Cheering for the underdog....

  As a family, we have always rooted for the underdog.  If there is a game where a team is NOT expected to win, that's who we cheer for....  Luke is definitely an underdog...   My 13 year old son had to write a true story for school.  Here is Luke's story....  by Noah..

                        The Horse With Nine Lives

            This is a story about an unlucky, yet in some ways lucky, racehorse named Luke. Luke is a six year old brown horse who used to race in Boston in order to win money for his owners.  Luke’s story might have began at his birth but it took many twist and turns over the past year at a Boston race track, a horse rescue, and a foster home with an unfriendly member. 

 Luke is an extraordinary horse who was forced to participate in  races, even though he was too young to race.  Despite his age, Luke began racing when he was five years old, even though horse experts will acknowledge that a horse isn’t considered full grown until they are eight years old. Unfortunately   Luke wasn’t winning enough money because he was too young and didn’t have the drive needed for racing, so his owners didn’t want to invest anymore money into his care. He was about to be sent to slaughter  to become food for people of France, China, or some other nation, when luckily a trainer convinced Luke’s owner to send  Luke to a horse rescue organization in hopes that he would be adopted as a pet for the remaining twenty or more years of his life.

            Because he was spared from slaughter,  Luke was ultimately  sent to a horse farm rescue in Cumming, Georgia with another race horse, Alivie,  who, unlike Luke, was quite a successful race horse, before breaking her knee in a race. For the first four months at the rescue, Luke attempted to made friends with the other rescued horses.  Since  the other horses weren’t aggressive, Luke had no difficult situations with other horses, which could have easily happened, as he was kept in a solitary stall twenty-three hours a day, with little to no chance to learn how to interact with other horses. Different dedicated volunteers carefully worked with Luke to try to train him in dealing with humans in a gentle manner.  It is common for horses to bite each other as they play.  This is their way to wrestle or rough house. Because he had few opportunities to interact with humans or horses, he mistakenly thinks humans should be bitten to initiate play. He is just horsing around. This set him up to be fostered out to a farm with few people and one impatience pony.

              One of the volunteers agreed to care for Luke as she had just acquired a farm with one pony and wanted to take Luke there to be a playmate to this pony.  Luke’s arrival was without flaw, until Luke attempted to play with this sinister pony.  Since horses have a pecking order, much like wolves do, and since Luke didn’t understand this pecking order, because he had no opportunities to acquire horse social skills, the pony reacted negatively when Luke tried to play by biting.   Having already lived on the land for a period of time, the pony who was  already there, believed it was his right to be the boss of the property.   Promptly cornering the frightened race horse, the pony brutally kicked and bit the dazed Luke.   Because of Luke’s lack of social skills, he didn’t even know he should run from this angry pony.   The relentless kicking allowed the smaller pony’s hoof to go   straight through Luke’s leg, in the lower area of his leg where there is only bone and tendons.   

            Luke was sent back to the farm because of his injuries. The vet declared that Luke would not live because his hoof would rot from his injury. But Luke was well cared for at the farm and he returned to health. The three places that have marked Luke’s life are the Boston race track, the horse rescue in Canton, Georgia, and the nearby foster home with the cranky pony. The most significant place would be the horse rescue where he was saved from slaughter, given a second chance, and healed.  It is quite amazing to see that this horse has lived through many things that should have taken his life.  His story is really just beginning.

           Well, I wish Noah's writing could stand alone... but  when we went out to help at the rescue yesterday we found out that this week the Mustang he was in with (Ellie)... beat him up.  Poor guy.   All of us at the rescue are trying to teach him not just to stand there and let the other horse beat him up.. He has to run.        Hopefully he will be adopted out soon...to a very peaceful group of horses...

Noah with Luke...