Currently, I'm assisting a good friend of mine to help restore a horse to his original glorious and fantabulous shape and body score. He's an ex-racehorse, and by that I mean literally he was racing one day, and the same day he lost what would be his last race, he was thrown out to a kill buyer who was waiting for horses like him right there on the track. This horse, the one I'll call Callan, is a four-year-old Appendix horse out of Florida. For those of you who may not know what an Appendix horse is, it is a horse that is bred to race specifically from a racing Thoroughbred and a racing Quarter Horse. I thought perhaps it was just the breeding, but after speaking to the folks at the Jockey Club I was corrected. Quarter Horses actually run faster than Thoroughbreds, and they are a bit thicker, and they tend to have somewhat shorter backs and legs, making it easier to turn. Thoroughbreds tend to speed up in the stretch and make up the time on the long, while Quarter Horses are apt to be good at turning and making the cut in and out of other racers. It's a good plan, right? Not always. Animals who don't consistently win are often thrown away, given away, or put down.
Callan's story began in Florida where he was racing. We can only surmise at this point, as we don't yet know his registered Jockey Club name or number. Working from the story I received from the lady who is caring for him, and the information on the lots number tags stuck to his backside from the lots he's been traded to, as well as the recorded medical Coggins report that was pulled in Florida the day he was sold to the kill buyer, I have deducted that Callan was racing on or around May 28, 2019. He must have lost that race or didn't finish high enough to make his owners happy, as he was sold to a man named Jack Darling in Williston, FL who is known for being both a kill buyer, and he's been in trouble for literally altering the tattoo information inside the horse's lip. I can't tell yet if Callan has an altered lip tattoo, as he won't let us near his mouth yet. It could be that he has been hurt, and he won't fall for it a second time. Jack Darling took Callan to Dr. Billy Hendrix of Levy Animal Clinic on May 29, 2019. He had his blood drawn for the Coggins report, and his name was listed as "Spidey" owing to the fact that he is a Rabicano roan Sorrell with spider-webbing type roan patterns on his hips. The test proved to be negative.
Because a horse's Coggins takes about 3-4 days before it's back from the laboratory, we can deduce that Callan was not sold or shipped to his next destination until about June 2 or 3. He has two sticky butt tags, one of which is a Texas-registered tag with the number 501. He received it when he arrived at the Lonestar Kill Pen in Justin, Texas, just west of I-35 and north of Dallas. On this lot, for some reason, and we don't know why, he was left unsold and not claimed for about 40 days, or he was transferred to a hub during this time where he may have been unkept and allowed to fight for whatever food was available. You can't know who runs these hubs, how many horses they corral, and what type of hay they feed. You can be damn sure they don't offer grain, and they don't give enough. Callen, a normally 1150-1200 pound horse is now standing at 15.3H tall and about 800 pounds or less. He is a literal bag of bones with just enough meat to give us hope that he will survive. His ribs are all showing, his hips are past the point of protruding, he's in bad shape.
After the hub and/or pen, he was rescued by a group of ladies who find it their calling to help as many as they can. My friend was given permission to either pick him up or have him picked up and delivered to her place. He was delivered on July 11th and I saw him for the first time on Sunday, July 14, 2019. I tried to walk away as I knew I was on a tight tight budget this summer, but I couldn't, and I knew I would not be able to do so. I told my friend I will help her all I can, and I will either find others who can help, or I'll get a temporary job for the last 4 weeks I have left before school starts up, to be able to help her recover this gelding. He spoke to me, and when they speak to you, you don't really have an option. She has others on her property that also need help, but Callan reached me the second I saw him. He allowed me to pet him, groom him, and give him a treat, but mostly he just wanted me to hand him the hay so he didn't have to reach down for it. He wanted me to stay, to pet him and tell him he was going to be OK. I prayed over him in Jesus' precious name, and KNOW he is going to make a full and wonderful recovery. I named him Callan as it means "Battle", and he certainly has been through one, and has another to muster.
As his body score is currently between 1 and 2 I don't want to post his photos. I will do so in a subsequent post when he has fully gained his weight and I can show you the before and after photos; the before he was loved and after he was surrendered to Jesus to bring back to life. I can't imagine the hard times he has gone through. He's probably never been actually loved. He was bred to run, sold, and trained. He was forced to perform, probably drugged to perform, and then when he couldn't beat another horse or two, he was left to the kill buyer's mercy. Apparently, the buyer thought he could get a little money for him, so he sold him to the lot, which make more money off of him, and he was sold to the rescuers. I will, of course, give a donation to help them continue their quest to help as many as they possibly can. Callan will from July 11, 2019, when he arrived at my friend's house, know love. He will never not be loved again. (I know, poor grammar...I get it.) When Callan survives, and he will, I will take him home with me.
When you see a horse race and you cheer from the stands or from where you're watching, do you think about the one who came in last? Do you think about the one that came in next to last too often? Well, maybe people should start to think about them more often. There are no roses for the losers most of the time. The red roan in the picture is a Quarter Horse, not an Appendix. He is a ranch horse, not a racehorse. When Callan makes a full recovery he will be trained to rein.
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