The Circle of Life: The Other Side of the Story

We have received many messages on our board about my recent mouse blog, and we thank you all for caring so much about the cleanliness issues, but we want to assure you that we have a very clean barn, “clean enough,” says Susanna, “that were the Queen of England were to drop by for an unexpected visit, ‘ all we would have to do is neaten our hair. But we do have mice. Most barns do. But fortunately no horse or person at the MMSC has every gotten sick from one, and yes, we are constantly experimenting with ways to diminish if not banish the population.

We used to have cats. But our wonderful feline friends urinated in the barn and defecated on the hay in the loft leaving putrid smells and heaps of excrement to clean up. Not only that, our turnover rate was pretty high: Cats regularly “ran away” from our barn never to be seen again which caused us to replace them regularly with newly spayed, neutered, and vaccinated animals from a local shelter. Animals typically do not leave places where they receive food and shelter, but coyotes do roam the area and no doubt have enjoyed a meal of cat courtesy of the MMSC! We found that keeping the coyotes in good flesh was getting expensive!

We tried poisons and traps, noise makers that drive mice away and humane live traps, but as winter draws closer, so do the mice. At whit’s end, Susanna was ready to go the cat route again, despite the aforementioned drawbacks as well as a new impediment : One of our star volunteers is deathly allergic to cats which meant that she would no longer be able to be part of our MMSC family if felines took up residence in the barn. Fortunately, God had other plans.

When we leave the barn every day, it is left immaculate, aisles swept, Pinesol spread on the floor, dust and cobwebs gone. Everything tucked and tidied up. Generally, we draw the barn doors tight (as if this impedes mice!). But one evening someone must have left a set of doors cracked.

The next morning coming into feed, Melissa slipped through the door and had the fright of her life! A large red tailed hawk was perched on the rafters above the wash stall with two mice clutched in each talon. He eyed her slowly, then squished the life out of one little fellow and ripped it apart with his beak and consumed it with Thanksgiving dinner gusto. The other mouse met with a similar fate.

We call our new mouser “Gabriel” or “Gabe” for short because hawks are seen messengers in Native American medicine and every night now we leave a set of barn doors slightly cracked so he can enjoy his rodent feast, courtesy of the MMSC!

It’s all part of the circle of life which we honor here at the MMSC. Thanks to Gabe, we are winning the war on mice these days—with only a rare few found in the feed bin—and those jump in the scoop and we walk them outside and set them free.

A picture of our barn aisle way. Susanna said, "The barn must be clean enough at all time so that if the Queen of England shows up all we must do is brush our hair." A rule that we live by at MMSC.




Our feed room. Thanks to Gabe, we haven't seen a mouse since he decided to join us at the center.

Responsible for Life

by: Erin Shea


Here at MMSC, we have a motto of “responsible for life.” We commit to tracking the horses we adopt out, making us responsible for their lives. However, this motto encompasses more than our thoroughbreds by extending our responsibility to other kinds of life.

Squeaks and the patter of small feet are the sounds coming from the feed room in the morning. Don’t let these noises alarm you, the sounds are just our “pet” mice scampering around on our grain. In order to feed, Melissa has trained our tiny pets to climb into the red feed scoop, and only this scoop, to be moved safely out of the way so that grain can be scooped out. The process of removing the mice from the grain has become part of the morning feeding ritual and daily life at the Center.

Our small furry friends peek out to say hello while we are cleaning stalls too.
While tossing shavings around in the stalls, mice dart from one side to the other avoiding the giant humans and horses who share the barn. The mice have just become another characteristic of the barn since they make an appearance so often, almost as familiar as our horses and volunteers.

The mice, along with other animals that inhabit the barn (horses, birds, raccoons), are appreciated by us at MMSC. Native Americans believe that every life on this earth has value, therefore deserving respect. Susanna, who strongly believes in this idea, makes sure that we are respectful of the lives of animals that call our center home. She makes sure that any bird or mouse that dies receives a proper burial, making sure that we respect the lives of all animals, no matter how small.

Besides just our animals, we care for other kinds of life as well. We grow our own carrots to make horse treats. The carrots and other plants around our barn are watered by the leftover water from our horses buckets, making sure we are not wasting one of our earth’s precious resources.

By showing respect to the world around us, we also deserve some courtesy in return. While training horses, we ask that they respect us as their riders. One of our horses, Pete, tends to rush his training exercises. Susanna has been working with Pete in a way to teach him it’s okay to slow down, by showing him respect by being patient. She makes sure to take things slow with him and reward him when he did something well. It’s apparent that Pete is trying hard, so he is rewarded as soon as he did what was asked. This training with patience shows him respect and in return he respects us by being tolerant to his rider.

Respect is an essential part of good horsemanship and being a responsible citizen. We have been granted the world that we live in and it is our responsibility as its inhabitants to appreciate it’s other living beings and take care of it, therefore making us, like our motto says, “responsible for life.”

Breakfast With The Works

by: Erin Shea

MMSC was invited by Keeneland to attend Breakfast with the Works, a demonstration program put on by the racetrack to show behind the scenes actions of the thoroughbred racing industry. Every Saturday morning, spectators are welcome to watch the demonstrations and the horses that are working on the track.

Arriving at Keeneland, getting both Fly Lite and Melissa ready for our demonstration.

Tying Melissa's stock tie is not an easy task.

We couldn't have done it without the help of our wonderful volunteers and Billy Hayes from Brook Ledge to give us a ride!

Fly and Melissa walked with Susanna around the Keeneland paddock area, where the horses are mounted before the races. As an ex-racehorse herself, Fly Lite reminisces about her racing days.

We weren't the only ones to be warming up in the paddock on this chilly Saturday morning.

Fly Lite says hello to the crowd of people gathered around the paddock.

Susanna answers questions about MMSC from Keeneland's Director of Broadcast Services, G.D. Hieronymous.

Susanna answered questions like, "How do you know what horses want to be when they grow up?" from Keeneland attendees.

While Fly Lite enjoyed making new friends with the children.

Much excitement was happening at the track in the morning! Trainers, owners and jockeys were all out and about getting their horses ready for the fall meet.

Having The World In Your Backyard

by: Erin Shea

The 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games have come and gone. The crazy three weeks of WEG were worth the hard work for this once in a lifetime experience to show the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation and Maker’s Mark Secretariat Center to the world.

So what was MMSC doing? Our volunteers and staff worked our two booths in the trade fair and equine village, which we shared with Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association. We sold tons of merchandise and spread the word about the work we do.

While working at the booth, I heard heartwarming stories from WEG-goers about the horses in their lives, and about how many of these horses were rescued horses. I was overjoyed to hear that so many people around the world share our goal in rescuing ex-racehorses.

Our trade fair booth was always crowded with the help from some celebrity appearances, which included: Ron Turcotte, Pat Day, Joe Fargis, Calvin Borel, Kate Tweedy and Leeanne Ladin - authors of Secretariat’s Meadow - The Land, The Family, The Legend, and Heather Henson - author of Dream of Night.

Besides just the booths, we had potential adopters stop by our center and look at our horses almost every day during WEG. At the end of the games, six of our horses had found new homes.

Not only did we have visitors at our Center, we also had world class athletes riding through our property. Both the athletic endurance horses and the strong driving teams came thundering through the back of our fields. I also got to watch the individual jumping competition, my favorite event. Having the chance to watch the people that you idolized your whole riding career is breathtaking. It’s spectacular to see horse and rider come together so beautifully and jump the huge obstacles without trouble. As a jumper rider myself, I was inspired to watch the many, different techniques that world class riders used to communicate with the 1,500 lbs. of pure athlete underneath them.

I can’t believe the three weeks of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, that I had waited over eight hundred days for, are over. All of the anticipation and excitement is gone, and as the visitors go back home life in Lexington will soon return back to normal.
I’m glad that Kentucky had the opportunity to show off everything that we have to offer and that Lexington proved that it really is “the horse capital of the world.”

The games have arrived!

Equine Village Booth

Back of Equine Village Booth

Trade Fair Booth

Videos being shown at Trade Fair Booth

Individual Jumping Course - First Round

Individual Jumping Course - Second Round

Driving team riding through our back yard

Red Light For Health

by: Erin Shea

It is incredible what a little red light can do. Feel a cold coming on? Just put the light up to your jugular vein for 10 minutes and you’ll feel better. Is your horse sore? Use the light to hit points to heal almost anything from muscle cramps, immune system problems, and digestive issues. All this power coming from a tool, made by Photonic Health, that resembles a small flashlight.

How does it work? From a western medicine standpoint, the flashlight-like device projects a beam that stimulates the mitochondria in the cell, which produce ATP (energy), increases circulation, and reduces pain. From an eastern medicine perspective, it stimulates acupuncture points and creates energy flow over meridian lines of the body.

Bryan Owens, founder, came to MMSC during WEG to show us just what this little machine can do. Using our cranky grey gelding, Willy, Bryan evaluated the horse’s pressure points for a diagnosis. By the way Willy moved around in the cross ties, lifting his back legs up to kick, pawing the ground and biting at us, it was obvious that he was not feeling too well.

“Begin by moving your hands down the bladder meridian to open your horse up,” said Bryan. “Mark the certain points where you note a reaction, like a sigh, twitch, or any kind of movement, and we’ll go back and work on those later.”

Noticing that Willy ached all over, especially in his ulcer points, Bryan suggested that we focus on healing a possible stomach ulcer. While Melissa held the light up to the points which Bryan suggested for 2 to 30 seconds, we watched for Willy’s reactions. At first, he pinned his ears back, shook his head, and opened his jaws as if releasing a silent scream of pain. But eventually as the treatment progressed, Willy dropped his head, sighed, stretched out his legs, and stood still in the cross-ties, all signs of relaxation. Willy even let us work the points on his back end, which before we started therapy would have been in the danger zone.

“Every horse can benefit from having their “wellness points” worked on,” explained Bryan, “even those that show no obvious signs of pain because this therapy improves overall well being.”

“What does it feel like?” I asked Bryan.

“Do you have any sore areas?” he responded.

My lower back was aching, so Bryan and Susanna took two light tools to my lumbar region. A surge of warm powerful movement radiated up my back and I felt my muscles relax. In five minutes, I was pain free and relaxed. Oh I get it now Willy! Love that little red light!


For more information about Photonic Health, visit their website: www.photonichealth.com

"Today Is Horse Day. That's Why We're Dressed Like Cowboys"

by: Erin Shea

On Thursday September 9, The Year of the Horse was celebrated at Liberty Elementary School, so Maker's Mark Secretariat Center joined other organizations from Lexington to come teach the children about horses. As the Fall 2010 communications intern, I was asked to come report and photograph the event. I am so glad that I went.

We explained to 750 kids what we do at the Center by comparing it to their school, but instead of subjects like math and science, the horses learn things like dressage, eventing, hunter/jumper and other disciplines. Susanna, who speaks several languages, spoke to them in a foreign language and explained how horses also have a language. Then she taught them how to say "hello" in horse by blowing in their nostrils. We took our two ambassadors, Ferdinand's Star and Fly Lite, who willingly greeted them all which delighted the kids. We discussed how horses see the world, which is different from how humans see it. We flipped up the horses' lips and showed off their racing tattoos, and displayed their big yellowed teeth.

"See what happens if you don't brush your teeth?" said Susanna.

"EWWWWW!! YUCK!!" exclaimed the kids.

Ferdinand's Star and Fly Lite, were used by Rob Spencer, equine podiatrist and farrier, also to teach the students hoof care and how shoes are put on horses. Most of the kids knew little to nothing about horses so we had to start with the basics.

"Look at your feet. Do you all wear the same size shoes?" asked Susanna. "What kind of shoes do you wear to the beach? To go hiking? To play basketball?"

Rob Spencer showed the kids that horses have different shoes for different jobs. And that horses have different size feet, and that shoes are nailed or glued on.

"Do the nails hurt??" the children asked.

It was a great day for the kids but it was also educational and fun for me. Explaining horse nature, horse care and daily procedures in a way that children can understand - simple, clear and logical, made me thing about things I take for granted. Seeing the children laugh and marvel at Ferdy and Fly was wonderful because horses bring me joy too. It was awesome to share my passion with the children at Liberty Elementary School.

Learning How To Go Left....And Other Thoughts While Riding...

by: Erin Shea

Riding is a mental as well as a physical pursuit. When you get on your horse, you don't leave your thoughts and personality behind. They show through your riding. It's quite amazing how much your individual traits shape the way that you ride. I guess this is because you can tell the character of a person by the way that they treat another living thing, like a horse. During my time riding last week, I came to the realization that they way I ride reflects my personality.

I am my father's daughter. I have been told this my whole life. I tend to ride putting the majority of my weight on my right side of my body. Susanna noted this and surpirised me by asking me out of the blue if I was like my father in personality. "Why?" I asked. "Because in Chinese medicine, Native American medicine, and indeed some religions, the right side of the body is traditionally associated with the father," she told me. "And you are very right sided." She suggested I lengthen my stirrup a hole on the left so I would have to reach more for it and asked that I pay attention as I rode this way in the future what happened.

So I was riding Diano in the jumping field a few days later. At first I was having a hard time getting him to go down the outside line without bending to the left too much and drifting left coming to the fence crooked. Remembering my tendency to be right sided. I started to put more of my weight in my left stirrup. We had a much straighter line. Wow! it is amazing what riding properly and balanced can do for you and your horse!

Like my dad, I am a perfectionist. It's a blessing and a curse. It's a great trait when trying to accomplish something. I'm motivated and will work until my project is complete. However, I am often unsatisfied with my work and I tend to beat myself up over things which often are not important. Not the best quality to have when training a horse.

This too showed up in my riding this week. While I was trotting on Pete, Susanna told me not to try so hard while posting. Easier said than done for someone like me. At first, "not working so hard" was really hard. However riding this way, and not stressing about whether you are doing everything by the book, makes sense when you realize that your horse responds to what you're asking. After a bit, I began to feel how to use my seat and body to ask my horse to extend and collect at the trot. When I gave him the correct support from my position. Pete engaged his whole body in his trot making me realize what an amazing responsive horse he is. He's so sensitive, like many Thoroughbreds, and willing to do what his rider asks of him, if asked in a clear way, and then allowed him to do what he does best: being a horse!

Our riding habits may lead us deeper into our lives than we know. That is what I've been experiencing myself this week. So as a piece of advice to all riders, look past the physical part of riding and think about yourself as a whole. Sort out your riding problems and maybe then you will be able to put yourself in balance, both in the saddle and out.