Barn Update: September 20th

Hi everyone!
Here's what's been going on at the Secretariat Center since last post:

• We have welcomed three new interns to our very first internship program. Hannah and Leah are freshmen in the University of Kentucky's equine science and management program, and are here for our barn management/combined training internship. We also have an equine communications intern--Sarah (who is sitting across from me) is a senior at Georgetown College, double-majoring in business and communications. Welcome to all!
• Lion Around has been adopted and will be shipping out TONIGHT to his new home. Congratulations, Lion!
• A Natural Bluff and Lucky Bid have applications out for their adoption. Lucky's application has been turned in by our intern Hannah, who made this video of him last night: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4hDL9z-ndg .
• We have shipped in six new horses! Look for postings on the TAN website (www.secretariatcenter.org) of No Day But Today, Dawn's Creek, Core Sample, Golden Golden, Bandit, and Todd T. We're really excited about all of them, especially No Day, aka Valentine--he's already been jumping 2 ft. in New York and is one gorgeous boy.
• We've had a flood of new volunteers in this week...it's so great to have the barn full of people in addition to horses. That said, we could always use more help
• We're participating in the Macy's Shop For A Cause Day, and will be selling discount coupons outside the Macy's at Fayette Mall from 5-7 tonight
• Also for all you readers in the Lexington area, we're having a book fair at Joseph-Beth Booksellers: 20% of all sales on Saturday, October 4th and Sunday October 5th will be donated to the Secretariat Center, so save your book shopping for the first weekend in October.

That's all for now...stay tuned for more news!

Barn update: September 3, 2008

Hello all!

There's so much going on out at the Center! E-mails are pouring in from potential adopters interested in our horses. Come On Bye will have two showings in the next couple of days, Gunner is leaving Saturday, Lucky Bid will (hopefully) be shipping out in the next week, and Ten Something has a couple who are totally taken with her. Also, it looks like Code Forty may have found a good home for turn-out. It still amazes me that Lion Around is still here...he's generated a lot of interest, but just when someone gets close to filling out paperwork, they leave town or are given another horse, so through no fault of his own, things just haven't worked out for him yet. That's his picture at the start of the post...isn't he beautiful?

Also, we have several intern applicants headed in for interviews this weekend, and from their resumes it looks like we'll be getting some bright students for the positions. Stay tuned!

~Natalie, Blogspot admin

Reccent arrival

A Warrior's Heart

What drives you time and time again
To seek out the pain
To seek out the loneliness
For others' gain?

What distant far away havens
Do you seek refuge in
When the pain becomes unbearable?
When the loneliness is unrelenting?

A Warrior's heart is beating within you
A Warrior's heart is beating for us
A Warrior's heart is leading us

Let us grant you peace at the end of the day
Let us acknowledge your sacrifice
Let us embrace your Warrior's heart

~Penny Austin, copywright 2008


A few weeks ago, we recieved a gelding off the track named A Natural Bluff. Bluff has the most poignant story of all our trainees. He started his race career at age two in claiming and allowance races, and his trainer quickly discovered that he has an interference problem when he gallops (his back heels clip his front ankles and cannon bones). He was raced every 1-2 weeks anyway, and claimed several times; all the while the damage to the bones and ligaments in his front legs worsened. Eventually, he was sold in a kill auction to an out-of-country slaughter company. Lucky for Bluff, trainer Steve Murtough bought him out of the kill pen for $300 and incredibly, was able to treat the damage to his front legs to the point that Bluff raced for two more years and won several races. Steve eventually decided to sell Bluff, but couldn't find a buyer on the backstretch who would pay a meager $500 for him, so he donated Bluff to the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation.



Bluff is now 9 years old and has 60 career starts with 9 wins. After his arrival to the Secretariat Center, we discovered that he had a displaced pastern which he'd probably spent most of his career running on.



Fortuntely for both Bluff and the Secretariat Center, a fledgling fundraising organization called One Horse At A Time, Inc. heard about Bluff's story and immediately contacted us about sponsoring him during his time at the MMSC. For more information about One Horse At A Time, or to donate, please visit http://www.onehorseatatimeinc.org/ . Due to the injuries sustained during his career, Bluff will probably only be suitable for light riding or as a pasture ornament.



For more information on Bluff, please call us at 859-246-3080 or e-mail ncvoss2@yahoo.com

August 31, 2008: Barn Notes

Barn manager Rebecca Hutchins and Gunner Milligan show Adoption Day visitors how to groom a horse
Adoption Day visitors arriving to the Secretariat Center for an interactive demonstration
Asst. barn manager Jenn Hall with Ten Something

Yesterday was the Kentucky Horse Park's Adoption Day, which featured local animal shelters' dogs and cats, as well as representatives from the Kentucky Equine Humane Center and of course, us! It was a huge success...we brought two horsevan loads of visitors out to the Center from the Park's visitor center for interactive demonstrations with our horses. We showed the kids how to groom using Gunner and LuckyPony, and told everyone each of our horse's stories. Our barn manager Rebecca Hutchins also gave a short talk on the equipment and clothes she used in her days as a jockey. Everyone seemed really interested in our mission, and the horses enjoyed having visitors.

Lucky Bid and Ten Something were shown to a couple from Berea looking for a trail horse who took paperwork for both of them. It will be great if one of them is adopted...they both deserve a really great home. Ten is a six year old slaughter rescue, beautiful 16.2 mare who's sound for any discipline, but best suited as a show horse prospect. Lucky Bid is a big 17 hand gray gelding whose osselets prevent heavy riding or jumping, but who will be sound for a trail or light pleasure horse. In his heyday, he earned almost $150,000 at the track!

Gunner Milligan and Fly Lite have both found homes! Gunner will be going home to Indiana with Julie Strouder next week to be a pleasure and light jumping horse. She's absolutely thrilled with him, and we're sure they'll be a perfect match. Fly Lite, who has been here for ten long months, has found a financial sponsor and will be adopted by Rebecca. She's going to be kept at the Center as a demonstration horse while Rebecca trains her for the local hunter circuit, and potential re-sale down the road. Fly and Becca work very well together...Fly has learned how to relax considerably under saddle, and Rebecca really loves her athleticism and intelligence.

We're also looking forward to welcoming our fall interns in the next couple weeks...this blog will eventually become the responsibility of the equine communications intern, with input from the other two interns, our director Susanna, and me! It'll be really great to open the Center up to undergraduates...I know working here has been a great learning experience for me, and providing education to the local community is central to the original mission of the Center.

That's all for now--have a great Labor Day, everybody!

~Natalie

**All photo credits on this story, and on our sidebar go to Hal Almond of Cincinatti**