Adoptable horses shine.

We had a very busy weekend at Tranquility Farm, and three of our horses had serious adoption interviews on Sunday. Sea Kris, had a great workout in the round-pen and very much impressed with his quick response to voice commands and his willingness to work in an obedient manner. We are taking care of so many horses here that we don’t have a budget for training staff, and it is really gratifying that the horses remember their lessons and work so honestly when we show them.
SEA KRIS

Bonanza Two also had his day in the limelight and he was so beautiful cantering lightly around and paying close attention to everything he was asked to do. His talent must be natural, because he was turned out for two years before returning to us for adoption. I always wonder as I start new horses if they incredibly smart and remember former training from long ago or if they are actually capable of learning my commands almost instantly.It is a riddle I may never solve, but either way, Bonanza worked beautifully and seemed to really enjoy himself.

BONANZA TWO

After being very impressed with the work of both our hunter candidates our visitors absolutely fell in love with two year old Capricho! His sweet disposition and penchant for giving people hugs and following them around like a huge dog just bowled them over. So now they must decide, and it is a very tough choice. If you plan to visit Tranquility Farm to adopt a horse expect a surfeit of riches!
CAPRICHO

Moonlit Moment update

Moonlit Moment had a great adoption interview yesterday. After many months idle, he cheerfully went to work like he was ridden yesterday. He was very mannerly on the lunge and when mounted he relaxed immediately into a wonderful long swinging walk. I could swear that horse was was smiling!

Moonie is a definitely chubby and out of shape from his vacation, but he was super happy to be doing something and to have attention. Just from his sheer size he is not a horse for a total beginner, but he is so mannerly on the lunge that he should do fine for therapy riding or lessons.

Southern Wish

Today the feature race at Fairplex is the Phil D.Shepherd Stakes,and although it is not the most prestigious race ever won by our retiree Southern Wish,it is worth mentioning that he won this race in 1993. Southern Wish turned twenty this year, so we are getting into some history to discuss his race record. Pomona was obviously to his liking because he also ran third in the Pomona Invitational Handicap that year and returned to win it in 1994. Southern Wish was a formidable competitor on the California scene in the early 1990’s, racing 25 times with ten wins against great horses like Alphabet Soup, Prospectforfour, Savino, Lit De Justice and Luthier Fever.He went on to win the Gr.2 Citation Handicap in 1994 and ended his career on a high by winning the Bart Handicap in 1996. He retired with earnings of $513,215.

At the end of Southern Wish’s racing career in 1996 there were really not many viable options for retiring Thoroughbreds in California who did not have owners interested in their support. Tranquility Farm did not yet exist, but a fledgling trainer named Kristen Mulhall put in a call to let it be known that an ex-racehorse was in trouble having been given to a party who did not wish to keep him, and that horse turned out to be Southern Wish.

That call was his lifeline and later that year Southern Wish moved with about sixty other retired Thoroughreds to what would become Tranquility Farm. And so he has been here from day one to greet and mentor the hundreds of other horses who have passed through since that time. Here is a horse that has never had a cross word to say to anyone, human or equine, and he is equally beloved by both species.

Southern Wish has been sponsored in his retirement at Tranquility Farm by Jay Hovdey and Julie Krone. Julie says “He won the Gr. 2 Citation Handicap, and that’s good enough for me.” Ditto.

Since some of our new adoptable horses won't get posted on the Adoptions page for a while,here is another photo of the ever so handsome Bonanza Two. Bo is being such a good boy here while he waits for his forever home. He is a big, quiet guy who likes everyone and gets along great with the other horses. Bo will do very in an arena based program where he can begin to train for dressage or lower hunters. Come up and meet Bo and our other prospects, we have so many beautiful horses waiting for homes!

The weanling's mothers need new homes.

Now that weaning is over some of our mothers will soon be offered for adoption. All of these mares were rescued from a feedlot in Arizona in 2008, and if by chance you do not know their story simply go to the first entry of the Tranquility Farm Today blog and you will find a link there.

One of the mares who just grabbed my heart was Marged’s Delred. She really deserves a nicer name, and I like to call her Margie. She was just six-years-old and carrying her first foal when we rescued her, and she seemed one of the most crestfallen from her experience. She was very lame from walking on the baking rocks in the feedlot, and she clung for dear life to the side of her friend, a mare who seemed to have great fortitude throughout their ordeal. Because I couldn’t bear to separate these two after they had been through so much together, I brought them both to Tranquility Farm.

The most wonderful surprise was seeing Margie blossom from a scared little waif into a secure and loving mother. Margie was one of the best first- time mothers I have ever had the pleasure to care for. She was patient with her foal from the instant that he was born, and her colt also has the sweetest nature imaginable.
Photo by Anthony Andrews.

Margie is perfectly sound and ready to begin retraining for show or pleasure. She was a winner on the racetrack she should spring back into shape quickly to be ready once again for an athletic second career. Watch our adoption listings soon for an update and more photos of our beautiful Margie.

Areyoutalkintome

Today five horses will compete in the Pirate’s Bounty Stakes at the closing of the Del Mar meet. May they all come home safely, and may the best horse win, as did Tranquility Farm’s retiree Areyoutalkintome in both 2005 and 2006. As significant as this seems, it is just a brief highlight in the career of a horse that ran 52 times with 10 wins including the Cal Cup Sprint; the Gr. 3 El Conejo Handicap in 2005 and 2007, and the Los Angeles Times Handicap. Areyoutalkintome also ran in the Breeder's Cup,and ultimately retired with career earnings of $985,416.


Areyoutalkintome retires to Tranquility Farm in April 2008.

Wow! Only $14,584 short of a million dollars! Without a doubt, Areyoutalkintome is an amazing horse. Not only did he survive 52 races but he did it with his health and dignity intact. Surely one reason that he had such great success as a racehorse is that he has implicit trust in human beings. He can be counted upon in every situation to act with kindness and generosity. This may explain why he was willing to lay his life on the line so many times to achieve the victories desired by his human partners.

But the humans he so trusted failed him. In spite of his years of effort and hard won victories, nothing was ever put in place to provide for Areyoutalkintome when he could no longer race. As incredible as it seems, after winning hundreds of thousands of dollars in purses and breeder’s awards, he was plucked from a low level claiming race in 2008 and depends upon the mercies of charity to provide for him in his time of need. So ended his illustrious career.

Tranquility Farm was there when Areyoutalkintome needed us. It has been our particular pleasure to make sure that this gallant horse never for one moment doubts that he is held in the highest esteem even though we are not the humans that have benefited so richly from his remarkable achievements. He came to us with his head held high and fire in his eyes, and we hope he will always stay that way.

I Love Silver

Last Sunday Del Mar featured the $300,000 Gr.2 Pat O’brien Handicap, and this week seems a good opportunity to honor our own retiree I Love Silver, who ran a close third to Disturbingthepeace the 2002 running.

I Love Silver raced a total of 20 times with 4 wins including the Skywalker Handicap in 2002, and he earned $437,142. He finished second and third to Point Given in the Gr. 2 San Felipe and the Gr.1 Santa Anita Derby. Never running against anything but the best of his day,I Love Silver's race record consistantly describes his efforts as game and willing.

This great old warrior has mellowed with his years in the pasture, but he still loves to stretch his legs in the summer grass and show the world what he was born to do. Here is I Love Silver running free in the sunshine.

Dog Days at Tranquility Farm

This weekend we are taking advantage of a great opportunity to better socialize our horses with large dogs. This is especially good for the weanlings who think all dogs are small and white, but lots of our horses off the racetrack have also not had the opportunity to meet many other animals.To broaden our horse's horizons we have a mini goat who roams the farm, guinea hens, chickens, and in the past we had sheep who were escape artists so all the horses got a chance to see them bounding by. But meeting a safe big dog nose-to-nose is an invaluable experience for the weanlings because we want them to grow up with exposure to things horses normally see in the "real world".Our volunteer for "dog school" is Blake, a 10 month-old Golden Lab.
Adoptable two-year-old Capricho absolutely loved Blake. He had the sweetest expression the whole time and he wanted to push him with his nose and even tried to lick him! As always, horses are full of suprises.

New adoptable horse Bonanza Two

We have a beautiful 16.2 hand dapple-grey gelding who needs a home. Bonanza Two aka Bo is seven and he has been off the track for more than two years. His previous adopter did not find the time to train or ride him. Bo has had a marvelous vacation but it is time now to find him a working home. He would be beautiful for dressage or low hunters, he has good gaits and a soft mouth. Come up and see Bo and our other great prospects for adoption!

Fly to the Wire

Today is the running of the El Cajon Stakes at Del Mar, and it is an appropriate day to honor our retiree Fly to the Wire, who placed second in the El Cajon in 2005. Fly to the Wire ran a total of 28 races, with a remarkable record of 11-9-2. Only six times in his career did he fail to earn a significant share of the purse, or enrich his backers. In addition to the El Cajon Stakes he also placed in the Laz Barrera Memorial Stakes at Hollywood Park, which is a Gr. 2 event.

Fly to the Wire is probably best rmembered for a series of five races that he ran at the very end of his career in the spring of 2006. He won them all; five in a row, and by some miracle he did not get claimed from his trainer Bob Hess. Sadly, in his attempt to win his sixth straight race at Del Mar he suffered a serious tendon injury, and it ended his career.

Fly to the Wire has been with us now for three years, and he is an absolute mountain of a horse with boundless good nature. He loves people, but if you plan to visit him in the pasture, best to wear sensible shoes. Nothing makes Fly to the Wire happier than greeting unsuspecting humans with an friendly push of his gigantic head. All in good fun, just be prepared.
Fly to the Wire at Tranquility Farm in June 2009, photo by Anthony Andrews.

New Lukas video

If you missed the videos of the amazing rescued Thoroughbred Lukas who has become a one horse wonder, here is a new video with a sample of his extrodinary training and intelligence.Lukas was found starving and neglected soon after he bowed a tendon on the racetrack. He was a "mercy buy" and Karen Murdock, his current owner and trainer, purchased him from the woman who rescued him.

It seems Lukas is on his way to becoming a poster child for "unwanted" horses. Karen reports he has a feature article in the August edition of RIDING magazine ,and that offers are pouring in to have him appear for various causes.

Here is the latest from the wonder horse Lukas

Cherry Chassie, a random act of kindness.

I received a call today from a woman looking for papers for a mare that Tranquility Farm rescued in 2007 named Cherry Chassie. How we came to own Cherry is a tale in itself. A friend who was running at Santa Anita at that time saw someone leading a filly through the stable area, offering her for sale for $50.00. At first our friend thought the man was joking, but realizing the terrible implication for the horse, he immediately paid the money and found her a stall. And so Tranquility Farm became Cherry Chassie’s new owner, papers and all. Cherry had no pedigree, a sweet face, and a hot bow.

Giveaway mares just seem to fall like rain at the racetrack. Usually they are too immature to train in the first place, and many simply have no ability or inclination to run. Mares are homebodies, and lots of them never do take to the track. Cherry seemed exactly this type of mare; she was very quiet, even a little shy. But she was a gentle soul that seemed to be enormously relieved to once again live at a farm where she could relate to what was going on around her.

Unlike our old-fashioned ideas in Thoroughbred breeding, a great many Warmbloods, Quarterhorses and Arabs today are born to surrogate mothers by embryo transfer. Young Thoroughbred mares are sought after to carry these foals because they are of a good size and usually make excellent mothers. With Cherry’s doubtful prognosis for adoption as a riding horse, this seemed a perfect option, and she was soon sent off to a very nice farm in Santa Ynez for this purpose.

Two years later she is carrying her second foal, and this time it is for a 23-year-old mare who has never had a foal, and whose owner is so fond of her that she is willing to pay for the expensive surrogate breeding process so that she can raise her only offspring for her next lifetime horse. She called today to request permanent ownership because she has fallen in love with Cherry.

All of us know that our love of racehorses means that we will sometimes endure the terrible randomness of their loss. And then a horse like Cherry is plucked from doom and sent to a forever home just because she happened to be walking down the right shedrow at the exact moment that her life was offered for $50.00. If there is a balance here, I don’t know. Rescuing horses allows you no perspective, because the next one is always right in front of you.

I never took a photo of Cherry in the brief time that she was with us, but here in her honor is a photo from our garden. Call it the butterfly of random happiness.

Weaning update

The class of 2009 is pretty outstanding. Not only are they big, good-looking babies, but they are sensible and very keen to be good little citizens. They are at this point pretty much ignoring their mothers so the "security blanket" of having them in the next paddock will end soon. What they seem the most interested in right now is absolutely mobbing me or any of the farm staff for attention. This includes some mouthy behavior, so a bit of gentle discipline is now needed to keep them from being overly exhuberant. It is fascinating to see them grow in confidence and develop their own herding behavior.

On a big farm with lots of foals the colts and fillies would be seperated at weaning. Alas, we are a little farm, really cramped for space, so this cannot happen for a while. This makes for a very interesting dynamic because the fillies immediately figure out that they are in charge of the colts. Don't ask me how this happens but it is the same every year. The two bay colts are both by the same sire,Mongol Warrior,and other than size they are nearly identical. They have formed a defensive pact to fend off the fillies,headed by the larger of the two out of Now My Precious,whose baby name is "Hercules".

This little redhead on a mission is the last foal in California sired by Seattle Bound,and she is practicing her newly acquired skill of bossing the colts out of their feeder. And far above any petty squabbles is the exquisite dark bay filly that has double Caro bloodlines. Blessed with class and good sense from birth, she simply floats above the fray.

Moonlit Moment

Moonlit Moment arrived back at Tranquility Farm yesterday after five years of wonderful life with an adopter who adored him. He walked into the barn like he had just been here yesterday. Still, it was a sad event because it represented such a loss to an owner who had loved him so much. I asked Moonlit Moment's adopter to write me about his expereinces over the past years so that I could best find him another home, and I'll let her speak for him.
"Moon has been a wonderful friend, companion and soulmate. Our relationship is about love trust and gentleness. He does not need a lot of training gear... he lunges on hand movements and sound. We like to ride best with a bareback pad and halter just playing in the meadow outside the property or jumping small jumps and over haystacks.I bet he would enjoy dressage, that was going to be our next thing because his mind could be put to use along with his great beauty."


So if you are looking for a kind and trustworthy horse to join your family please consider coming up to Tranquility Farm to meet Moonlit Moment. It is hard to send a horse who has had such a wonderful relationship with his family out into the pasture to retire. Moonlit Moment has many wonderful years ahead and love to give.