For retired racehorse Clever Allemont, a holiday miracle came through.
Clever Allemont’s miracle started in Lyon County with Kristin Chambers, executive director of Winding Road Equine Rescue & Retirement in Waverly. Chambers, who founded Winding Road, got a call from an Emporia dealer about the former racehorse. The horse was old, and old horses do not fair well at auctions. Chambers was given the option of letting the horse have another chance.
“With his age and infirmity, Clever Allemont’s chances were grim,” Chambers said. “Some horses will be sold to individuals, and ones not so lucky will be headed to auction and inevitably to slaughter.”
Chambers did not want Clever Allemont’s future to include slaughter. She said there are options that exist for older horses to retire. She was determined to find a miracle for Clever Allemont. A search on Clever Allemont yielded the record of a champion 26-year-old thoroughbred that raced from 1984 to 1987. He won nearly $350,000 in his career. Clever was owned by Eugene Klein and won the Rebel and was third in the Arlington Classic. Among the tracks he ran were Aqueduct and Churchhill Downs.
You could tell none of this the day Chambers found the horse. When Chambers arrived to see Clever Allemont, she was stunned.
“I have never been hit harder by a horse,” she said. “The tears are coming down my face and he’s missing an eye. He was all grayed and depressed.”
But the papers were there and Chambers, along with several other individuals, became this horse’s miracle. Clever Allemont’s “bail,” his price set by the dealer, was $200. Chambers set out to raise the money and save the horse’s life. Chambers posted Clever Allemont’s story on a message board forum, Alex Brown. She pleaded for help in saving Clever.
“He gave so much to so many and now we are all he has,” Chambers wrote on the forum. “... His glory days are gone and with one eye and visible ribs he will be heading for Mexico. ... He deserves some good days in hard-earned and well-deserved retirement — at least one more summer to enjoy the breeze, the grass and buckets of love.”
Clever Allemont’s story prompted a flurry of posts, and within only about 20 minutes, his bail was paid by Susan B. Ackerman, of Western Massachusetts. Ackerman paid his bail in honor of a racing friend, Jeanne. Ackerman met Jeanne on a racing forum and they became friends.
“Jeanne loved grays and when she passed on suddenly, I made a promise to her husband via e-mail that a thoroughbred would be saved in her honor, presumably a gray,” Ackerman said in an e-mail interview. “That was last April and through I waited and watched, it seemed the right horse had not come yet.”
Until Clever Allemont.
“When I saw the name Clever Allemont, I immediately remembered him as a nice stakes-winning horse that ran primarily in the Midwest, but occasionally showed up at the New York tracks,” Ackerman said. “And it hit me like thunder that he was ‘the one.’ Even if the only gray he had was on his face.”
Thanks to Ackerman and another woman, Marilyn Mitchell, Clever was on his way to safety.
Still, Clever Allemont needed a temporary foster home. Chambers didn’t have a place to keep a stallion at Winding Road in Waverly. Donegal Ranch Quarter Horses of Williamsburg agreed to foster Clever.
But Clever Allemont’s story does not stop there. He still needed a permanent place to retire. And he found one — at Old Friends, a facility in Kentucky that gives retired thoroughbreds a place to live out the rest of their lives. Old Friends was founded to “provide them with the dignified retirement they deserve, and open the space to the public. By promoting these one-time celebrated horses through a campaign of education and tourism, we realized we could draw attention to all retired thoroughbreds and all equines in need,” according to the group’s Web site.
Even though Clever Allemont had a place to go, funds were needed for his transport fee, which was $585. Dee Ramirez of Emporia stepped up to the plate and paid the transport fee. Clever Allemont soon will be in his new home in Kentucky.
“I wanted to make a real difference in one animal’s life this Christmas,” Ramirez said.
Ramirez said a friend e-mailed Clever Allemont’s story to her.
“I thought he’s the one,” Ramirez said. “He has given so much and received so little. Kristin does so much with so little, I hope more horse lovers in Emporia will help her. I plan to volunteer at Winding Road after the first of the year; there is always something that needs done, I’m sure.”
Ramirez said she hopes more horses will get a second chance.
“I just wish they could all be helped, so many are just thrown away — they deserve so much better,” she said.
For more information or to donate to Winding Road Equine Rescue & Retirement in Waverly, go to http://www.windingroadequinerescue.org/ or call (785) 733-2640. Winding Road is a 501 C-3 organization. All donations are tax deductible.
Comments
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Posted by slipandslide (anonymous) on December 26, 2008 at 6:34 p.m. (Suggest removal)
nice christmas story
Posted by tillie (anonymous) on December 29, 2008 at 10:55 a.m. (Suggest removal)
A nice ENDING, anyway. I am physically sickened and disgusted by what people do to animals--and then get away with!
Posted by gpaul519 (anonymous) on December 29, 2008 at 2:13 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I was curious as to how this horse was saved from "slaughter" as the "slaughter" of horses has been outlawed in this country and there are no longer any slaughter houses ?? A recent article in the "Midwest Producer" said that abandonment of unwanted horses is becoming a real problem.
Posted by navywife (anonymous) on December 29, 2008 at 2:19 p.m. (Suggest removal)
i believe the article said the horse would have been shipped to Mexico....
Posted by gpaul519 (anonymous) on December 30, 2008 at 3:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)
OK, I read the article again and now see the reference to Mexico. Hard to believe that you could haul an old horse to Mexico and sell it for enough to pay for the fuel it would take to get it there ???
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