Emaciated and scared, Prodigioso shifted his weight gingerly on four painful feet that oozed with thrush. His back pasterns were flayed open with deep burns, probably ripped by rope, and a painful looking burn was raw and ugly on his lower lip.
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| How he looked when the SPCA picked him up |
“He was a starving rack of bones,’’ said South Florida SPCA spokeswoman Jeanette Jordan, adding that abandoned horses are common in a state with no legal slaughterhouses.
So is Jeanette Jordan making excuses for the owner? Oh, there's no "legal slaughterhouses for horses" in Florida, so they get abandoned. Um, there are veterinarians who will come out and euthanize your horse for you. There are veterinarians who will euthanize your horse and dispose of its body if you bring it to them. And if you don't care enough about your horses to pay to have this done by a vet, as long as you or someone you know is knowledgeable and qualified to shoot a horse in a humane manner so there is no suffering, you can shoot and kill it. You get a backhoe and dig a hole on your property and then have someone shoot the horse. End of story. Let's not use the excuse that they get abandoned to slowly starve to death or get attacked by loose dogs or hit by cars because there isn't a slaughter plant for you to dump your horse at.
The frightened horse had rope burns on his back ankles, which were tied to a bucket of cement. He’d been dragging the bucket along “in search of food and water,’’ said Jordan.
His right eye, freshly blinded, somehow, showed him shadows that must have scared him as he waited to find out if bad people were coming for him.
When the SPCA showed up with an emergency trailer, Prodigioso was afraid of everyone. He trembled as he exited the trailer and gingerly walked to a waiting stall at Thoroughbred nonprofit Florida TRAC.
“It took him a solid six months of just being a horse and gaining weight to regain his confidence,” recalls Celia Scarlett-Fawkes, vice president and intake director of the charity that serves ex-racehorses that run on Florida tracks.
“It took quite a lot of time to get him to walk out of his stall door. He was newly blinded, we don’t know how. He could have run into a tree branch, we don’t know,” she says.
For eight months, Scarlett-Fawkes and her volunteers nursed Prodigioso back to health. And as he filled out, and his wounds healed, his faultless conformation and pretty way of moving were revealed. By the time his before/after photos were posted on Facebook, Scarlett-Fawkes realized she had a “pretty little mover” who attracted plenty of interest.
But once people learned the petite beauty was blind in one eye, most takers fell by the wayside.
Except for Niagara, Canada horseman Marilyn Lee-Hannah and her equestrian daughter Robin Hannah.
“When I first saw his picture, we were overflowing with horses. We have lesson horses, show horses, boarders, horses of all breeds, and we do rescues when we can,” Lee-Hannah says. “But I told my daughter about Prodigioso because he reminded me of a little horse we used to have, who I really loved, and she said, ‘Mom, we’re full. We already have too many horses.’ So I told her that he’s blind in one eye, and she said, ‘Well then, we have to have him.’ ”
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| Prodigioso as he looked after being rescued from the Florida backwater, and after |
The logic made sense to the softhearted horsemen who worried for a half-blind horse who was a dead-ringer for a favorite they used to own. That’s when they contacted Scarlett-Fawkes and offered him a home.
Well familiar with the Canadian equestrians and the good work they do at Sherwood Farm, Scarlett-Fawkes was thrilled when Lee-Hannah called. “The right person comes along for the right horse, and they are the perfect family for him,” she says.
Since his arrival on May 10 at his cooler northern home, Prodigioso has gamely learned to jump, and has proved to be the smartest mind they’ve ever worked with, Lee-Hannah says.Well familiar with the Canadian equestrians and the good work they do at Sherwood Farm, Scarlett-Fawkes was thrilled when Lee-Hannah called. “The right person comes along for the right horse, and they are the perfect family for him,” she says.
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| Prodigioso jumps in 2-foot-9 green horse show Aug. 10. Photo courtesy Reeds Photography |
“He learns incredibly quick. He really wants to do everything you want him to do,” she adds. “Because of the vision thing, seeing new things and places is harder for him, but he’s calm, calm, and for a horse who’s only been jumping for a month and a half, he’s amazing.”
He is learning so fast that mother and daughter have dubbed him the whiz kid, and the weekend of Aug. 10, the stunning little beauty debuted at the Niagara Cup Series for green horses and handled the new environment with aplomb.
Tucking his knees to his chin, he beautifully jumped the 2-foot-9 jumps, all the while, trying his heart out for his new friends.
“I feel really humbled that a horse who has been so mistreated can still trust humans,” Lee-Hannah says. “It’s shameful what we do to them, and they still love us.”
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| Prodigioso and Hannah share a quiet moment |
(Offtrackthoroughbreds.com - Aug 16, 2013)
