Review: Beyond the Homestretch, by Lynn Reardon

In 2008, more than 134,000 hapless horses of every age and breed were crammed into overcrowded trucks from various points in the U.S. to take a one-way ride to oblivion, via slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico. The trend continued this year, though the final tally of equine lives lost in 2009 is not yet available.

The scope of the problem is daunting to anyone who loves horses and wants them to be treated with dignity, not put in harm's way. Yet what can one person do to make a dent in the carnage? In Beyond the Homestretch: What I've Learned from Saving Racehorses, Lynn Reardon has the answer. You do the only thing you can do: you save them one at a time.

Lynn experienced the horrors of the horse slaughter pipeline first-hand when she was living in the Washington, DC area, working as a finance manager and spending all of her free time learning how to become a proficient rider. It was during the early 2000s, when slaughter was still legal in the U.S. Attending an auction with Tina, a trainer seeking a horse for a client, Lynn happened upon an old paint mare, wedged into a pen with her son and several other horses:

     "Her face was incredibly sweet with large, dark eyes full of warmth and trusting cheerfulness. I halted, arrested by the humanity of her gaze. . .The mare took a couple steps closer to us, looking for attention, her gait clumsy. I looked at her ankles and a chill tightened my throat. Even my novice eyes could see the arthritis and large bony spurs around each joint. She could barely walk--a death sentence.

     Tina pulled me away, muttering, 'That mare's only heading one place and not for a lot of money. She's earned a better end than that.' I glanced at the mare again--her Da Vinci expression still haunts me today. A meat dealer bought her, a squat, sunburned man with eyes like concrete. That was the last auction I ever attended."

In chronicling her experiences as the fledgling founder of LOPE (LoneStar Outreach to Place Ex-Racers), which helps to find new careers for thoroughbreds whose racing days are over, Lynn vividly describes the physical and emotional challenges she's had to overcome to ensure that at least some of the horses retiring from Texas racetracks don't meet the same fate as the gentle mare she met so many years ago. And it's her gut-wrenching skill with words that makes us care so passionately about what happens to the ones who have been lucky enough to reach the safety of her ranch.

Many of the thoroughbreds who arrive at LOPE come with gossipy backstretch "rap sheets," suggesting that they are mean, or stubborn, or high-strung, or even untrainable. Lynn quietly smashes these stereotypes, in sometimes surprising ways. Her gift is to listen only to what she hears from each horse's heart, and to compassionately and creatively give them the space they need to shine.

My favorite (and perhaps Lynn's, too) is the aptly named, "Sugarfoot," an angel of a filly blessed with a "mellow disposition and willing attitude," but questionable conformation. Because of her sweet demeanor, Lynn was sure she'd find a new home quickly. But each prospective adopter found some reason to reject her, and it looked like Sugarfoot might take up permanent residence in Lynn's backyard. Everything changed on the day that a developmentally disabled young woman named Desiree arrived to meet her. Without ever having been trained to do so, Sugarfoot immediately understood how to take care of Desiree, and make sure she wouldn't lose her balance:

     "It was clear that Sugarfoot was protecting Desiree, that this little red filly with the funny build had a true, deep vocation to be a therapeutic riding horse. Awed, we watched as Desiree and Sugarfoot walked together, with Sugarfoot always listening, always careful to keep her steps slow for her special rider."

Along the way, Lynn has found herself unexpectedly but earnestly assisting at tracheotomies, treating rattlesnake bites, and constructing tricky hock bandages. She confronts her own doubts and deficiencies with self-deprecating humor and honest introspection, often coming across as her own harshest critic, always wondering whether she is up to the task:

     "I had developed an interesting skill set, like how to feed fifteen horses from my truck and the proper technique for tracheotomy assisting--but these were the badges of an equine social worker, not a true professional equestrian."

But Lynn Reardon doesn't have anything to apologize for. The herculean dedication required to sustain an equine rescue cannot be overstated, yet Lynn has carried each horse to the finish line with grace and equanimity. She's been instrumental in saving the lives of more than 700 thoroughbreds, and in Beyond the Homestretch, she's written a compelling memoir of her own redemption. I eagerly await the next chapter.
    

Talk with Lynn Reardon, Author of Beyond the Homestretch, during December 29th Teleconference

The next "Conversations with Animal Authors" teleconference will feature Lynn Reardon, who will discuss her recently published book, Beyond the Homestretch: What I've Learned from Saving Racehorses, on Tuesday, December 29th at 8:00pm EST.

Just six years ago, Lynn Reardon was working as a finance manager of a nonprofit organization in Washington, DC, but in 2004, she left her white collar job and moved to Texas, where she founded LOPE (LoneStar Outreach to Place Ex-Racers), now a 26-acre haven for former thoroughbred runners.  In the intervening years, Lynn has successfully placed 145 thoroughbreds in adoptive homes, and, through the LOPE website, has helped almost 600 more find new careers.

Lynn's stories of the horses who found their way into her ranch, and into her heart, are honest, gutsy, and bubbling with the kinds of details that true horsemen will relish.  While her equine cameos are dramatic, they are never laced with sentimentality.  She paints a realistic--and compelling--picture of the challenges she's faced in transforming sometimes quirky racehorses who are often emotionally or physically battered and bruised.  At a time when 100,000 discarded horses are being shipped out of this country each year to be slaughtered in Canada and Mexico, Lynn shows us what can happen when someone cares enough to save even a few.

You can talk to Lynn (or just hear the interview) by dialing 712-432-0180 and entering PIN #1063739 at 8:00pm (EST) on December 29th.

Equine ER: Stories from Year in the Life of an Equine Veterinary Hospital, by Leslie Guttman

In Equine ER: Stories from a Year in the Life of an Equine Veterinary Hospital, Leslie Guttman was given an incredible opportunity. She has used it well. For one entire year, the Lexington, KY-based journalist had unprecedented, 24/7 access to the often tense--and always intense--workings of the prestigious Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital, where veterinarians treat 11,000 horses each year, and attend to another 5000 during barn calls.

She made me feel like I was there, too.

Leslie's gift is in her ability to make the reader care passionately about what happens to the horses she chronicles, many of whom are in terrible trouble. You'll root for them to make it. And sometimes, miraculously, they do. But sometimes, in spite of sleepless nights and herculean efforts, and months of round-the-clock care, they don't.

I cheered when the feisty thoroughbred mare, Slewpy's Star, who was dying of pleuropneumonia, was brought back to life with the help of the experimental drug, SLO, and the expertise of Dr. Bonnie Barr. But I cried when the sweet, sweet Quarter Horse mare, Surely Awesome, eventually lost her battle, after shattering the long pastern bone of her right hind leg when she was 10 months pregnant, being expertly put back together by Dr. Alan Ruggles, and subsequently foaling and nursing a beautiful filly, nicknamed Sophie:

"So many stories in the horse world are about missed chances, or almost
making it--the colt that almost won the big race like his grand-sire. The
mare that had just about recovered from a difficult delivery but then
died of an infection. The thousands of shocked people in the stands right
after the Belmont: two minutes earlier they had thought Big Brown would
win the Triple Crown. It is this almostness that can drive you crazy, whether
you're in breeding, racing, training, owning, showing, healing.  Surely Awesome
had almost made it."

In each of the cases she profiles, Leslie deftly weaves information about cutting-edge veterinary medical initiatives into her gripping life-and-death accounts of horses whose fates are anything but certain. Most of the horses who arrive at the doors of the Rood & Riddle hospital are there because it offers their last, tentative chance at survival. Some, like the proud thoroughbred colt, Chelokee, leave the clinic in remarkably good shape, the beneficiary of the arthrodesis technique pioneered by the hospital's Dr. Larry Bramlage, and others, like the gallant Dutch Warmblood, Piaff, perish, a victim of the complications of EPM.

Yet Leslie writes with suspense, not sentimentality. She's a great storyteller, accurately capturing the clinical details of each case, but infusing them with so much more. You can feel the tension in an examining room, the achey "spent" feeling of the vets, interns, and techs who seem never to run out of gas, even after they've already put in a full shift and a horse's condition suddenly spirals out of control. And besides the dignity of the horses themselves, what also pours through these pages is the emotional investment made by the veterinarians and their staff in each patient. I honestly hadn't expected that.

The stories of the horses in Equine ER are compelling because, as Leslie writes:

"Throughout the year, I saw that people need horses more than horses
need people, whether it is an owner with the dream of the winner's
circle on Derby Day or someone with an illness or life setback who finds
strength and determination through the love of a horse or the example
of its courage. I came to see that horses save people more than the
other way around."

If you need horses, or care about them, you'll want to read Equine ER too.

Talk with Leslie Guttman, Author of Equine ER, during September 29th Teleconference

The next "Conversations with Animal Authors" teleconference will feature Leslie Guttman, who will discuss her recently published book, Equine ER: Stories from a Year in the Life of an Equine Veterinary Hospital, during a free hour-long event on Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 at 8:00pm (EDT).

Leslie Guttman is an independent journalist, freelance writer, and animal lover who spent a year on the ground and driving around with veterinarians at the Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington Kentucky, which she describes as "the Mayo Clinic of horse hospitals."

Leslie's intimate and often heart-wrenching observations of the life and death dramas that are played out at Rood & Riddle and at the Bluegrass farms attended by its practitioners make Equine ER a riveting read. I couldn't put it down, and I found myself in tears more than once as I poured through its pages.

I look forward to talking with Leslie about her experiences as a witness to the often super-human efforts put forth by Rood & Riddle veterinarians to save every kind of equine creature, both famous and and unheralded: foals who seemed doomed during difficult births, horses who sustained dire injuries in freak paddock accidents, racehorses who suffered catastrophic breakdowns on the track, and horses stricken by illnesses that put their lives in imminent danger.

If you would like to learn more about Equine ER, and hear first-hand what goes on behind the scenes of one of the top equine hospitals in the world, you can join the call by dialing 616-347-8100 and entering PIN #1063739. Long-distance charges may apply.

If you can't participate live, a recording of the interview will be posted on this site within a few days after the event.

Emotional Healing for Horses and Ponies

If your horse's behavior has you stymied, and the tried and true training techniques have failed to yield results, this book may help.

Emotional Healing for Horses and Ponies sheds light on the equine view of the world, which is often so very different from our own. Authors Stefan Ball, Heather Simpson, and Judy Howard remind us that most of all, horses are prey animals, and everything they think and feel is filtered through that prism.

They address a host of what we often perceive as difficult or puzzling behaviors, not only explaining the horse's perspective but offering specific advice on the appropriate uses for the various Bach Flower Remedies, which work on a vibrational level to bring emotions into balance.

Among the common dilemmas they address are trailer and travel problems, fear and anxiety, boredom, aggression, and grief. Rather than simply prescribing one particular remedy as a cure-all for a particular situation, the authors stress the importance of understanding the root cause of the behavior, because there are subtle nuanced differences in the ways in which each remedy will affect the nervous system.

For example, if a horse is fearful of entering a trailer for no apparent reason, Mimulus might be helpful. If you know that the horse's refusal is a result of a previous traumatic experience, then you might try Star of Bethlehem. If the horse is simply balking because of wariness of a new experience, then Walnut might be in order. Or if a horse panics and completely loses control, Rescue Remedy could be just the thing to ease the stress.

The authors provide a glossary of the vibrational qualities and equine uses for each of the 38 Bach Flower Remedies, with advice as to how to administer them. They have packed this slim volume with dozens of stories and examples of how the remedies, coupled with other types of intervention, can ameliorate "the stress of living with people."

If you own or work with horses, Emotional Healing with Horses and Ponies is an invaluable guide.