60 Thoroughbreds seized at Louisiana Farm

On January 7th and 8th 2012 Remember Me Racehorse Rescue and the Louisiana Horse Rescue assisted the Sabine Humane Society in conducting a 60 horse seizure at a thoroughbred breeding and training farm in Many, Louisiana. There were originally reported to be about 120 horses on the property but by the time the case was built and the seizure was conducted half of them were either missing or deceased.

When we arrived at Charles Ford's farm it reminded me of a puppy mill. Horses everywhere. A large pasture that originally had 20 yearlings only 6 were still alive, 14 had died before we arrived. 53 broodmares were reported on the property, only 23 were still alive. 25 dead horses were either found or were euthanized upon arrival and countless fresh graves were found. Most of the broodmares had aborted their fetuses and their tiny little bones were scattered across the pasture along with the bones of many dead mares that were left out to rot. A true death count is impossible to obtain without resuming bodies from the graves.

Not only were the horses at Charles Ford's farm in horrid condition there was a large dog kennel full of hungry barking dogs with deceased dogs only feet away. There were also pigs and goats on the property that looked like staggering skeletons.

Remember Me Rescue and the Louisiana Horse Rescue are in possession of most of the horses and the Sabine Humane Society has fosters for a few. The SHS has moved the dogs and small livestock to safety. As of 1-10-12 Ford has still not signed over his rights to the horses.

Louisiana law gives owners the right to place bond for the horses in the amount of $1500 per horse within 15 days from the seizure. If he does so the horses will remain in foster care with the above mentioned agencies for 30 more days when Ford will appear before the local judge. With evidence that seems to be piled ten miles high we don't forsee the judge giving him rights to the horses.

We estimate the cost to care for these horses will exceed $450 a day while in our care. We are in desperate need of financial assistance to care for and meet the needs of these unfortunate horses. Please give if you can and support our efforts to not only save these horses but to ensure the owner Charles Ford and the trainer, William (Bill) Young never touch another animal for the rest of their lives.

Please visit the official Remember Me Rescue website at http://www.teamkeen.com/ and click on the LA Horse Seizure page for more information about this project. There is a paypal button provided for donations or you can mail your check to:

Remember Me Rescue

4100 Conveyor Drive

Burleson, Texas 76028

attn: LA horses

Don't forget to share this story with everyone you know and ask them to do the same! By sharing this you are helping us to inform irresponsible breeders that we are looking for them, we will find them, and we will prosecute them to the fullest extend of the law for abusing these animals.

Grey Goose Anyone?

Remember Me Racehorse Rescue
Autographed Bottle of
Grey Goose Vodka
to benefit retired racehorses

On October 16th Future Covenant won his first race of the meet at Santa Anita Park. For the win Santa Anita gave us a HUGE bottle of Grey Goose Vodka in the winners circle. Future Covenants owners, Ian Yarnot and Brent Gasaway, donated the bottle to Remember Me Rescue to raise money for our retired racehorse program.

The 1.75 liter bottle of Grey Goose Vodka has been autographed by all the top jockeys, great trainers, and legends from the West Coast. Signatures from John Henry's trainer Ron McAnnally to Bob Baffert, Legend Jockey Eddie Delahoussaye, beautiful and talented female stars Chantal Sutherland and Kayla Stra, young Joe Talamo, David Flores, Patrick Valenzuela, Mike Smith, and many, many others. I will continue to collect autographs until the auction is over.

The auction for this one of a kind piece of racing memorabilia will be auctioned on EBAY.

CLICK HERE

or copy and paste the text in your browers to go to the auction.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180743226002

For more information please email remembermerescue@live.com or call Donna at 817-689-1214.

Current live bid is $1000 as of 10am 10/22.

Retired Racehorse, Lights On Broadway, 2001 Tx-HOTY

A couple of years ago a group of people that call themselves the Fans of Barbaro, Alex Brown, and a man named Greg Sanders helped save Lights On Broadway from slaughter. Over the past 2 years I have been asked many times over how Lights is doing and where he is now. I thought I would update all of you on his status.

Lights On Broadway is calling Remember Me Racehorse Rescue home. He is one of two permanent residents along with 28 year old Yeah Me Do. He is safe, happy, and is the official spokeshorse for our organization. We still ride Lights around the farm and hope to have a fundraiser or two for him this year where he will be the guest of honor.

I have made Lights his own webpage on the RMR site. I posted new photos of him at the farm riding and even jumping without a bridle. He is truly on the the coolest horses I have ever met. If you can teach a racehorse to ride with out a bridle you can teach them anything!




Everyone has heard about the terrible drought in the south. We usually keep 6-10 horses at any given time in the RMR program. The cost of taking care of them is constantly increasing.

Please keep Remember Me Rescue in your thoughts and prayers. There is a paypal button on Lights page if you would like to make a donation towards his care or to help us with the other horses in our program.

Remember Me Rescue placed over 80 horses in the last two years. We are funded totally from donations from horse lovers and by adoption fees we charge when a horse is placed with a new family. We appreciate your support. Now go ride your horse! (and if you don't have one, adopt!)

Blue the Pony, aka the carrott thief

Volunteer Susan made her usually Monday morning visit to Remember Me Rescue. I had to share this with all of our followers.

Hi Donna,

Well, thanks to Blue, Yammi was able to eat carrots today for the first time! Blue stuck his head down into the grooming carry-all where my bag of carrots was, picked up the bag and slowly started to walk away. As I came after him to retrieve the bag, he being no dummy, stepped into a trot and made his way across the pasture. Now I know Blue can MOVE when he puts his mind to it!

Fortunately, the carrots dribbled out of the bag as he trotted along, and as soon as the bag was empty, which didn't take long, Blue stopped, turned around, and walked back to me. He is one smart horse!

I retrieved all the carrots and several of them were crushed into little bits from when Blue bit the bag to pick it up. I fed those bits to Yammi and he was able to eat them! He's not able to eat a regular small chunk of carrot; I guess b/c he has teeth problems?? Anyway, he was able to mash up every little smushed bit of carrot I fed him today.

All the Rescue guys were groomed--Blue, Yammi, Hajii, Teddie, Belfast, and Mack. I really scrubbed Hajii and Yammi with the curry to get a lot of the loose, shedding hair off them, and I was able to get all the mats off of Hajii. I also trimmed Hajii's and Yammi's manes a little...they look ready for the track again!I don't know if you guys have been unable to work on Teddie's mane and tail, but I've told you I CANNOT get him to let me brush them. Today, after probably 10-15 minutes of walking him down, cooing, and being persistent, I was finally able to brush him!

And I LOVE Belfast!! Is he as sweet as he seems?? He lay his face right against mine and just stayed there. And he doesn't mind his ears being handled. And he is great when cleaning his hooves. And he's so beautiful! I looked up his race record, and he raced against one of Larry Jones' horses once, and Robby Albarado has ridden him!
And that paint baby is a doll! I watched her race around the stall, back and forth, back and forth, like she had just discovered the greatest thing!

If it's okay with you, I'd like to bring some paper, paints and brushes out next Monday and see if I can get Yammi and Hajii to create some Moneighs. Gwen plans to come next Monday, so she can help me. I have the directions from Mary Simons on what to use/what to do/ etc. Maybe if they turn out, you could add them to the raffle for the fundraiser. Let me know.

Susan

First Annual "Trail Ride for the Racehorse"

Remember Me Racehorse Rescue is holding its First Annual "Trail Ride for the Racehorse" on April 9th at Loyd Park in Grand Prairie, Texas.

Proceeds from the trail ride and cookout will used to build a barn for the injured and long term rehabilitation horses in the Remember Me Rescue Program. Everyone knows just how brutal this winter has been and we are in need of a new barn to help protect the horses in the RMR program from the elements.

Everyone is welcome. If you don't ride come to the cookout! Thoroughbred Trainer Dallas Keen will be in charge of the grill. Plates for the cookout will be $5/ person, kids under 10 are free. There is no charge to ride in the trail ride and we will have free t-shirts for the trail riders.

We will also hold bridleless riding demonstration and hold a question and answer seminar to answer questions about training and 'retraining' your rescued horses.

2 WAYS TO HELP...

Consider being a trail ride sponsor. Basic Sponsorship is $250, Premium Sponsorship is $1000.

We will also hold a raffle after the trail ride. Tickets are $1 and we will have lots of neat stuff. All proceeds go to Remember Me Racehorse Rescue. You may purchase raffle tickets the day of the ride or in advance. No need to be present to win but may have to pay shipping for large items.

We still need a few volunteers. If you are interested we would love to have you join us for our fundraiser!!

For more info contact Lilly at 270-668-6837 or email remembermerescu@aol.com



Directions From I-20 to Loyd Park:
Take 360 south towards Mansfield.
Turn left on Ragland Rd.
The entrance to the park is a ¼ of a mile down the road on your

Eight Belles, Triumph Beyond The Wire Fundraiser for RMR

Merry Christmas to all.

Just in time for gift giving we are offering the outstanding book by 16 year old author Maria Michalak, Eight Belles, Triumph Beyond The Wire. For a $100 tax deductible donation to Remember Me Racehorse Rescue we will send you one of these special books. They are autographed by the author and by Eight Belles trainer, Larry Jones. We only have ten of these books so don't wait, email us now for your copy at remembermerescue@live.com

You may make your donation via paypal or by check. Please add $10 for shipping.

Bridleless Riding, transitioning racehorses to bridleless horses

Many people that know Dallas and I know that we enjoy riding our track ponies bridleless. Some people think we are just showing off and in a way they are right. We are showing the retrainability of exracehorses. If a horse recently retired from racing can ride without a bridle there is a definitely possibility that horse could be retrained for anything.


It all started with a paint gelding I purchased in 2006 from quarterhorse trainer Roe Gordon. Roe had loaned the horse to the Lone Star Park outrider to use during morning training at the track. The horse, appropriately named Spot, was a quick super flashy thing with catlike moves. You could see that he had some previous reining and or cutting training in his past. I really liked the looks of this horse and inquired about purchasing him.
When I asked Roe if I could arrange a test ride before buying the horse he said he would ask the outrider to bring him over after training. After training I received a phone call from Roe, laughing himself silly, saying the outrider said I wasn't a good enough hand to ride a horse like Spot. Me being the hard headed easily wound up type person I am I told Roe, 'Well, I was going to have him vetted, but not now, just come get your check', and Dallas and I went to pick up Spot.
When we arrived at Spot's stall. When we open the gate he wheeled around. As Dallas stepped in the stall to halter him he wheeled away again. After 2 or 3 more attempts Dallas looks at me and says, "HOW MUCH DID YOU PAY FOR THIS HORSE???"
After we caught him and made our way back to the barn our vet, Diamond W's Dr. Jacks, arrived. I told him about purchasing Spot and he said, "I sure wish you would have told me. You have to tranq him to shoe him, tranq him to clip him, in fact you have to tranq him to tranq him". I immediately got the 'look' again from Dallas.
Needless to say within a very short time Spot improved leaps and bounds. He loved life and his new stable pony job and never needed any tranquilizer, just a calm quiet hand.
We began training Spot to ride bridless at Louisiana Downs. He loved it. Dallas put together our first bridleless collar. Spot was the closest I think we will ever have to having a horse with telepathy. He new what you wanted before you could ask for it. Shortly after arriving in New Orleans for the Fair Grounds meet East Coast trainer Steve Klesaris fell in love with Spot. We sold him at the end of the meet for $15,000. (That time I gave the look)
Since then we have trained many horses to ride without bridles. Texas Horse of the Year Lights On Broadway, Outrider Pony Kansas, and Dallas current rides retired racehorse Eye Man Who. I am currently riding Majestic Commander, stake winner of over $250K, as my totally bridleless stable pony.


Dallas and I operate a non profit organization called Remember Me Racehorse Rescue. We have many horses donated to our program yearly that we rehab and retrain after their careers at the track are over. We rely totally on donations from horse lovers, breeders, and friends to keep our program going.
We recently started a new website, www.thewayiride.com offering information about bridleless riding and how you can purchase a bridleless collar for yourself. 100% of the proceeds from the collars will go to our rescue efforts. Yeah, it takes some training and some trust but it will be one of the best experiences you have with your horse.
Please consider making a tax deductible donation to Remember Me Racehorse Rescue to help us help retired racehorses in their transition from the track to the families that will love them. Donations can be made through the RMR website by clicking the paypal button or by check to the address on the site.
For more information about adopting or sponsoring a horse in the RMR program go to www.teamkeen.com or call Donna Keen 817-689-1214.