Aussie Horse Hero Who Sheltered Pasturemates from Fire Nominated for Bravery Award

by Fran Jurga | 18 September 2009 | The Jurga Report at Equisearch.com

Retired Australian police drum horse Paddy with his officer/owner.

Maybe you'd better grab a tissue before you read this post.

A retired police horse from Australia named Paddy has been nominated for the RSPCA's Purple Cross award, which is given to animals who exhibit behavior that we humans would interpret as "courage".

I hope you will follow the link to the story and read it in its entirety, but this is it in a nutshell: a retired 19-year-old Clydesdale police horse is out in the paddock as the horrific "Black Saturday" wildfires threaten his owner's property in the state of Victoria.

The owner, a policeman, is busy hosing down his house. Paddy, meanwhile, rounds up the sheep and goats in the paddock (which in Australia is what we'd call a pasture and can be many acres), and shelters them from the fire and heat under his huge frame.

Every once in a while, the owner comes down to the paddock and hoses Paddy down and makes sure he is all right. He said afterwards that Paddy never moved despite the embers falling from the sky and the wind roaring up the valley.

When the small animals try to go astray, Paddy rounds them up and nudges them back under the shelter of his huge body.

And so the fires passed.

In his owner's words: "He stood there and did what I asked him. If you can have that sort of communication, all the big parades and the big accolades we've had as gendarme can't compare to that because that was when the chips were really down. I asked him to do something and he said, righto, I'll do that. And that's what he did."

So Paddy was nominated for the RSPCA's prestigious award.

Sadly, news reports from Australia today tell us that Paddy stumbled and fell on Tuesday while out for a hack and was euthanized.

Please click here to read the moving story about Paddy, which was written before his untimely death.

The Purple Cross originated with the Purple Cross Society, which was formed to support the horses of Australia's famed Light Horse Brigade. If you are interested in horse history, there is no better reading than the exploits of this brave crew of horsemen, particularly during their Middle Eastern campaign during World War I, including the battles at Beersheeba and Gallipoli. Their story is marred by tragic suffering and loss and decorated with gallantry and superior horsemanship.

Also of historic interest: Paddy served as a ceremonial drum horse with the Victoria Police in Melbourne. The use of mounted police in that city dates back to 1836, making it even older than the late, great Boston mounted police in the USA, which was recently shuttered by city budget cuts so that Ted Kennedy's funeral had no horse escorts.

Anky's Dressage Star Painted Black Injured in Holland

News from the Netherlands today: Dressage champion Anky van Grunsven reports that a stable accident has affected the competition plans for her stallion I.P.S. Painted Black, whom she rode to a third-place finish in the 2009 FEI World Cup in Las Vegas last month.

Painted Black injured his hip while being prepared for semen collection. The injury is certainly not the end of his career but it will keep him from performing both of his current jobs--competing in the international arena and breeding mares by artificial insemination.

Anky's statement about the accident said, "‘Although an injury is never good, I am satisfied that Painted will be okay again. I had plans to compete him at some important show but that’s impossible now. Of course I will give him all the time he needs to recover."

Anky will continue to compete with her 2008 Olympics mount, I.P.S. Salinero, with whom she is training for the Dutch National Championships the first week of June.

Thanks to my friend Claartje van Andel in Holland for sharing this news with me.

The Book for Derby Week: "Black Diamond & Blake" Tells Kids Where (Some) Horses Go After the Racetrack

by Fran Jurga | 1 May 2009 | The Jurga Report
We all deserve a second chance, right? If you believe that, give some thought to the horses whose races won't be televised on Saturday when the Kentucky Derby spectacular pulls Americans to their televisions for their annual dose of horse racing. Think about the horses who run on Tuesdays. In the second race. On tracks far from the freshly-painted twin towers of Churchill Downs.

Debbie Blumenthal was thinking of those horses when she wrote the story of Black Diamond and Blake. Black Diamond is a successful racehorse whose career starts to go downhill. While he could have been bound for a slaughterhouse, Black Diamond finds himself instead at a strange type of farm: a prison farm that is quite unlike the horse farm where he grew up.

Lucky for Black Diamond, he strikes up a friendship with a prisoner named Blake and he blossoms under Blake's care until the bittersweet day when Blake's sentence is served and he's set free.

What will happen to Black Diamond in the hands of the other prisoners once Blake is gone? And what will Blake do with his new skills in horsemanship in the outside world? This book is timely, with all the efforts going on in New York and elsewhere to help retired racehorses.

Black Diamond and Blake is written and (beautifully) illustrated as a children's book but this story carries a wallop of a message for anyone even peripherally involved with racing or horses of any kind.

The book was published by Knopf Books for Young Readers this spring. If author Debbie Blumenthal's name sounds familiar, it is because she has been the longtime beauty editor of the New York Times.

Debbie told me today via email that she had no previous relationship with Thoroughbred retirement until she wrote this book. "My inspiration for BLACK DIAMOND AND BLAKE was a New York Times article that ran in April of 2001 about the horse-care program at Kentucky's Blackburn Correctional Complex. The program was started, as you probably know, by the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation.

"I'm a city-girl -- from Manhattan -- and before I read that story, I had no knowledge of the fate of many racehorses after their glory days at the track were over," she continued. "It just seemed like such a smart idea to have a program that both saved racehorses and saved men, offering both a second chance at a new and better life."

Debbie also brought my attention to the fact this this year is the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, and this book will certainly be a great building block in the celebration of their many accomplishments--the prison farm program is only one of many!

Consider this book for your gift-giving list or as a prize or award at shows and events. It would make a great fundraiser for your local horse rescue organization or racehorse retraining program. The list price is $16.99 and the book should be available through any independent bookstore if you supply the title, author and publisher name.