CC
and Slew
A
special thanks to United Animal Nations for the
sponsorship of Dakota
This
is a unique and endearing story.
It
began two years ago with the arrival of a
Thoroughbred Premarin filly from North Dakota,
to E.P.O.N.A.. Her name was CC. It is rare that
a Premarin Ranch would use a Thoroughbred mare
for Premarin. Most Premarin ranches use draft or
draft crossed mares because they produce more
urine. CC's mom was however not used for urine
collection, she was used strictly as a brood
mare. In a strange turn of events CC's mom
"Slew" a Seattle Slew
granddaughter, ended up on a Premarin
ranch and was bred to the farm's Thoroughbred
stallion that was used primarily on draft mares.
The farm did not use Slew on line, but
kept her stabled for the winter and in the
spring of the year she was turned out to pasture
with 20 to 30 other mares to foal, and later
rebred.
The pastures of the Dakotas are vast and
consist of hundreds of thousands of acres. These
horses are for all intentional person left to
the wild from spring to fall. An occasional
check is done on them, but water, grain
and hay are not provided. The horses rely on
natural grasses and watering holes. This type of
lifestyle is very difficult on a Thoroughbred.
By the end of the summer most of the
Thoroughbreds are very, very, thin. None the
less, little CC comparatively, smaller just by
the nature of her breeding, arrived quite
strong.
Like many of her counterparts she
arrived lethargic, tired and with a bit of a
virus. A few weeks later she was feeling much
better. Later that fall CC was adopted by the
William and Cynthia Tufts family of Chester,
NH.. They had met some of our Premarin foals at
a Premarin presentation that we had performed
and came to visit our facility. They fell in
love with CC and after completing the adoption
process and her preliminary training, she
joined the Tufts family in Chester. That was
last year. This year impressed with CC, and the
desire to surprise a certain individual we made
an attempt to get CC's full sibling from the
ranch. We were able to do so and little Anika
arrived in September of this past year. A carbon
copy of her sister CC, Anika stole everyone's
heart including that of Rebecca Stoddard.
There
is another story of Anika and Rebecca following
this one be sure to read it, it is also very
touching. Rebecca adopted Anika and she
too is living well, in Athol, MA. But our
story does not end there. While we were in the
Dakotas selecting our foals we were able to
arrange for a second load of Premarin that would
include not only foals but mares as well. After
the big round up in August and the foals are
sent to auction the ranchers then focus on the
mares. They are examined and if they are in foal
then they are brought in and put on line to
collect the urine. If they are not pregnant then
the majority of the mares are sent to the later
auctions.
The six mares that we were able to get
were a variety of breeds, Percherons, Paints and
a Thoroughbred. Yes, the Thoroughbred was
CC's mom "Slew". She had not settled,
she was not in foal and the Thoroughbred
Stallion had died that summer, so Slew was put
on our truck. Shortly after her arrival Slew,
now known as "Dakota" had a very
special group of visitors. The Tufts family. You
can probably guess the rest of the story, the
Tufts fell in love with Dakota. They had just
finished building their new barn and after the
loss of one of their horses earlier last year
they had available space. So in a very rare and
unique turn of events Dakota was reunited with
her daughter
CC just before Christmas this past year. What
a Christmas present and story, a Premarin mare
and daughter have the opportunity to be
reunited. Thank you to the Tufts family.
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