And The Lord Said,
"Be Still and Relax, Oh Quick One"
"See These Rolling Streams and Acres"
"They Belong To You Now"
"Your Herd Is Waiting"
"Welcome Home"
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Especially to the year 1984 ... this story isn't about Swale, but about another horse, one who did the impossible in racing and then managed to do the impossible in surviving through life ... now read on and think about this ...
The rest of the story...
Born 25 years ago, the son of Hawkin's Special-Bette's Gold by Espea, he was born to be a sprinter, but he would rattle the world of racing on April 26th, 1984. His jockey was Pat Day, a just-emerging 30-year old who was riding an unknown horse in the state of Kentucky's most prestigious horse race ... and they would win it, at a distance of one mile and one eighth in a controlled run - a horse with a sprinter's bloodlines wond the Blue Grass Stakes.
It wasn't supposed to happen, the bettors said it couldn't happen, but it did.
Now sights were set on the 110th running of the Kentucky Derby. This sprinter was entered but finished 13th in the race. However, he went on to run in the Preakness and finished 4th in that race ... time to come home, back to sprint racing and 21 wins in 41 starts with a career-earning of over a million dollars.
This horse not only won the Blue Grass Stakes but a dozen other Stakes races as well, but this is not what this story is about. It's something more, much more. He was officially retired in 1987, went to stud in the state of Maryland first and then ended up in Wanham, Alberta, Canada. His final foal crop was in 2002 and about that time he became disposable to those people around him. He ended up on an old run-down farm owned by an older couple in Granite Falls, Washington.
Flash Forward ... September 28th, 2004.
Hope For Horses, a Washington-based Rescue Agency, gets a phone call about a horse wandering in the fields alone near Granite Falls, Washington. Within 2 weeks, Hope For Horses send out a rescue crew to pick up a horse with no name and no home (little did they realize). The older couple had died and there was no one to care for the horse so for more than six weeks this thoroughbred stallion managed to survive on his own with no food or water, or anyone to care for him. Hope For Horses picked him up and named this unknown "Nigel" (for no other reason than that they were at the letter "N" in naming horses). Upon examining the horse for his tattoo, they would be shocked to discover a race horse of incredible talent.
His name was Taylor's Special, and he did indeed win more than one million dollars in his racing career. Now Hope For Horses starts to make phone calls ... first to The Exceller Fund and then to the only rescue center that accepts stallions ... Old Friends Inc. in Georgetown, Kentucky. Travel arrangements were made and Taylor was transported from Washington State to Kentucky.
He was coming home, to the state where he was born, to the state where he took their most coveted race and to where he would die. On September 19th 2006 at Old Friends, Taylor's Special was quietly euthanized at the farm, without fanfare. The only people present were the staff of the farm.
Taylor came Home to Rest ... Home to the state that knew him best. His final year of life was most likely his best, as he was one of the Stallion-retirees of the farm, which is open to the public.
Taylor was just another horse, but unlike other horses he was saved from a fate that could have been far worse ...
Taylor's Special ... 21 wins for more than one million dollars
Abandoned in the state of Washington
Rescued and sent to Kentucky to live out his final days
Taylor was very very lucky, so many others are not ... that doesn't say much for us, does it?
Please, Remember
Our Horses give so much, yet ask for so little in return.
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Think about how a horse that wins over a million dollars could become so disposable.
Then, think about your own horse
MORE ABOUT
TAYLOR'S SPECIAL
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Horses We Remember
Taylor's Special
Thunder
Snowcap's Legend
Gypsy
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World-wide Crimes Against Horses Home Page For This Campaign * Abuse, Abandonment and Needless Death * The Extermination of the American Mustang |