Wonderful to see how much energy she has already. I brought home a malnourished TB last year and I didn’t see him run like that for more than a month.
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I was actually a little concerned about her exceptional quietness. She’s been turned out every night in my small-ish isolation paddock, and I hadn’t seen her break into a trot, even when the mares in the field next door had a rip-roaring snorting bucking rodeo for fifteen minutes on Sunday morning. Yesterday I had a break in my day and decided I’d turn her out in the bigger field just to see what she would do and let her stretch her legs, and she obviously had a blast. Just a few minutes of trotting and cantering around (and that one good gallop down the backstretch 
), then eating yummy grass and a couple good rolls. The flies started bothering her so she didn’t stay out long, and after her romping she came back in to the stall and had a nap, so I know it wore her out.
But I was happy to see that trot that I’d dreamed about from her Bowie video was not just my imagination. And then some!
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Oh this makes my heart soar with joy for her! She is really gonna be something when you get her going under saddle! This is my favorite thread on CotH right now. I come here first thing every day to see sweet little Nosey 
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I really hope you can find bloodlines on her.
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Pure joy! What a wonderful thing you have done here.
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What you are observing makes me wonder more and more about her life history pre-Bowie. It could be that an open grass pasture is a whole new world for her. But one where she knows she belongs.
Or maybe she did know pastures as a youngster, and bad circumstances were just the last few months before Bowie.
I love it that, in the videos, she checks in with you as she sets off on her next adventure, whether trotting or running. I think she was inviting you to join her for her run!
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If these were a lot of closely-aged papered TB’s, it seems indicative of a possible past story that they ended up in a bad situation that left them so malnourished and then dumped at auction.
This is such an old terrible story since horseracing was legalized in Texas (years ago). People not from a horseracing tradition thinking they are going to ‘do racehorses’ in their small pastures and quickly being completely over their heads.
I’m assuming, of course, and these horses could be from anywhere, as Bowie gets horses from many states. But it happens, and this type of result is not unusual. Unfortunately.
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When I talked to David from Bowie he said the group she came in with were from Kentucky. 
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I just showed the video/photo to Gramps and he said ‘no more 7 horses standing in the barn’ to my former collective heart. Darn.
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Gramps, I totally understand.
It is a 4 stall barn … I just made one stall, added a huge over hang, into a run out to a large paddock.
The need to be creative came up
I did have two guy horses that loved each so much they could go together in the foaling stall. It was cute that way. But in general I keep them out 24/7.
We did get to the point where we had to build another shelter to put out 2 separate round bales thru winter.
Now I’m down to the last homebred he’s 17 with his minidonk companion - just enjoying other people’s adventures - so glad you’re sharing!
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There’s few things I enjoy more than watching a happy horse pin those ears and duck that neck and RUN for the pure joy of it. I’m appreciative of your generosity in sharing her.
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Same!
No pressure @2bayboys, but never feel like you’re posting too many photos/videos. This is such a feel-good thread and we are all so excited for you and this little mare.
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I believe David from Bowie. The group there has an overall honest reputation.
But, nonetheless … Kentucky is roughly between 700 and 1,000 miles from Bowie, TX, depending on which part of Kentucky. Let’s just say there is a lot more to the story if seven horses were shipped 10 to 15 hours for a low-end sale price at an all-comers auction.
Fingers crossed you spring for the TB DNA test and hopefully find out something about her back story. We’re all invested, now, we care about her whole life story! 
If this girl is from Kentucky, she has quite the travel mileage by now! I wouldn’t be surprised if her standard of living went up with every trip.
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Aren’t you in MD or VA?
How silly is this horse world that several lovely young TBs ship all the way to TX … for one to just end up back with you?
I’ve said it before, the issue with these dealers/kill buyers is often more a fact of the horses being under or poorly marketed than anything else.
I can’t imagine there’s more of a market for young TBs in Tx than there is near 2bayboys??
.
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I can’t imagine there’s much of a market anywhere for a half dozen underfed unstarted TB babies unless they are royally bred. I think this was a wholesale cleaning out of whatever was standing in the field. And whoever sold them to the dealer didn’t much care what happened to them after that. Meanwhile the dealer pays maybe $2000 cash for the whole lot, then ships them to a sale facility where he knows what he’ll get by the pound. If he gets a few hundred more from someone like me, plus whatever he makes on quarantine and a cut of the shipping charge, that’s great.
At least the Bowie facility makes the effort to do a video. In the case of this filly, that was what made the difference.
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I’ve avoided this thread because I thought it would be a sad story. Luckily, I saw the latest on Henry’s thread and came over.
What a great read. You should call your place Black Beauty’s Heaven. That clip of her going full gallop made my heart burst.
Another reason to make sure to check in to Off Course daily. 
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Thats what I mean, a little effort got one sold.
If that effort was closer to where they are, the costs could be less, profits more, stress on animals less.
It’s unfortunate that the place people look to buy, where the marketing is happening isn’t closer to where they horses are in this case.
Understandable, equally sad the location is closer to where they’re going.
I see this everywhere.
Down on luck horses shipped all over, because those willing to market them, or ship them, are in one spot … and the people with the horse in the first place aren’t willing or able to market them.
.
Probably
So where are the organizations that market TBs for after racing careers to help these land better, so that instead of one out of the bunch being saved, they all are.
Yes, I know… But seriously its a shame the money, effort and energy isn’t there to do it.
I’ve seen a few eventers scooping up mustangs to do the Mustang Makeover thing… These could have been marketed for an RRP type deal.
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Feel better soon, Henry!
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Very good point. Bowie takes the effort and the uncertainty out of the hands of the original seller.
Plus Bowie, Kaufman, Thompson, Bastrop et. al. offer buyers a total package, if the buyer wants it. Quarantine, health cert, transport. The ‘kill pens’ don’t do it themselves, but they easily make the connection. This service link massively expands the market over just local buyers who can figure all that out for themselves.
But there is just no knowing where these horses actually end up. Anyone with the money can buy one.
And there is no way to vet one thoroughly before making a purchase decision directly from the kill pen. The purchase has to be from the heart, willing to deal with whatever finally arrives on the buyers doorstep.
And the bottom line is that these Texas and Louisiana kill pens are located close to I 35, the conveyor belt from Chicago to Mexico.
And I 20, the east-west belt to everywhere mid-America.
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