A Red Hot Sensation

 

 

This horse…. is amazing . She is an inspiration. Beautiful. A fighter. A survivor. Her story needs to be told.

The real story.

February 2018

 

Every Monday, like clockwork. . .
Auction. Horses and livestock. . . . The ‘kill buyers’ are nearly always in attendance. . . This is not new. Every damn week many horses go through place. . .  and a rising number of Thoroughbreds.
This week was different. Why? For starters, a very interesting cast. . .
I am not sure why I chose this particular day to send someone there to scope it out. Perhaps the huge number of Thoroughbreds turning up in the same kill pen, week after week. It was worth looking into. . .
I sent a trusted friend there to see ‘what was what’ , if you will.  Trailer in tow, he went. I had a feeling he’d need it. A phone call that morning brought to my attention that a new player was also in town, so to speak. ‘ Rick Porter is forming an organization to help Thoroughbreds and they’re starting in Louisiana’.  National Thoroughbred Welfare Organization. ( NTWO)
Well GREAT!!!! ‘ Find Victoria, she’ll  help’.  So, that is precisely what I did . I did not know her, nor much about Mr. Porter for that matter. Hell I’ll be honest. . . I didn’t know any of these people. The man that I sent naturally had heard of nearly all of them. ‘They’re all racing people, you commoner.” ( His words!)
Jockey Rosie Napravnik was also there. ( Cool!)
Start time was nearing, and I receive a text message stating he’d found them. They spoke.’ We have help’ was the text that displayed on my phone.
Excellent!
No Thoroughbreds going to the kill pen today! That was of course my thought.
Oh, if only that could happen. . .
There were four. Four Thoroughbreds. Three bays. . . and one grey mare. I said quite possibly the most insane words possible. . . ‘Buy them all’. Why not? One good day. . . where none of these former athletes, once prized foals…. went to hell.
So he bid.
But wait. . . The grey mare. . . The damn…grey . . . mare.
She is six years old. She did not race well. She is massive. . . and she is beautiful.
She was brought out  . . .  and handled the way so many are.
I will let the video speak for itself.
(Rosie Napravnik caught this on video. )  Here. . . is your first glimpse of Red Hot Sensation.

[wpvideo ykrWHure]

 

Long story short. . . we bought her. I didn’t care how much. Some things you just find a way.
After all , we were told we had help, right?
Red Hot Sensation, Coast Guard Kid, Cajuness, and Twirling Sky were all purchased and stepped into our trailer this day. Thank God.
NTWO representatives  went home.
After the auction, later that evening. . . I called.
There was no help. ‘ We did not come planning to buy horses, we aren’t ready’. Well, ok , so noted. ‘ We will buy them from you to take to Kentucky when we’re ready’.
. . . That’s okay.
I called Rick Porter ( Not sure what came over me to do that. . . )and I told him thank you for forming such an organization. He was very kind. He asked about the grey mare. ‘ With her breeding you could sell her at Keeneland next year’ he said. I honestly had not thought of that. ( We will not be doing that. . . )
An article was written . . .
http://cs.bloodhorse.com/blogs/horse-racing-steve-haskin/archive/2018/02/28/porter-forms-organization-to-save-horses.aspx
So. Red Hot Sensation , bloodied, sore, bruised….broken… remained with us, as she will for the rest of her life.
I understand not being ready or set up to’ just buy all the auction horses!’ That was a far smarter plan than mine, truth be told.
What I do not, and will never understand. . . is walking away from THIS horse.
Do not ask me to ever understand that.

I’m just a girl in Texas. . . that loves horses. I get that.  Perhaps my long range plan is a bit different, and I quite admire NTWO for having a long range plan that will help these horses in mass numbers, rather than just buying and bailing.
The thing is. . . We help horses. I always say this, rather than ‘we are a rescue’, or ‘we’ll take them.’ We HELP them, when and where it is needed. It’s that simple for me. Did this horse not clearly, desperately need help?

Sensation was taken with her three cohorts to a private  facility in Louisiana, a friend of the man who bid on her at auction. I trusted this, at the time.
After a falling out, it was time to move these four (sensational) horse.
What I did not expect. . . was my dear friend to arrive and load four lame horses.
Completely lame. All of them.
There was no reason for this . . . You be the judge.
All four one again rode together, this time to Madisonville, Texas.

Months later, after long nights, heartache, pain and tears, Sensation is thriving again. All of them are.
Under the loving care of KC Deegan. . . Here she is today.
She won our hearts . . . many times over. She has a permanent place there , as well as remaining a ‘Soul Horse’. . . for the rest of her days.

Red Hot Sensation
You are loved <3

 

[wpvideo ktEfgDIk]