The author with Bucky B Lucky
My friend, Maeve and I talk about what we’d do if we won the lottery or hit it big at the track. Generally it’s a given that we’d pay bills and buy a farm. But what happens when you hit it ‘a little’ big at the track, like I did at the 2010 Kentucky Derby when I bet on a horse named Super Saver.?
When we arrived back home in Seattle, I’d received a message titled “SWAG… thought you might want to know.” There was a link to the SAFE message board about a “Bay Thoroughbred — $450”. It seems that a horse had been discovered at the Enumclaw Pavilion in the kill buyer’s area. He was reported to be a nice looking, tall bay with aluminum racing shoes on & a swollen ankle. They had ID’d his tattoo with the Jockey Club data base and discovered he was Bucky B Lucky, a horse that once belonged to SWAG Stables.
I didn’t take a long time to think about it, I just picked up my phone and called Keith Swagerty, my friend who owns SWAG Stables. I asked him if he knew what happened to Bucky B Lucky and he confirmed that they had not owned him for about a year. He’d been claimed in a race last spring. I let Keith know that Bucky was at the Enumclaw Pavilion awaiting the next livestock auction. Keith said he’d like to help get Bucky out of there. We both agreed to collect information and get back in touch the following day.
But then found out something horrifying…
I’ve known for some time that the meat buyers go to this auction, which is held on the first Sunday of each month and bid on horses for slaughter/foreign meat markets. It appears that they have a limit of about $200 a horse and these days have no problem bidding against a rescuer. The rescuers try to prevent horses from being sold for slaughter. They collect information on as many horses as possible, identify them through Jockey Club tattoos, and contact their prior owners or trainers before the start of the auction in hopes of saving lives. Members of the public come to the auction to bid horses up to prices that the kill buyers won’t pay and take these horses home themselves.
Bucky in the kill pen, still wearing his aluminum racing plates
But there are people who routinely bring in what they consider unwanted horses and make it hard for the horse to go anywhere BUT slaughter. By all appearances, whoever brought Lucky to Enumclaw meant for him to disappear. Since he was dropped the day after the May sale, he wouldn’t have gone through the public livestock auction and instead would have been sold directly to a meat buyer and loaded onto a truck. He was pretty much railroaded directly to slaughter. The deeper I get into the story, the more I was convinced that it was by design, not my accident. Someone almost certainly INTENDED for him to go to slaughter.
Keith and I spoke again and decided that I would go to the auction and try to purchase him directly from the auction owner. When I got to the auction, I was “helped” by a woman at the front desk who had no idea what horse I was talking about because he had no sale number. After much more grumbling than I cared to endure, eventually I bought the horse for $450.” When I asked if they had any paperwork to go with him, they simply said “NO.”
When I went into the auction yard to fetch my new horse, there was no fresh water and Bucky B Lucky was refusing to drink out of the filthy cement trough in the yard. There was some hay to eat, but there seemed to be no effort to keep the horses safe or safe from each other. This once pampered racehorse had clearly met some angry and aggressive horses in the kill pen because he had some pretty nasty bites and scrapes to show for it.
When I walked up to the gate, I called to him and he turned an ear towards me. I smiled and said “Bucky, come here…” He lifted his head and took a few steps toward me. I slipped inside the gate and he actually came all the way up to me. He allowed me to touch him and once I started petting his forehead and neck he started rubbing on me as if to indicate he was accepting me as an ally. It reminded me of the moment I met my rescue mare Coconut and how she came and placed her head in my chest as if to say “Please help me….” Bucky B Lucky was communicating something very similar.
I haltered him and literally walked him down the road to the home of another message board member who could keep him safe for a few nights while I figured out where to take him. I spoke to Jaime at SAFE and because of my work with SAFE, they agreed to take him and handle his rehabilitation and rehoming. A few days later, we pulled up with a trailer and Bucky B Lucky climbed aboard with only a little hesitation. He appeared to be settling in well when we left.
I was able to track down Bucky B Lucky last owner of record and I called him in hopes of learning more about this horse. He said he claimed the horse last year and ran him at. Emerald Downs a few times before he came up lame. He was diagnosed with bone chips on his front/left ankle and was given time off. H returned to training in January 2010. Initially he was doing well but again they noticed some swelling post-workout. So it was concluded that he was done racing. The owner told me that he’d asked around to see if any of his horse friends were willing to take him as a trail horse but there were no takers. So the owner entrusted his trainer to re-home the horse. Unfortunately, this trainer had earned a reputation as someone who was quite comfortable sending ex-racehorses to slaughter.
When I told the owner how I got Lucky, he was clearly upset and said that he never wanted the horse to go to slaughter. He thanked me several times for getting him out of there. He admitted that he didn’t know much about horses but that he and his daughter would have been absolutely crushed to learn that Lucky had gone to slaughter.
There is one clear observation here: the best way to keep clear of the prying eyes of the rescuers is to not sell a horse at the auction at all. Dropping a horse the day after the sale pretty much seals the deal for the horse, as it is far too easy to quietly disappear using this method. I don’t buy for one minute that this was a coincidence, I believe someone MEANT for Lucky to go to slaughter without even a fair chance. We’ve checked around and not one legitimate rescue was ever contacted to take this horse before he was dropped at Enumclaw.
What I hate about this is that since the auction owner never sent this horse through an auction, no one from the public ever had the chance to buy him and perhaps offer him a good home. Had someone not acted on his behalf, no one would have ever heard of Bucky B Lucky again. And once he was loaded onto the truck to the slaughterhouse, his remaining days would have been terrifying.
So truly, I was able to help out financially with rescuing this horse because I still had in my wallet my winnings from the Derby. My husband mentioned that it seemed natural that I would pick “Super Saver” as my Derby horse. At the time I thought it was nod to my mad bargain shopping skills…but perhaps he meant it as a tribute to my work saving horses!? Super Saver won the Kentucky Derby, which allowed me to help this horse…so a racehorse gave me the money to help another racehorse…which makes him a Super HORSE Saver!!!
Maeve and I still daydream about having enough money to fulfill our every wish…many of which include horses…
Things finally look peaceful for Lucky
