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"Yee-ah, get around here, Chuck," stagecoach Driver Dan Cramer says as he helps a rookie-in-training adjust to stagecoach life from the bleak solitude of the horse track. "Easy boys, easy, easy."
Cramer's directions ripple through the reins to Chuck, who cocks an ear toward Bill, the veteran partner he's pulling with for the first time. It's necessary training to join a stagecoach team unlike any other in the Stagecoach Appearance Program—the only one featuring former racehorses.
Reins to run: Stagecoach gives former racers new life - Wells Fargo - Guided By History Blog#more
Seeded on Fri Feb 3, 2012 5:42 AM EST
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Formerly harness racers, Chuck and Bill now pull the Wells Fargo stagecoach for Cramer as part of the team that covers the Pacific Northwest.
Cramer rescues as many as 150 horses a year and keeps 15 to work into the stagecoach team. Others go to horse lovers that he knows will care for them as well as he does.
Because the horses are so young—typically only two or three years old—Cramer sees nothing but potential in his rescuees.
"When I get them, their home is in a 12-by-12-foot box stall," he says. "Sometimes we'll open up the door to get in and it'll take two or three of us to get the horse out of there. They really take to the more open spaces, eating grass and the more varied routine that comes with being part of the Wells Fargo team."
- 1 vote
#1 - Fri Feb 3, 2012 5:45 AM ESTThat's totally cool. We need more people and organizations to pick up the discards from the race track.
- 1 vote
#2 - Fri Feb 3, 2012 1:07 PM ESTI spent a bit more than three decades doing that. I'd buy quarter horses and thorobreds off the track, retrain them and sell them to students (those I didn't keep for myself). Found a lot of good horses that went on to great careers in other areas, including the show ring.
I began doing exercise and lay up work for track horses in my teens. Was too tall to be a jockey. The saddest thing about the track is that owners just abandon their horses if they don't win or if they get hurt.
- 1 vote
Yeah, I was a racehorse owner and I saw both sides - those owners who were responsible for their horses and did what was right, and those that would race them until they broke down. They were usually sent to slaughter.
Our girl won two back to back stakes races at Hollywood and then came up with hairline fractures in her ankle. We could have run her again but took her immediately off the track. After she let down, she was flown to Kentucky to be bred. They work hard for you - you have to respect them for it.
- 2 votes
Winning at all means she was a good horse. Winning two stakes means she was very talented. Glad to here her life turned out good.
I've taken horse with hairline fractures, let them heal and then taught them other ways of life. Like people, once the bone is healed, it's fine. No lingering injuries unless it was in a joint and didn't heal right.
The one bone that will not heal is the navicular bone. Once it's cracked, it just doesn't heal. They're making progress on operating, using artifical parts, etc, but that's pretty expensive still.
- 2 votes
Wonderful article Loretta. Congratulations to this group of ''Saviors''..
- 1 vote
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