|
|
OFF TRACK APRIL 10, 2010 Run-ins with the mafia, saving helpless damsels in distress, horses, celebrities, gambling, Wall Street, drugs. Ordinarily this would be the beginnings to a cheap novel, but not here. Not with Sean Kerr. Now, before Sean gets upset at me for stretching his story, I just want to say that my intro may indeed be exaggerating it just a bit. But if you keep reading, you'll find all that in the story below. Time to introduce the main character to my story -- Sean Kerr. Kerr, who prior to entering the breeding business was a banker and broker (Wall Street) in New York, decided that it was time to do something else with his life and so he turned to a passion of his -- horses. The Memphis-bred spent six months at Belmont Park handicapping (gambling), and meeting and talking to various trainers and handicappers before deciding that he really wanted to get into the breeding business. Getting into this business was an adventure in itself. It included meeting Paula Turner, who conditioned the great Seattle Slew (celebrity) as a youngster; the death of the foal from his first mare, Sioux City Slew; and an encounter with an interesting gentleman who was having his Michigan farm excavated for the body of Jimmy Hoffa (mafia). Kerr, along with his partner, Angelika Hala, operates a stable called AS RENNKLUB, LLC and their sister partnership, 5R Racehorse Stables. The primary focus of 5R Racehorse Stables is an effort to save the last three yearlings (horses), one colt and two fillies (damsels), from the Ernie Paragallo-owned Center Brook Farm. When Kerr first saw the yearlings in August, he said they were lethargic and underfed. "We wanted to adopt a yearling from that farm and once my wife saw the condition the horses were in, she said we had to something," Kerr said. "At first we were told that we could only adopt one, but after seeing the condition they were in, a friend of mine said we had to take all three." So in August of 2009, Kerr decided to begin the process of adopting the yearlings and nursing them back to health. "None of them were halter broken, they had to fight for their feed, and they were in a lot with several other horses and kept getting kicked around. One filly had to have surgery on her eyelid. It took three people to hold her against the wall so we could apply stitches. She ended up wearing a one-eyed blinker for a while so it could heal properly." Sean turned to Turner for help. She was horrified at what she saw. "Paula said she had never dealt with anything like before in her life. They had bloated stomachs and legs. They looked like three starved mustangs. The colt has a problem with shying his head and I believe that he could have been abused." Their growth was just a little more than that of late weanlings when acquired and one of the fillies is still afraid of human touch. "We can be fairly certain that the behavior and the fearful attitude of the filly are indications of not only mistreatment but complete lack of treatment altogether," states a periodic newsletter released by 5R Racehorse Stables. Turner applied a regimen of vitamins, minerals and electrolytes to the malnourished three in order to improve the yearlings' health. Hoof supplements were administered to strengthen their hoof walls, probiotics were started to restore balance to their digestive system, and supplements are given to improve bone strengthening. Local organic hay was brought in and each one is now fed in their own separate stall to ensure that they have the opportunity to eat. After six to eight weeks their energy began to pick up. Turner started to lunge all three in an indoor corral in order to condition their muscles and teach them to obey voice commands. All three now accept touch with the lunge whip all over their bodies and legs, and Turner will soon start the next stage of training -- lunging them with surcingles and bridles. Since she took over in October, all three horses have grown significantly by almost two hands and have gained about 100 pounds each. The eventual goal is to get the horses back to the track if they are able. There is one catch. "We will not race them on Lasix or steroids (drugs)," Kerr told me. "We will not send them to the track if they aren't capable of cutting it. Their future as a dressage, eventing, or even just a trail horses isn't out of the question." To date, all three are making great progress and are leaving the shells of their former lethargic and malnourished selves behind them. The two fillies, who initially shared a paddock, have become so frisky that they are now in separate fields in order to avoid injuring one another. Needless to say that this is a story that has progressed quite a way and, hopefully, unlike the cheap novel, will be on its way to a happy ending.
 Send this article to a friend
|
|
