Source: By Valerie Hauch as published in thespec.com
“A shared story of insight, love and success for our ‘Feel Good Sunday’ installment, today. Keep the faith.” ~ R.T.
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“He’s special and he knows it!”
Robin Hannah constantly talks to Prodigioso, who’s blind in his right eye, when they’re working. The former racetrack horse has become a confident jumper. ~ Torstar News Service
To look at him now — a sleek chestnut Thoroughbred who flies over jumps, knees tucked, ears pointed forward in concentration — you’d never know that the same horse was found starved and partially blinded in the Florida Everglades.
Nowadays, Prodigioso, who has developed a fondness for Scotch mints, is considered the smartest horse at Sherwood Farm in St. Catharines where he’s lovingly tended by owners Marilyn Lee-Hannah and her 27-year-old daughter, Robin Hannah, who trains and rides her “special guy.”
They adopted the 6½-year-old former racetrack horse who “loves to please” in May. They saw his photo on the Facebook page of the non-profit horse rehabilitation group, Florida TRAC (Florida Thoroughbred Retirement & Adoptive Care Program) and were moved by his story.
And a sad, but not particularly unusual, story it is.
Someone had called the South Florida SPCA after seeing Prodigioso by the side of an Everglades road in July 2012.
“He was a starving rack of bones,” said South Florida SPCA spokeswoman Jeanette Jordan…(remainder of sentance deleted due to the spokeswoman being misquoted in the original article.)
The frightened horse had rope burns on his back ankles, which were tied to a bucket of cement. He’d been dragging the bucket along “in search of food and water,” said Jordan.
Had the SPCA been able to prove who owned Prodigioso when he was found, criminal charges would have been laid, said Jordan.
Prodigioso also had scars on his face, feet that oozed with a painful thrush infection and a right eye that had been freshly blinded.
“He could have run into a tree — there’s no way of knowing” how his eye was damaged, said Celia Scarlett-Fawkes, vice-president and intake director of Florida TRAC.
The group, which helps former racetrack horses find “second careers” and works closely with the SPCA, agreed to take Prodigioso into care.
The Jockey Club in Kentucky registers Thoroughbreds and they all have tattoos under their lip. That’s how Prodigioso was identified.
His racing career was less than stellar: the first time he ran was in March 2011, the last in January 2012 when he came 11th. His best showing over the entire period was a seventh-place finish.
When horses are not winning races and not covering the cost of their upkeep, some owners will just give them away and wash their hands of the animal, said Jordan.
After a couple of months, the horse, which had visibly trembled on arrival at Florida TRAC’s rehab centre, started playing with other horses. He “had to get new bearings” to get used to only having one eye, said Scarlett-Fawkes.
By about nine months he had recovered to the point where he was ready to be matched with a new home. He weighed about 450 kilograms, a healthy hike from the 225 to 270 kilograms he weighed on arrival.
But while the handsome horse was a “pretty little mover” with a long, loping stride, most people backed off when they heard he had only one good eye.
Not Marilyn Lee-Hannah, who was perusing Florida TRAC’s Facebook site and was taken by the fact Prodigioso was a dead ringer for another horse she’d once had and loved.
“My daughter said, ‘We just don’t have room.’ ” (They currently have 35 horses, 12 of their own, the rest boarders.) “I said, ‘He’s blinded in one eye,’ and she said, ‘We have to have him.’ ”
Lee-Hannah saw him once in Florida before he was transported to Canada in May. She and her daughter have never regretted the adoption, which has been written about a couple of times in the online publication, Off-TrackThoroughbreds.com which highlights the success stories of former racehorses.
“He’s special and he knows it!” said Robin Hannah, who’s preparing Prodigioso — called Piper when he’s at home — for a show in Lexington Va.
“When I first started working and riding him he was nervous of all new things. To help him cope with the vision loss I do lots of different things with him, and show him there is nothing to be afraid of.
“Now he is so brave and takes me over to investigate things he would shy from before like tarps, water, dogs, etc. I talk to him non-stop while riding him . . . let him know it’s OK.”
Hannah and her mother say they’ll never sell Prodigioso. They hope to keep training him, at a slow, unhurried pace, to increase his confidence and show that former racetrack horses can have successful second careers in competition and as companion animals.
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Categories: Equine Rescue, Horse News
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
If anyone is interested, here is his race record. Note that he Did Not Finish in two consecutive races. He never should have been racing.
http://www.equibase.com/profiles/Results.cfm?type=Horse&refno=8101503®istry=T
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Horse racing is a sad world. So happy he was saved.
Jeanette Jordan SPCA spokes person is foolish for believing pro slaughter crap, “because there’s no slaughterhouses in Fl then people abandon”, hello!, kill buyers haul from Fl every week! There’s auctions to take your horses to every week! Bunch of bull pucky!
Florida also has backyard slaughter to sell to.
This was a case of torture for their sick pleasure!
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Exactly….a big thump on the head to Jordan whose pro slaughter comment taints the rest of this great rescue story.
Thanks very much for saving Prodigioso FL. SPCA !! But come on….retraction please on the dumbazz comment
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Retracting my thump and transferring it to the author of the article.
Thank you Jeanette Jordan for the rescue of Prodigioso and a big thanks for all you do for the horses to help end the cruelty that is horse slaughter
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Thanks R&Z. Still lots of work to be done to make the “transport” of horses to slaughter illegal and keep slaughter plants from opening in the U.S.
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Once again proving a horses handicap are a humans decision of what a horse is capable of. So when the human sets no limits there arent any for the horses. What a story of love. I noticed the blurp about what happens to horses in a state without a slaughter plant, however, another excuse of abuse, i wish they would just have printed that its just simply abuse. Slaughterhouses simply facilitate abuse……these survivors they prove its the RIGHT people having these horses. People just try to force a horse into a cookie cutter routine, thats ridiculous. Looking at a horse like this one. Competitions of all types should allow blind horses to be shown, in fact, they should create more opportunities for horses. Instead of such small minded ideas about horses who can be shown. This horse is like the fully blind mare i had who won cutting events ten years ago. The registry states no blind horses compete, but we only told them she was blind after she won a few big events. We need to get these horses back into main stream industry usage. Tganks RT for this story, it opens my eyes for the need to reword to implement change. The rewording should be not without a slaughterhouse in the state this happens, But These abusive practices came about because weve.had slaughterhouses and people assume they can abuse and throw a horse away. AND we need to flood shows with the stats that blind horses are success stories and should be shown and take their place in the horse industry. Thanks to the people who adopted him, to who reported him being out there, to the people who rescued him, theres a chain of deserving thank yous!
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one Mans Trash Is Another Mans Treasure.
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Great story, but I’m disgusted that anyone from an animal welfare group would say, “abandoned horses are common in a state with no legal slaughterhouses.” Actually, those neglected horses are often owned by the ILLEGAL slaughterhouses in Florida. That propaganda doesn’t fly.
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This horse is a winner in personality, and I’m glad has the chance to show it. Great story after all of the trash we’ve had to read about. How the hell is the BLM going to determine the age of horses anyway?
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Not everyone is suited for a particular career. This story is just another prime example of a horse not only finding his niche but also finding his people! Horses, like people, will perform better and be much happier doing it when they find the right fit. I didn’t, however, appreciate the comment about abandonment being associated with lack of legal slaughterhouses. This needs to be addressed with Jeanette Jordan, spokesperson for the SPCA. This is misleading and a totally improper way to address abuse, neglect, and abandonment issues. She needs to change her mind-set or step down from the position of speaking for the SPCA and against animal cruelty.
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Great story!..
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Certainly a feel good story – hes a lucky boy. And – as many have said – the SPCA gal needs educating.
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I also retract my remark, Jeanette. Shameful that a so-called journalist cant write an article without “editing” it to completely change a statement. Keep up the good work “SPCA gal”!
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I read this the other day. Off Track Thoroughbred has some good articles about the TB’s that have been saved. I get the newsletter sent to me daily and it has opened my eyes to the hard work that goes into the retraining of these horses. Its a shame the breeders can’t be forced to understand what happens to many of the horses they over-breed and never think about again unless of course it wins many races and their name is mentioned.
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Hi all, SPCA gal here. Please know that I was SERIOUSLY MISQUOTED by the author of this article. I have been on the anti-slaughter forefront in Florida since the beginning. I helped write, lobby for and pass The Ivonne Rodruigez/Victoria McCullough 2010 Horse Protection Act, making horse slaughter illegal in Florida. The South Florida SPCA and I oppose the slaughter of horses for any reason whatsoever. I’ve stood and wept over the bodies of way too many slaughtered horses to ever condone this evil, vile practice.
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How is this SPCA Gal:
.(remainder of sentance deleted due to the spokeswoman being misquoted in the original article.)
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Thank you, R.T. That’s perfect. You are one of my heroes!
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Thanks for all you do SPCA gal!
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His story was just on CTV news!! Very cool…
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Very cool! He’s in Virginia now competing in the U.S.
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