The call came in the early part of June, a lady needing a home for an injured Thorougbred off the track, I thought “NO!, not another Thorougbred!!” They are usually hard keepers, especially coming off the track, it takes months of rehab and retraining, and what it costs me to rehab just one TB, I could help 4 or 5 other horses.

I called to see what his story was. He had a hairline fracture, he would need a year off to race again, or 4-6 months for regular riding, he was already 7 and the $$ it would cost them to take him back to Texas, the rehab, just seemed to not be worth it to the owner. The caretaker, Linda, was a different story, she was who had called. I told her no, but she said,”just come look at him, you will LOVE this horse!”.

My intern from California was wanting to go see him, and neither of us had ever been “backside” at Prairie Meadows so we decided to go look. Pancho stole both our hearts immediately and I was there with the trailer to pick him up the next day.

Pancho needed stall rest for at least 2 more months, which was hard on a horse who was used to running every other day. Being stuck in a stall was like a prison to him and he started acting up when we would take him out, just wanting to run and play, to the point we did not feel safe even leading him out to eat grass. He was excellent in the stall, so we started coming over and grooming him, got him some stall toys to stave off the boredom and always made sure we bought a big bag of carrots.

At our alternate site (Julies Bennetts), the stalls are in the bottom of the barn with drop holes for feeding. The kids love to run in her barn and sometimes were afraid to go in Ponchos stall if he was really perky that day, (even tho he was always perfect in the stall) so they would hold carrots through the hole for him to eat. At first he was a little confused, but he caught on quick where to find his carrots, often pulling on them so hard we thought he would pull the girls into the stall!! It was a nice deversion for him.

I asked the to write a story about it and here is what Janelle Nolin wrote:

Carrots from Heaven 

by Janelle Nolin

Poncho, an ex racer, was living in a stall at Julie’s house, (our horse rescues other site). Once Lindsey Wright and I , Janelle, were walking in the barn that was right above Ponchos stall. We saw a bag of carrots by the door and grabbed them for Poncho. We noticed there was a hole in the floor and found out it was right above Ponchos stall! We brought the carrots to the hole, laid on our stomach, and held them above his head. At first, he was a little scared because he had never had carrots come from above him before. Becasue he was so tall, they had always come from below him or in his feed bucket. There were times when we would give him “Carrots from Heaven”, and he would almost drag us down through the hole!This was done whenever we went to Julie’s . Since he loved carrots so much, and they came from up above, Deb officially dubbed then “Carrots from Heaven”.

Update: Pancho has been well on his way to mending and we have started his retraining. He is very mellow. We read some of his history and realized he is a grandson of Secretariat! HE has raced 70 races in his short 7 years!!

He is looking for a great family to call his own,since he has no problems, his adoption fee will be rather high, but he is going to make someone a really incredible horse. He would probably make a good hunter on the flat, or stand up to light jumping. He does not mind the western saddle and may make a good trail horse as well. He doesnt spook at much -even pigs!