Gracieland Kennels Website - Great Danes, Greyhounds, Cars/Racing, Photography, Horses, and more.

Our Horses

We currently have 3 horses.

We have 1 Thoroughbred mare, Valley, who was rescued through CBER (Columbia Basin Equine Rescue - this rescue has fallen apart since we worked with them and I don't recommend them anymore). We got Valley through CBER in June of 07. We had previously gotten 2 other TB mares from CBER, Hyacinth and Hera. All 3 were feedlot horses about to go to the slaughter house. And all 3 have been amazing friends

Valley, who may well be the most beautiful horse in the universe (okay I admit it I am a tiny bit biased) is a retired race horse. Valley's

bloodlines are as good as her looks. She's a granddaughter of Seattle Slew, goes back to Bold Ruler (Secretariat's sire) and Native Dancer a couple times on each side. So Valley is related to 3 of the most famous race horses on the planet, Seattle Slew, Bold Ruler, and Native Dancer. And boy doesn't she look like it. Ain't that some Thoroughbred? Again, while she is not sound to race anymore, she certainly didn't belong at the slaughter house.

We added two Appaloosas, Gracie and Cody, to our herd in august 09. I purchased Gracie, and our best friend, Kandace, purchased Gracie's pasture mate, Cody at the same time, so as to keep the two bonded horse together. This worked out perfectly because Kandace was also looking for a horse and she fell in love with Cody when she saw him. When I called the seller about Gracie, I just knew she was meant for me. We call our place Gracieland, and our domain is gracieland.org, both named after my beloved Great Dane, Gracie, who we lost to cancer in Aug. 06. To find a "new" Gracie in Aug. 09, just seemed like fate. And to be able to get a horse for Kandace at the same time, one who was already bonded to Gracie, was the icing on the cake. Sadly Gracie is no longer with us, she was much older than we knew and we had to put her down in June 2010. But here is her story, along with Cody's, who is still with us, of course.

Gracie (on the left) is a Blue Roan Appaloosa, while Cody (on the right) is a Strawberry Roan Appaloosa/Quarter Horse gelding. Gracie was rescued last year by a horse enthusiast from a bad situation where she was starving to death. She has put on a lot of weight since then, but still has a ways to go. But she is sound to ride and has no trouble, even with someone as large as me. While she was essentially a throw away when she was rescued, at some point in her life she was obviously a valued horse. She has a ton of training on her. Someone spent a lot of money on professional training at some point. Fact is I need some training to meet her skill level. But thankfully she is the sweetest, most level headed, and easy going horse you could imagine, so she tries to figure out what I want from her, and she doesn't let my stupidity bother her. Her seller described her as a "been there, done that, bullet proof horse that anyone could ride, a 100% idiot proof horse." Now you hear that sort of stuff a lot in horse ads. But this seller was absolutely 100% honest. And it's a good thing, given that I may be the 100% idiot Gracie was made for.

Our 3rd horse is named Rowdy. He joined us in October this year (2010) and is a 19 yr old quarterhorse/appy cross. Rowdy is the sweetest horse. Not a mean bone is his body. He is your typical puppy dog type. But he isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. He is a bit of a dofus, and prone to getting himself into situations. He tends to be impateint when it comes to meal time, and to get pretty rodwy. We saw how he came by his name once he settled in here. He is well trained, but needs a tune up. He hasn't been ridden in over a year, and was last owned by a 13 yr old girl who clearly let him get away with stuff. So as soon as winter is over, he is going to get worked until he gets his head on straight again. I think Rowdy is beautiful, and since he's my horse, that's all that matters. But I will admit, that appy mane is sort of sad (yes what you see here is his mane, all of it, it isn't brushed over onto the other side).

In Memoriam

Hyacinth
When we got Hera, we also got her stablemate, Hyacinth. Hy was rideable, and was such a wonderful horse. Even I could ride her, bareback and with only a halter. Hy was my first heart horse, and I adored her. Sadly, we lost Hyacinth 12/24/07. I went out to feed the horses and found her dead. It appeared she'd cast, but we'll never know the full story. We do know we miss her a lot, and that it is going to take a very special horse to even come close to taking her place.
RIP Hy. Maybe you were just too good for humanity, or maybe God just wanted you for himself.

Hera

Hera was Hyacinth's pasture mate and came to us at the same time Hyacinth did. She was a spoiled barn queen at some point in her life, and it is hard to believe that anyone would let her end up at the feedlot or on some European dinner table. But that was what she faced if we did not adopt her. Hera was not fit to ride but was sound enough to be a pasture ornament. Hera was sweet, good natured, outgoing, and a pleasure to have around. She might not have been able to "work" anymore, but she was a valued member of our household. Hera's back legs were bad when we got her, that was why she wasn't rideable, but over the winter of 09-10 she was getting worse worse and we elected to put her down 6/18/10 before she went lame or suffered any discomfort.

Gracie

Gracie was doing great, she was the perfect horse for me and she was such a sweet loving girl. I really felt as if I had hit the lottery finding her. She was that very special horse that was able to take Hyacinth's place. We'd managed to really get some weight on her, so much so that in Feb we cut her back a bit to keep her from getting fat. But in May she started to loose weight. We had the vet out, ran blood tests and tried to find out what was wrong. But nothing seemed to be wrong, her blood tests were normal, her appetite was great as always. She was to all appearances a healthy happy horse, who was jsut dropping pounds like she was never fed. We even had people call animal control on us, she was getting so skinny. We tried to adjust her feed and give her a bit more to eat, as per our vet's recommendation. But she continued to loose wieght. Our vet felt she was likely older than we knew and was simply running down. We elected to put her down at the same time as we did Hera, as the quality of life for both of them was going down hill fast. Their time was quickly running out, and we wanted them to go out while they were still loving life and not suffering. A big part of my heart went with Gracie. I have been incredibly lucky with the horses I've gotten. I've had two outstanding rideable horses, Gracie and Hyacinth, and all the horses I've gotten have been wonderful loving creatures. But of all of them, Gracie was special. She was my girl. God I am going to miss her.

Crissy
We got Crissy from a private party who "rescued" her. She was severely underweight when we got her. It appeared as if she had not had a proper meal in quite a while, and it looked as if she had been having to compete with younger, stronger horses for what food was available. Crissy is a former polo horse and was retired when she lost an eye, not an uncommon injury for polo horses. Supposedly, she was also a certified Search & Rescue Horse, which if true, is saying a lot. Horses have to pass a series of tests to be certified for S&R work. From what we can tell, this is not that far fetched for Crissy, she has the right temperament and appears to have to right training. We haven't tested this yet, as she is still too thin for us to want to ride. What we do know is that she is a sweet, calm horse. The woman we got her from was able to ride barebacked with just a halter. She has a wonderful, steady, smooth gait and moves beautifully, even as skinny as she is. We can't wait to see what she's like once she's healthy. We were told she was 20 but our vet thinks she's older than that. I started riding Crissy this summer (2010) and although I was a bit big for her, she did really well. Sadly, this fall Crissy damaged her good eye somehow and went blind completely. She did not adapt well to this at all. She lost a good deal of weight, and began to have panic attacks at night. After running throuugh two different fences we elected to have her PTS. It broke our hearts, but she just did not have the temperament to be completely blind and this is not a place well suited to blind horses. We tried to find her someplace where she would be safe and have the time to adapt, if possible, but we weren't having any luck. And after the first time she ran through a fence at night we called the vet to come out and euthanize her. It wasn't fair to leave her so terrified and confused, nor risk her hurting herself. The vet wasn't able to come out until the next day. We only wish we had been able to get the vet out that same day, as she ran through another fence that night. But she is safe now, resting peacfully on our property, property she came to think of as her home.

Here's a shot of her from sometime in her past, before she lost all that weight.

America's secret shame, the war dogs of the US military

America's other secret shame - Horse slaughter for human consumption

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