Discarded Thoroughbred filly in critical condition a month after her last race

Dance Madam might not make it.

The circumstances are dire for the emaciated, dehydrated, strangles-infested thoroughbred filly who last raced exactly one month ago, finishing more than 23 lengths behind the winner of a $15,000 claiming race at River Downs on July 16th.  The four-year-old chestnut daughter of Dance Master hadn't hit the board in 12 starts since she'd broken her maiden for a $5000 tag at the same oval in June of 2010.

The filly's lackluster efforts on the racetrack apparently doomed her to the discard pile.  Less than three weeks after her last start, Dance Madam was spotted by a good samaritan at the Sligo auction in Kentucky on Wednesday, August 3rd, where she was being offered for sale with several other thoroughbreds, including the three-year-old St. L'Enjoleur filly Ultimate Proof, at a venue frequented mostly by kill buyers seeking to load their slaughterhouse-bound trailers for Canadian butcheries.  The two fillies were purchased for cheap money by dealer Charlie Harris, who then cooperated with a coterie of thoroughbred advocates who raised the funds for their ransom.  Bot the horses' troubles were far from over.

The Kentucky division of The United States Equine Rescue League (USERL) became aware of their plight, and contacted Melissa Kauffman, a sometime equine rescuer who agreed to open her heart, and the gates of her Middlebury, Indiana farm, to quarantine and care for them.  "I didn't know who they were or anything about them," Melissa said, "but I knew they'd given everything they had when it was asked, and they didn't deserve not to get it back."

But when the fillies arrived, on Monday, August 15th, Melissa was shocked at what she saw.  Dance Madam still had the sweat marks from the saddle she wore in her last race, and an unwashed poultice on one of her legs, suggesting to Melissa that "they literally pulled her out of the race and said, 'See you later.'"

The filly is so severely dehydrated that she didn't urinate for the first 48 hours after drinking her fill.  "If she were in the hospital, she would be in critical condition," Melissa explained.  "Her legs were so swollen that you couldn't even tell she had joints.  She has bites all over her body."  Dance Madam's caslicked vulva had apparently been forcibly penetrated by a stallion at one of the layover feedlots where she'd languished, and as a result, it is torn and infected and her urethra is grossly swollen.  Strangles are exploding like volcanoes all over her wracked body.

Melissa is doing everything possible to stabilize Dance Madam, but the filly's prognosis is guarded, at best.  "I've never seen this degree of evil," she said, angrily.  "It does not become real until a horse like this sets foot in your yard.  How can it be that within one month after racing, she's at death's door?"  Referring to Dance Madam's pedigree, which has the iconic thoroughbreds Mr. Prospector, Nijinsky II, and Storm Cat in her third generation, Melissa shook her head and asked, "How do we look into her eyes and say:  'You're worthless.'"

A second chance for Chon-Teh

It was the night of Thursday, December 2nd, 2010, and Carol Poole couldn't sleep.  The Facebook image of a frightened black mustang mare who had landed in the "kill pen" at the New Holland auction haunted her.  The forlorn mare, whose neck brand identified her as one the BLM had taken from the wild, was destined for a one-way trip to a slaughterhouse unless someone stepped in to save her.  When nobody else did, Carol realized it was up to her.

Even though she wasn't really thinking about adding another horse to her band of three at her 10-acre Almosta Farm in Oakham, Mass., Carol knew she had to intervene to save the mare's life.  Carol is a devoted wild horse advocate who has been working passionately to end the relentless spate of BLM roundups.  With fundraising help from a bevy of like-minded supporters on the PA Kill Broker Owned Facebook page, a chunk of the $595 "bail" money was chipped in to cover the costs of the mare's purchase price, as well as the coggins certificateand health exam that she would need to make the interstate journey from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts.  And by the morning of Tuesday, December 7th, the mare was home free.

But how in the world did she find herself in harm's way?  Carol made it her mission to find out.  She contacted the BLM's Steve Meyers, who looked up the brand and discovered that this horse had been trapped and removed from the 65,000-acre Three Fingers Herd Management Area in eastern Oregon back in 2002.  She had been adopted in 2004 by a person who was identified by Meyers as Amish.  We don't know what happened to her in the interim, but we do know that the New Holland auction is often used as a dumping ground for horses owned by members of the local Amish community.  According to the BLM's records, the mare is 10 years old.

When she walked off the trailer onto Carol Poole's farm in early December, the little mustang mare appeared to be sweet, serene, and surprisingly easy to handle.  But her eyes were "glassy and watery," Carol recalled, signaling that all was not well.  And within a day or so, the mare's demeanor changed so dramatically that Carol is convinced she had been drugged prior to the sale.  By the day before Christmas, Carol admitted that "we still can't get near her" to touch her, pet her, or to remove her halter, which has obviously been attached to the mare's head for a long time.  "She doesn't want anything to do with humans," Carol said, sadly, and "she shies away if you move your hands.  I think she's been abused."

But Carol has no intention of giving up on this shy, gentle creature whose fearfulness cannot hide a quiet dignity and nobility of spirit.  To honor her, Carol determined that the mare should have a name befitting her wild heritage, and after consulting with William Firecloud, Jr., she has chosen to call the mare, "Wash-Ah-Kah Chon-Teh," which is Dakota Teton dialect for "Strong Heart."

For now, "Chon Teh" (pronounced "Shon Tay") has a roomy paddock across from three other horses (including another mustang), access to a run-in shed, fresh water, and as much hay as she can eat.  Slowly, she is allowing herself to get closer to people, and she seems to understand that she is finally in the arms of people who have no wish to harm her.  

Carol dreams that she will one day be able to return Chon Teh to a western reserve where she can roam in wide open spaces with other mustangs.  "I personally don't think any wild horse belongs to any person," Ms. Poole emphasized.  "The only reason we took her was to save her life."  And in doing so, she has given Chon Teh the most precious gift of all: a second chance.

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