Ambassador Award

Stardust, adopted by the Gillen Family

 

The Accidental Horseman
I can clearly remember the day that would change my life, although I was blissfully unaware of the day's significance at that moment in time. As my wife Sue Ann and I watched our two daughters, who were at the time about 9 and 11 years old, tack up a pair of lesson horses at a swanky suburban Washington- area farm, I can remember saying to my wife that we would not be starting lessons at home. This was a special experience for the girls, and the lesson was being paid for by a lifelong horsewoman who happened to be a close friend of my wife's aunt. The lesson went well, and when the horses were untacked, I thought "That was that." Of course, the inevitable question came up about taking lessons at one of the many boarding facilities near our Pennsylvania home, I quickly said no, and that we did not have budget to pay for lessons, so it was just not going to happen. Once again, I thought that was the end of the discussion.

To my surprise, shortly after my daughter Ali's 10th birthday, she announced she was signing up for riding lessons. She had saved up a hundred dollars or so, and by adding a $100 birthday gift from her grandmother, she now had enough money for nearly three months of lessons. What she would do when the money ran out was not her immediate concern. Barely two months later, her older sister Melissa had also signed herself up for lessons. I was already losing the battle. The girls had found a new passion, and they quickly became proficient riders. What followed was predictable: boots, chaps, breeches, helmets, eventing vests, and of course, more lessons. My younger daughter even started working at the barn to earn lessons, at a rate of two Sunday afternoons of work for every hour of lesson time. By then, I had given in, and agreed to pay for half of the lesson costs – with the girls responsible to pay for the other half. Suddenly, both girls were on the hunt for paying jobs around the house.

If anybody was enjoying watching me go through this whole experience, it was my younger sister. She, too, was bitten by the riding bug as a teenager. My parents surprised her with a horse of her own, which set into motion a lifetime of horses for her. But, as young siblings sometimes can be, at the time we didn't always get along well, and her horse was largely off limits for me. My involvement was mostly
limited to getting rid of mice in the feed bins.

A couple of months turned into a couple of years, and eventually we began looking for a lease opportunity for our girls. We found one, but it proved to be a disappointment due to conflicts with other activities at the barn, and that arrangement ended after only a few months. Building on that experience led to an informal lease at a small backyard farm a mile from our home, which had the added benefit that the girls could ride their bikes up to the barn at will. There were two horses there. One was an old but still-energetic big thoroughbred aptly named Kahn, who was gelded late in life. Despite his advanced age, he was full of spunk and made a scene whenever he was left behind. Our girls doted over him, and rode him with gentle care. The other horse was a young stocky horse of uncertain pedigree named Cosmo who was at times, obstinate and pushy, but was a chicken when he left the safety of his farm.

The arrangement worked well, and after only a few months the owner of the horses, so pleased to have two teenage girls caring for and exercising her horses, and of course cleaning the barn – that she stopped charging a lease fee. I thought this was going well until maybe a year later when I stumbled over a posting that my younger daughter Ali had made on an online forum run by one of the equine magazines that caters to young girls. There, she listed herself as a "member of the horseless riders' club." I am not sure why that stabbed me in the gut the way it did; maybe it was because I had fond memories of growing up with a dad that encouraged our hobbies despite a limited family budget. This was the same man that had surprised my sister with a horse of her own when she was a teenager. Growing up is a one-time deal, and I began to think the unthinkable, and before long, we were having discussions about maybe, possibly getting a horse for the girls. Ironically, it now was Sue Ann trying to put brakes on the runaway train that seemed to be heading toward horse ownership. She repeatedly made an effort to derail the process. For better or for worse, I kept telling her that my sister had a horse number of years after high school, her horse became a burden more than a pleasure. Thankfully, her horse found a forever home with a good friend.

Pretty soon, we were out looking for a horse. I thought I knew something about horses, but in reality, I was absolutely clueless. Ali got the idea that she should find a horse at a rescue, and had narrowed down her choice to a thoroughbred, and pretty soon we were scanning the ads for available horses. One lead took us to the Philadelphia Racetrack to see a horse whose racing days were just about over. Thankfully, we realized that we were not ready to make an on-the-spot decision that day. A few weeks later, I found myself on the phone with Bev Strauss. After describing my daughters' level of experience and what their riding plans were – primarily trail and pleasure riding – Bev said she had one horse that would be a good fit for the girls. We scheduled a visit to the farm, and there Bev and Ginny Suarez cornered this shabby-looking dark bay horse and brought him in for us to meet.

Like many OTTBs, he had a pretty rough transition after leaving the track. Being low in the pecking order, he was not getting much food, and you could count his ribs from 50 feet away. He was bitten up, with scars all over his body, and worst of all, his feet were a mess. He had the dubious name of Sawdust. Underweight and bitten up, Sawdust put on his best behavior for the girls.

 

Ali rode him, and decided right on the spot that this was her horse. I was not so sure, and began to lobby her to consider finding a healthier horse. She would have nothing of it, and within a few weeks we were having him vetted. Then came the show stopper: he was sore on his left front foot. The vet inspection and x-rays showed no major problems, yet he continued to be tender. The vet's recommendation was simple: find a different horse. We agreed to give him a few weeks to come around. Meanwhile, Bev and Ginny worked on trying to get him sound, and put bar shoes on Sawdust on the presumption that there was a stone bruise or an abscess that was troubling him. After a few weeks, he improved slightly, but Sawdust was still tender. Then Bev offered us an opportunity: adopt him for $1, and then our daughters could work on helping him heal. If he came sound, we'd pay the $1,800 adoption fee. But if he didn't come around, Bev was clear that Sawdust would have to go back to the rescue and we'd get to pick out a different horse.

About a week later, Sawdust arrived on a commercial horse van. It was May 2006, and Sue Ann was with me on a business trip to Italy when the phone call came in that Sawdust had arrived safely at our neighbor's farm. It was the height of irony when that night, we noticed the restaurant in Milan where we having dinner had horse meat on the menu – the unfortunate fate of many other OTTBs. Ali promptly changed his name to Stardust, and set to work improving his health, and crafted a diet to help him put on some weight. Our first farrier visit brought discouraging news: Stardust's feet not only looked terrible, the farrier questioned if this horse would ever be able to grow healthy hooves. He recommended some hoof supplements for Stardust's feed, and put us on a regiment of daily hoof care. Days turned to weeks, and weeks to months, but it was one issue after another and Stardust was rarely
sound in those first months. Stardust managed to pull his shoes several times, which only tore up his feet more. Then, in August, an abscess took his remaining soundness away, and for a week, we had a horse that could only walk on three legs, a frightening experience for new horse owners. Thankfully, as the abscess began to heal, there were no further complications. On Bev's advice, we pulled his shoes totally for the winter. This was a turning point, and by spring, he was still barefoot and sound. Along the way we had completed the adoption paperwork. Given the care and attention he was receiving from Ali, he would stay sound from that point forward.

The next couple of years were good times, and Stardust quickly became an important member of the family, part of not only the girls' daily routine, but for Sue Ann and I as well. We found it enjoyable to stop by and look in on him several times per week. Stardust found his way into our annual Christmas card, and started to accumulate the requisite inventory of tack, blankets, fly masks, bell boots, and you name it. He even got a horse trailer of his own so I could take Ali and Stardust to the park.

But change was on the horizon. In late 2007 as we picked out a college for Melissa, the stunning realization hit me that it would be only two years before Ali also went off to college -- and Stardust would no longer have anybody to ride him regularly. Far too young and energetic to be fully retired, I decided I needed to learn how to ride him so he could be exercised once Ali left for school. I had ridden him a couple times inside the pasture, but it was quite obvious that he was far too much horse for an inexperienced rider like me.

In May 2008 we moved Stardust to a larger barn so we could put he and Ali into lessons, with the secondary goal of putting me into lessons, too. It was painfully obvious that Ali didn't appreciate having her dad hanging around the barn. Even worse, I found that horses seemed to be a girls' sport. A woman working at the local tack shop summed it up succinctly, when trying to fit me with a saddle, stating apologetically, "Our average customer is a 16 year old girl." I got a dubious look from Lisa, the trainer at the farm, when I asked her about giving me lessons on needed to learn how to ride Stardust, as he was the horse I would be riding. I'm sure she was worried about me getting hurt; I was worried that I would never become half as good as my daughters. Lisa cautiously agreed to give it a shot, but took the creative approach of alternating lessons between Ali and myself. When working with Ali, she focused on teaching Stardust on basics such as lead changes, extended trots, dealing with cavaletti poles, and some low jumps; and how to focus on the lesson. When I was riding, it was all about teaching me horseback riding survival skills. Those first few weeks of lessons had a few tense moments and a couple of close calls, but I managed to get through the initial learning curve without any disasters, and built my strength and learned how to handle Stardust.

As my confidence improved, I began taking him to the park on my own, and within a few weeks, bumped into a group of women who rode at the park every weekend on their OTTBs. One of the women graciously invited me to tag along with them that day, and next thing I knew, I was riding with them on a weekly basis. Given that these women were all lifelong horse owners, I jokingly referred to myself as their charity case. But the group experience proved invaluable for both of us, with Stardust learning all kinds of skills that you just don't learn on the track. Things like how to cross streams, dealing with low hanging branches, loose footing, and perhaps most importantly, that a horse does not need to jump over every small puddle. I learned from the women how to handle Stardust on the trail, how to better load him on the trailer, and these 2- to 3-hour rides quickly got me in great riding shape.

All this didn't come without cost. I look back and I laugh that I actually believed the horse would be a big part of the total investment. Little did I know that a saddle would cost me more than the adoption fee, and a new horse trailer would more than triple my total investment. The real killer, though, was realizing that my midsize SUV was simply too light to pull the trailer safely, and eventually I bought a full size tow vehicle. This horse thing was getting expensive in ways I never imagined! Then the unexpected happened. Sue Ann and I were contemplating what life would be like as empty nesters, once Ali headed off to college. We had concluded that we would likely downsize our home to something more manageable. While casually looking for a smaller home, we stumbled into a 10 acre farm already set up with a barn and a pasture. Next thing I knew we under contract to buy the place.

In the nearly-two years since we bought the farm, Stardust and I have done many rides together, including a bunch of hunter paces along with the women I met in the park three years ago. Ali rides Stardust when she's home from school, but most of the year, it's him and me heading off to the park on Saturdays and Sundays for our weekly rides, and taking short rides down the local dirt roads on the weeknights. Having him on our property allows us to interact with him all the more often, and even though Sue Ann is not interested in riding horses, she enjoys visiting him, and willingly feeds him and his buddy horse when I am on work travel.

Looking back, I have no reservations for how things played out, although it sure would have been good to realize that I would end up as deep in this hobby as the kids were. Stardust has managed to escape the auction to MAHR, then to adopt our family from MAHR, and then to find himself a new rider when he was at risk of losing his best advocate to college. He deserves to be nominated as a MAHR Ambassador for creating an accidental horseman!
- Al Gillen
The accidental horseman

PO Box 407
Chesapeake City, MD 21915

For information call: 302-376-7297
or Email: Bev@MidAtlanticHorseRescue.org
MidAtlantic Horse Rescue is
a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.
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MidAtlantic Horse Rescue is a Federal 501(c)3 organization, that buys slaughter
bound ex-racehorses and adopts them into good homes as pleasure and sport horses.