Two horses were adopted over the winter. Bilndots Big Peach remains in Lexington and is headed toward an eventing career, while Every Vow "Everet" now known as Oakley, has moved to Louisiana with an 18 year old girl who loves him and wants to do jumpers.

As predicted, the snow returned this morning, but is already quickly dissapearing. The ring is thawing out, and we have many horses lined up to ship in next week. Guidance will be returning to MMSC along with two other fostered horses; 5 yo 16h bay gelding Mr. Runstadler and 8yo 15.2 h dark bay gelding Olympia Fields.

We also have four horses which are pending TRF approval, all 16+ hands.
Racehorse Davis: 7 yo bay
Kona Kove: 7 yo dark bay
Mr. Informed: 5 yo chestnut
Hap's Online is an adorable 4 yo chestnut with a blaze and 3 stockings. "Happy" is in New York ready to come to Lexington. Check out her picture on the Maker's Mark Secretariat Center Facebook page under photos! http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/MakersMarkSecretariatCenter

The staff has stayed busy over the winter months keeping Ferdy and Fly Light happy. Most of the snow has melted (for now) and Fly Light shows of her muddy spotted turnout as Melissa feeds.
John has already jumped in to help with the latest addition to MMSC, a new shed. With a generous amount of help from some Amish men, John and Jerry will build a storage shed next to the current one to house the tractor and various other items that would benefit from staying under cover.

Spring 2010 brings three new interns to MMSC along with a new group of horses. Though there is still snow on the ground and only our winter residents, Ferdy, MMSC mascot, and Fly Light, Melissa's adopted TB, are here, we are gearing up for the first batch of 2-4 horses which are due to arrive back on campus next week. Everyone here is busy preparing paddocks, cleaning mountains of tack, and organizing the barn as well as updating computer databases.

With 12 years of riding experience including dressage, hunter/jumper, drill team, and trails, in addition to the Equine Science degree he is working on at UK, 20 year old John Stork of Burlington, KY will be a great Farm Management Intern.

In her fifth year at the University of Louisville, Whitney Campbell is the captain of the swim team, and graduating this spring. From southern California, she has mainly ridden hunters, and is continuing her riding knowledge as our Training Intern.

New to the Bluegrass area, 19 year old UK student Bryn Oliver of Barrington, NH is the newest Communication Intern. Riding since she was 9 years old, she has acquired a C3 dressage rating in Pony Club and plans to rate up.

Our adopting season will be cut short due to the World Equestrian Games coming to the Kentucky Horse Park in the fall, but we are looking forward to hitting out goal of adopting 50 horses. This willl only be possible with the help of our wonderful volunteers. If you have volunteered in the past, we look forward to seeing you back, and if you've never been, we always love to see new faces. Mark your calendars, our first Volunteer Orientation for new volunteers will be March 13.

I look forward to keeping the blog updated with all of the new things happening here at MMSC. Come see us soon!

Post-Thanksgiving Update

Our horses (and staff/interns/and volunteers) took the week off for the Thanksgiving holiday (with wonderful volunteers coming in to check on the horses out in their pastures and feed them of course :)

Susie Boy ("Cash") moved to Missouri as he was adopted by a beginner rider who dreams of becoming an accomplished equestrian-a nearby trainer will be continuing Cash's training while Cash trains his new owner in the joys of riding. Stalker ("Stalk") was also adopted and will soon be leaving for to Long Island to be a junior rider's show horse. We wish Cash, Stalk and their new owners the best of luck.

Un Amor Impossivel ("Bolivar") came back to us and is back up for adoption! Bolivar is a BIG (16.2 and big-boned), beautiful chestnut boy who will excel at eventing-he's 9 years old but needs a home where a patient, experienced rider can bring him along slowly (he came back to us from his last home resentful of a lot of leg).

McAndrews ("Mac") came from the same farm as Bolivar and is an even-bigger (17.2), just as beautiful bay that will make an excellent eventer or show horse someday (he's only 5)!

Bryan's Account ("Bryan") is a 7yo, 16hh bay that would make a nice project horse for an intermediate rider.

We will close for the winter in 16 days and these three horses+You Lucky Devil ("Lucky"), Ma Jouet ("Maggie"), Bilndots Big Peach ("Peaches"), and Twitchy Witch ("Twitch") still need to be adopted (or fostered). Please contact us if you or someone you know would be interested in coming out to see one of these horses!

Field Trip, Horse Show, and Sponsors-Oh My!

The interns took their second field trip this weekend, to KESMARC and Woodford Equine Hospital.

Some of the MMSC Team with our equine dentist, Victor Torres (holding his horse head, "The Professor"). Victor showed us around KESMARC's facilities and then demonstrated how different bits fit into "The Professor's" mouth.

I couldn't resist adding this, isn't Juliet the cutest little thing you've ever seen? KESMARC takes horses of all breeds and sizes!

Some of the MMSC Team with our tour guide at Woodford Equine Hospital, Katie!

On Sunday, communications intern Erin Clark (that's me!) and Susie Boy ("Cash") received 3rd, 4th, and 5th place ribbons at Cash's first horse show, exactly one month (to the day) after he started training for his new career as a pleasure and show horse!

MMSC Show and Demonstration Horse Fly Light wore her custom blankets to the show, donated by Katrina Coldren and The Clothes Horse that arrived, after much anticipation, last week. Thank you, Katrina, for providing Fly with a wardrobe that includes a stable blanket, turnout blanket, sheet, rainsheet, cooler, scrim, and quarter sheet. We hope to repay your generosity by displaying your logo around the KY Horse Park and at all of our future shows and demonstrations!

Another thank you to Sallee Horse Vans for transporting Fly and Cash to the show. Getting the horses off campus, exposing them to different surroundings and getting show experience, makes them more adoptable as well as increases our presence in the horse show community. People that would not consider a thoroughbred ex-racehorse as their next show horse get an opportunity to see them in the show ring, and none of this would be possible without you. In our experiences with Sallee over the past few months we have been incredibly impressed with the level of professionalism and helpfulness of your staff!

We also welcome a new sponsor, Charles Owen, who graciously responded to Adoption Coordinator Melissa DeCarlo's request for helmets for the MMSC Staff, as, riding ex-racehorses fresh from the track, we do tend to fall off every once in awhile :) They took our request one step further and are providing us with safety vests so that we can take the horses that choose to be eventers when they "grow up" out on the KY Horse Park cross-country course and to events!

Adoption Weekend!

We took a weekend off our show and demo schedule to focus on getting our horses adopted out, and we did that in a BIG way. We had deposits put down on all of our horses except Ma Jouet ("Maggie")-if you know a junior rider who would like a safe and sound, talented, "project" pony who, with a little work, will be the star of their pony club or champion in their children's hunt classes, let them know about this little girl. Her adoption fee is $2000, and remember, its tax deductible (also remember, the holiday season is right around the corner :)! Here is the most recent video we have of her.

Noproblem for Dino ("Dino") moved to Michigan to get the time and training he needs from a rider who prefers that her show partners be thoroughbred ex-racehorses! Her previous two projects are now in full retirement, leading lives of leisure at her home. I Am Said I ("Sam") was also adopted, by a lady who has taken a seven-year hiatus from horseback riding and wants a calm, gracious partner to help her get back to her old level. We wish Dino, Sam and their new owners, Kelly and Lindsey, the best of luck!

We are resuming horse showing Saturday, Melissa will be showing Fly and I will be showing Susie Boy ("Cash") at the KHJA Show at Lakeside Arena in Frankfort, KY. Come out and support us!

Horse Show Weekend!

MMSC Show Horse, Fly Light ("Fly") and Adoptions and Volunteer Coordinator and Educational Programs Director, Melissa DeCarlo have had quite the busy show and demonstration schedule this October, competing in three shows and giving demonstrations at The Secretariat Festival and Keeneland Race Track. This past weekend, they showed at the Snowbird Dressage Show hosted by the Kentucky Dressage Association here at the Kentucky Horse Park. They did progressively better as the day went on, earning 6th, 4th, 3rd, and 2nd place ribbons. Training intern Emily Andari showed Impressive John R ("John") to give him some show (and indoor arena) experience for his new owner. MMSC graduate Testament was shown by his new trainer and sitting in the stands, I heard quite a lot of people that knew his story whispering "that's an ex-racehorse?!"

Fly Light

Impressive John R

Testament

We picked up another new horse this weekend, Stalk, a 4 yo, 16hh, SOLID chestnut. He's an easy-going guy who came to us having already been jumped and even ridden bareback. He's ready to go to a new home where he will excel at just about anything; eventing, foxhunting, or showing-or all three!

Twitchy Witch came back to us this weekend to find a new home, as her owner decided to concentrate all of her efforts on the other horse she adopted from us, Shooby Dooby Doo. Twitch is a 5 yo, 16hh beautiful bay mare, who was originally adopted to be a Rolex contender. If you can devote the time and experience this young mare needs she will take you all the way to the top.

We are taking a week off of horse-showing to give our last demonstration of the season and show some of our horses to prospective buyers. If you would like to see how we educate the non-horsey folk that tour the KHP, then come out for our demo at 12pm (or, you can be picked up from the Breeds Barn at 11:45am and ride to the MMSC in our horse van, "Big Agnes"). Or, if you are interested in adopting one of our horses give us a call and we'd be happy to show them to you!