Slew and CC in the Dakotas August 2001	Slew grazing peacefully at E.P.O.N.A. Sept 2002
Slew on her way to the Tufts	Dakota "Slew" on the left CC on the right with their new family The Tufts

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.