Giving a second chance...

Today was a great day. Today "Beeper" got a second chance at a good life. Beeper (Beep N Go) is a retired racehorse that my in-laws bought at auction. He'd been a racehorse before, then was purchased by a young girl who barrel raced him. Her parents forced her to sell him and that's how we got him. We decided we'd try running him again. It was getting into winter and we needed only a few starts in order to stay qualified for our insurance through the track. Beeper would be just the horse to help us out. He didn't need to run real well (though we hoped he would), he just needed to come out of the gate and cross the finish line.

Long story short, Beeper wasn't any better at running during his second time around. I advertised him for sale and a very nice girl and her mom came out to try him. The girl fell in love with him....so after his last race, she vetted him and took him right home. Beeper was to be her dressage mount. She owned him over a year and a half. About 2-3 months ago her mother contacted me asking for help in selling Beeper. Her daughter had developed Rheumatoid Arthritis and decided to stop the medication. So riding was becoming more and more difficult for her. Beeper really was tough to sell because he had an old injury to his knee (way before we ever bought him) that would limit his ability to flatwork only. Since Beeper wasn't a good jumping candidate, no one wanted him. I had a few other emails form the owner asking for more ideas. I pointed her towards several advertising websites and sent his info to a few friends. Still....no one wanted him. Of course she was asking $2500 for him in a bad winter market during the economy crisis. So last week I received yet another email stating that Beeper was free to whoever wanted him (a good home a must of course) and if he didn't find that home in 6 days....the owner was going to euthanize him!
Well, that put a slight crink in my day. Beeper was not one of my favorite horses but I felt obligated to see he was not put down for no good reason other than he wasn't being ridden. So I went to my online friends and started a fund raising drive. Within 24 hours, we had enough money ($325) to pay a commercial shipper to deliver him to his new home in Maryland. IN fact, we collected more than enough money....so the remainder will go towards helping another needy soul coming off the racetack.

Beeper arrived at his new, safe home in Frederick, MD at about 1:45am this morning. His new owner (an upper level dressage trainer) says he's already settled in and made friends. So Beeper got his second chance today. Thanks to a super group of people whose generosity and kindness never ceases to amaze me!

The pictures shown above are from two years ago when we still owned Beeper. Yes, that's a cat on his back!

Below is Beeper in his new home....

In other horsey news....my new horse "Sean" had his teeth done today. I can not believe how bad they were. His teeth were so bad he had to tilt his head to be able to chew. I can't understand why people don't take care of their horses' mouths. This fella is super sweet and cute as a button. He just dealt with it....poor guy!

Here are some new pics form yesterday as he was playing in the round pen.