Story and photos by Kacie Kelly
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications
UPDATE, June 10: Bob Baffert, who won the Triple Crown with American Pharoah on June 6 and trained Silver Charm, has donated $50,000 to Old Friends. The farm is also home to two other horses Baffert trained, Danthebluegrassman and Game On Dude. Baffert visited the farm just before this year's Kentucky Derby, according to a news release from Old Friends.
UPDATE, June 10: Bob Baffert, who won the Triple Crown with American Pharoah on June 6 and trained Silver Charm, has donated $50,000 to Old Friends. The farm is also home to two other horses Baffert trained, Danthebluegrassman and Game On Dude. Baffert visited the farm just before this year's Kentucky Derby, according to a news release from Old Friends.
Silver Charm, named for his light-colored coat |
Old
Friends occupies about 236 acres and is home to 102 horses. It began with Michael Blowen, a former film critic for The
Boston Globe, and a couple of acres in 2003.
Blowen
launched Old Friends after the apparent slaughter of 1986 Derby winner
Ferdinand, who won the 1987 Breeder's Cup Classic and was retired in 1989. In
1994 he was sold to a Japanese breeding farm and went through several
facilities throughout Japan. In 2001 he ended up in the hands of Yoshikazu
Watanabe, a horse dealer, and was removed from the Japanese horse registry on
Sept. 1, 2002.
Ferdinand's
story showed the need for a place like Old Friends, but Blowen was inspired
long before that. "I'd always had horses and thought we could treat them
better after racing and breeding," he said in an interview.
A
gelding (a castrated horse) tends to have more options after racing while
stallions get the short straw. "Stallions are considerably more difficult
to take care of," Said Cindy Grisolia, an Old Friends director. Stallions
are more territorial and headstrong, she said, and "Not everyone has the
desire to take that on."
Blowen was more blunt: "At the end of the day, they
weren't taking stallions." Saving them has become the mission of Old Friends, which has 14
race-winning stallions.
Another
challenge Old Friends has taken on is repatriation, the process of bringing a
horse back into the United States from a foreign country. Old Friends has successfully
repatriated six horses since its founding and is gaining more momentum.
The
newest celebrity staying at Old Friends after being repatriated is Silver
Charm.
Blowen has an interesting history involving Silver Charm,
foreshadowing his arrival. Silver Charm had always been Blowen's favorite horse
to watch race. "He would look other horses in the eye and dare them to try
and pass, but he never let them," Blowen said, with the notable exception
of the Belmont Stakes. Silver
Charm held the lead in the mile-and-a-half race until the just before the
end, losing to Touch Gold.
Several years ago Blowen bought a small horse for $40 to
save him from slaughter. He named this horse Little Silver Charm. Years later
the former owners of Silver Charm wanted to repatriate their horse from Japan,
and six years later, in December 2014, Silver Charm arrived at Old Friends.
Silver
Charm is just one of many beautiful, prize-winning characters at Old Friends.
Game On Dude, a gelding, left, came from California. "He is just the biggest
puppy dog of a horse," said Grisolia. He quickly made a friend in Yankee
Fourtune, and they now live in the same paddock, Grisolia said: "They lay
together, drink and eat together, they play together."
Old
Friends allows horses to live together if they exhibit friendship, Grisolia
said, "Our farm manager, Tim Wilson, works very hard to create good
relationships and safe relationships," and Wilson decided they would be a
good match based on their personalities.
Another
less likely friendship exists at Old Friends between Eldaafer and his paddock
chums. Eldaafer, Arabic for "victorious," is the horse that came with
friends: Yahoo and Google, two goats that live with him. "They cannot be
separated,” Grisolia said. ”They are just joined at the hip and love each
other."
Blowen
recalled, "I made arrangements to get the horses and didn't remember
anything about any goats! They said, 'We got your horse here, we will bring him
in the morning,' and I said, 'great,' and he said, 'We got to bring his pals
too."
Blowen said he accepted the goats because they were a
package deal and life-long friends of Eldaafer. "He went crazy, literally
crazy," Blowen said, when the goats got out one at a time. Yahoo is the only
goat to ever attend four Breeder’s Cups to cheer on his friend.
Old
Friends does not turn away any horses, Grisolia and Blowen said. "It’s our
mission to not only support the all these horses but we support the
breeding industry,” Grisolia said. ”We
support the Thoroughbred industry; we are racing fans."
Blowen
wants horses to retire with the dignity they have earned. "When they
retire they have no Social Security, no 401-K," he said. "We are the
last leg.You're bred, you race, you retire.”
"We feel like we created the natural next step," said
Grisolia.
Old
Friends chaperones tours of the farm three times a day, between spring and
early fall, depending on the weather. The farm receives about 20,000 tourists a
year. Tourists can receive a tour from Blowen himself and can request to see
any horse on the property as long as it is healthy.
"We just like people to come here and have fun,"
Blowen said.
Old Friends also is involved in community outreach with
several schools and women's groups. Blowen is available for speaking
engagements several times a year. For more information, visit
www.oldfriendsequine.org.
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