We Meet

On October 27, I made a last minute decision to head down to Kentucky to look at some real estate. We had talked about putting our home on the market come spring and go south. I'm all for Kentucky and had started to look in the Lexington area. It was a two day trip with the first day staying around Lexington and ultimately going to Keeneland Racetrack. Day two was going to be split between visiting the Kentucky Horse Park, looking at land further out from Lexington and then heading home. In the end, the entire trip was a bust. It rained on the first day making it miserable and the second day...well, the trip to the Kentucky Horse Park happened.

As we were leaving the Horse Park, I made the suggestion that we stop and visit the Maker's Mark Secretariat Center which is part of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation. I had heard of them before and I was curious, and what perfect opportunity to see what they do first hand than to just stop. I had no idea that I was going to find a horse. Let alone come away with one.

After we arrived, I walked through the barn and gone back to the office to speak with the secretary about what they do. Brittney asked if I wanted to see a list of their available horses and one particular horse stood out. He was a flashy chestnut and I had this strong desire to see him. So out we walked past the arena, around pens, and down a little hill to a large pasture. Dino immediately came up to me and shoved his nose in my chest.

I was smitten.

When we arrived back at the office I spoke some more with Brittney and then with Melissa, the adoption coordinator, about Dino. In the end, I left a deposit check for him and it felt right.

Before I left, I was told by the staff that if I went to their website and looked up Dino I would find a link to Dino's story. As I started to read the story I had a strong sense of deja vu. It all seemed very familiar to me, so I scrolled down and saw the name Foxey Nokea and knew I had read the story before, the year before when it got passed around on various horse blogs. As I re-read the story I saw Dino's name and then I saw his picture...it gave me chills.

Originally, I was suppose to return on November 4 to pick Dino up, however on November 3 I was in a car accident that did serious damage to the front end of my truck. So Dino would have to sit tight until the following week.

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After Dino's experience at Sugarcreek he wound up at one or two other 'homes' before finally finding his way to the TRF. Neither home treated him fairly with the lack of feed and care to the very possible abuse. It's hard to say what all happened to Dino between October 18, 2008 to August 23, 2009, he's just one very lucky horse.

On August 24, 2009, Dino entered the Blackburn Correctional Facility in Kentucky. The program, apart of the TRF, gives inmates the opportunity to learn vocational and life skills through their care of the horses. Up to 70 horse at a time are at Blackburn rehabbing before they are put up for adoption.

Dino left Blackburn for the Secretariat Center on October 7, 2009. And on November 10, 2009, Dino came home.