sea of champions who now had no one to care for them but Helen. We paused for a moment among them, and as we stood in silence watching these magnificent creatures, I asked her what motivated her to work so hard to keep them alive. She turned to me and said, “I know every race each one of these horses has run. I know what it takes for a racehorse to get there. I have trained them and ridden them. It’s not easy what we ask of them. They do what we ask of them, they train so hard, and they win thousands of dollars for us, and then we turn around and abandon them when their racing days are over. They have earned better from us. They have a right to retire and be taken care of.”

Then she turned to me and said, “April, horses are in my heart. My heart will never go cold. Do any of these horses look to you like they need to be killed?” I said, “God no.” You could see how much life was still in them and I agreed with her they had earned the right to enjoy it. I thought, it’s so easy for us to kill these animals when we feel them to be a burden and an annoyance. And there are no laws to prevent this. It doesn’t say much for us that when a living creature becomes a burden to us we just throw it away. When a horse’s life has reached its natural end, and it needs to pass over, then euthanasia is the proper and kind course to prevent further suffering. But for one of these magnificent beings to end up in a feedlot while still brimming with life, and to be auctioned for slaughter, for meat, is just horrible.

As we walked through the paddocks among her thoroughbreds, they came up to greet us as though to say, “Hi who is this new lady?” As they did so, I felt a rush of emotion. All this hard work I do, I thought, the ten hours of driving to get me to this ranch, the hours I am spending with Helen and arranging for the hay, and raising the money to pay for it, all of it, is for them horses, and the life we can give them.

Part 23: The Queen »

Covergirl’s New Family Alan Thicke

By April Horowitz

(The Heart of a Horse Story, part 20)

 
I always like to keep an eye on our rescue horses after they’re adopted to see that they are doing well in their new homes. Covergirl was no exception. We had rescued her from a kill pen in Pennsylvania, brought her to California and gotten her adopted by Alan and Tanya Thicke. I had looked in on Covergirl during that first adoption year and then when the year was up I visited with Alan Thicke, who is also a Heart of a Horse board member.

Alan is a well-known TV personality and entertainer. He played the father on the hit show “Growing Pains,” and had own late evening talk show called “Thicke of the Night.” He is a compulsive jokester and said to our camera, when we created a promotional video: “I support Heart of a Horse and every other body part of a horse. So make sure you’re behind these people and doing your part. We appreciate that.”

What I didn’t know as we introduced Covergirl at the Bombardier Polo Open, and Tanya Thicke met her for the first time, was that Tanya had not told Alan she was adopting the horse. Alan was out of town working on the day of the event. It was a secret she revealed at the event itself: “I’m happy and proud to say that Covergirl will be coming to my ranch. I’m very excited to adopt her. She’s going to be the new addition to my family. I actually have a pretty funny story. My husband doesn’t know yet that we’ve adopted Covergirl. It’s going to be a surprise when she shows up! But being able to give a home to a horse whose life almost came to an end at a horrible slaughterhouse because she didn’t perform well, to be able to give her a second chance at a good life makes me very happy.”

I wrote up my interview with Alan for the Montecito Journal, a local paper that had reported Covergirl’s story and supported our efforts. I began by asking him how Covergirl came into his life:

Thicke: By total surprise, shock and awe. I was out of town working when you had your event at the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club. Tanya was there and was so moved by Covergirl’s story that the next thing I knew I had a horse. Tanya had cleverly recruited my son, Carter, so they basically ganged up on me.

I asked him how he felt when Tanya and Carter first told him about Covergirl.

Thicke: Oh, great. Another horse. When my wife and son confronted me with those big doe-y eyes and droopy faces, and said “We have something to tell you, I thought, “Uh-oh, the cat died.”

Actually, this was all Alan’s self-deprecating sense of humor. Four of Alan’s 12 horses had been adopted from friends who didn’t have the time or inclination to take care of them. He had a big heart for rescue and once he was told her story, he too was moved by Covergirl’s plight:

Thicke: It was very touching to save a perfectly grand horse destined for oblivion. My other rescue horses weren’t set on the path to oblivion but just lacked loving care due to absentee ownership. By the time I had acquired four of them I had to hire a stable manager to look after them. This was a prelude for the rescue of Covergirl.

I asked him what his favorite thing about Covergirl was. He said the way she had touched his son, Carter, who used to get up in the mornings at six to go to school, but now was getting up at 5:30 to be with Covergirl. “The irony is that with the beautiful stable we have and the twelve horses, none of us ever rode. We liked to look at them. They were beautiful animals, but we never rode. Covergirl is on her way to changing that. What I like about Covergirl is that she is really people friendly. I’m not enough of a horse whisperer to know if that’s her intention. But we’ve never had a difficult moment with her.” Then, he added, “Oh, and you don’t have to worry about Covergirl being undernourished or too skinny anymore. In fact, we’re going to have to put her on Jenny Craig.”

Part 22: »

Covergirl at the Bombardier Open

By April Horowitz

(The Heart of a Horse Story, part 19)

 
Well before she arrived in California, I had already made ambitious plans for Covergirl, which were going to unfold the very week she arrived. To promote rescue and the Heart of a Horse mission, I was putting on a big event at the 100th Anniversary of the Bombardier Pacific Coast Open Polo Championships. These were going to be held at the Santa Barbara Polo & Racket Club, and I planned to make the event Covergirl’s California debut. My idea was to launch her as a poster girl for horse rescue. Kevin and all our volunteers were excited when I explained the plan to them. As Kevin put it, “Covergirl’s the one who’s going to capture the hearts of people and bring attention to the plight of the horses that are in need in this country.”

From the very beginning when I was just getting involved in horse rescue, I already was realizing that the biggest problem we faced was the lack of public awareness about horses and their needs, the cruelty that no one paid attention to and the general ignorance that caused people not to understand that horses were domesticated animals who depended on us for their survival. The bad economy, which had overtaken the country in the fall of 2008, had caused 100,000 horses to be abandoned by their owners. The only way to stem the growing tragedy was to create a new awareness among people of the condition of these animals and mobilize support for them.

Jack Roth and Arlynn Whittaker were friends in the advertising business. Jack was the head of AdMarketing and Arlynn was his CFO. When I approached them with the situation and our plans for the Bombardier Open, they put their staff at our disposal and produced a thirty-second ad spot to promote our event. To dramatize the plight of the horses, the AdMarketing team created a script with a female voiceover impersonating a horse and ran footage from the videos we had made of the starving horses from the Lockwood case. As the spot unfolded a female voice said:

I used to have a beautiful life. I was fed and cared for. And most of all, loved. But all that’s changed. It got too expensive to feed me. My owners sometimes abused or abandoned me.

Then the voiceover in the commercial changed to screen actor Robert Davi, known for his portrayal of James Bond’s adversary in License to Kill. Robert is a dear friend who loves animals and has gone out of his way for Heart of a Horse on many occasions. I enlisted him to be our mc at the Bombardier event, and to do the second voiceover on the TV spot for us. This is what he said in his deep resonant tones:

We at Heart of a Horse realize how difficult times are financially. But nothing is more devastating than what’s happening to one of the noblest creatures on earth – the horse. Please help us in saving lives. Give generously. And join us in supporting the Bombardier Open polo event, August 15.

With Jack and Arlynn’s help we were able to run more than twelve hundred of these ads on cable stations like BRAVO. We ran them from Los Angeles all the way up to Santa Barbara and the Santa Ynez Valley, at a minimal cost for television advertising, thank to Ad Marketing’s relationship with the stations. As a result, hundreds of thousands of people saw our message about the horses. In addition, KHAY Country, the big FM country music station in Ventura County, ran 100 spots about the event for us for free. Covergirl’s story was featured in the local press both before and after and I felt satisfied that just through the publicity we generated for our event, we had accomplished an important task for horses in need and inspired many more people to help them out.

I was able to get the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club to sponsor the event, and then, the Bombardier company, because of my friendship with Ed Snider, the famed owner of the Philadelphia Flyers. Ed had a home in Santa Barbara and also a very big heart. I called on another friend, Bo Derek whose love for horses had been an inspiration to me, and who agreed to grace our event, and to accept an award I designed for her. Actress Selma Blair, known for her roles in Legally Blonde and Cruel Intentions, showed up unexpectedly to help us make the event a noteworthy happening. Trainer Kandice Watts, my friend and volunteer, created an activities center called Kid’s Corner with games and entertainments for the youngsters. One of the highlights was a trick horse that students from the Equine Department at Cal Poly brought to perform.

On the day of the event, two hundred people showed up, joining the thousands who came for the polo match. We gathered our ticketholders under a big white tent next to the clubhouse in the center of the field with a terrific view of the goings on. I had Peter and our Heart of a Horse film crew document the event and interview the guests. Selma Blair said on camera, “I’m here to support Heart of a Horse, which is a wonderful organization that is for the rescue and healing of horses, animals who are very dear to my heart. Horses have been very therapeutic for friends of mine and I have been involved in therapeutic riding programs.” Singer and actor Ed Ames, another friend and a horse owner said, “Everything I can do to help, I do, and everybody should help to save the horses.”

Heart of a Horse board member Robert Duvall was making a film and could not attend, but he sent a letter, which Robert Davi read not only to our group but to the thousands who came to see the polo championships:

To April and Heart of a Horse

Throughout my life and my career, horses have played a major role. From my uncle’s ranch in Montana, to the set of Lonesome Dove, my fondest memories have always included horses. They are a part of the very fabric of our country.

Thank you for being here to help in the effort to rescue and save this beautiful and noble animal.

Robert Duvall

We gave an award to Humane Officer Tracy Vail for the work she did with horses. Tracy was happily surprised when we included a romantic weekend at the Las Vegas Ramada Inn, which had been donated by its owner Pat Nesbitt. Pat also allowed us to use his nearby stables and his groom to prepare Covergirl for the event. Little Olivia, our poster girl, presented the award to Bo Derek, which read “A champion of champions. For her devotion to the well-being of our equine friends.”

The absolute highpoint of the day, however, was Covergirl’s debut. This took place before the stands full of polo fans. Using the public address system, Robert Davi told the story of her odyssey from a kill pen in Pennsylvania to center stage at the 100th anniversary of the Bombardier Open, and what a story that was. Kevin led Covergirl past the stands so the people could appreciate her. And how beautiful she was. Her newly groomed coat was shining in the brilliant sunlight, and she was wearing a wreath of roses – a tradition for racehorse winners that began at the Kentucky Derby. A ribbon across it bore the words “I Was Saved.” As she trotted past the stands, you could see that she was enjoying every minute, and Robert Davi said to the crowd, “Let’s give her a standing ovation. This horse was left for dying, and look at her now. This is what April and the Heart of a Horse Foundation have done.”

I had one more rabbit to pull out of the hat. To top off the event, I had arranged that Covergirl would be formally adopted and given a new home. Her new parents were Tanya and Alan Thicke who had never seen Covergirl but had agreed to adopt her after I had told them her story and what a perfectly wonderful horse she was. (Tanya, Covergirl, Robert Davi and Dr. Kevin Smith are pictured in the photo that accompanies this story.)

I had been introduced to the Thickes by Ed Snider and had previously taken my film crew to their ranch in Carpinteria to shoot a video explaining the Heart of a Horse mission. We called the finished video, “Who We Are.” It can be seen on our website at www.heartofahorse.org, and under “Videos” on this Facebook page. The Thickes have a beautiful ranch in the foothills of the California coastal range, with twelve elegant stables. For our film, Tanya said of horses: “This is an animal that has a heart and has a soul, and it’s our responsibility do the right thing. I think that animals bring so much love and kindness and happiness to people. When we are so blessed with everything that God has given us, it’s important for us to give back.”

When it was all over, I was happy that we had achieved the main goal of finding a home for Covergirl, and also that we had made many people aware of the plight of neglected and abandoned horses and the need for horse rescue. However, I had also hoped to raise significant funds to carry on the rescue work. After all, polo was a high-end sport and among the people who participated and who enjoyed it were many wealthy individuals who were horse owners as well. When all the costs were added up, the tent rentals, the food, and so forth, the net receipts from the event were a modest $15,000, and none of the large donations I had hoped for were forthcoming. This was a hard lesson, but was fairly typical of the horse rescue scene. There were just not a lot of charitable hearts out there for horses, certainly nothing like what was available for cats and dogs. It started me thinking that I would have to find other ways to raise the funds we needed.

Part 20: Covergirl’s New Family Alan Thicke »