March 2020 Issue

EAST COAST EQUESTRIAN March 2020 Page 57 By Amy Worden On New Year’s Eve, fresh off a sensational year on the event- ing circuit, Not Ours was getting readied at her Chester County barn for a 6 a.m. departure to Aiken, SC for the winter season competitions. In 2017 she was headed in a very different direction. The 3-year-old thorough- bred mare had been sold after a brief racing career on a di- rect-to-slaughter order to a kill buyer in Shippensburg, PA. That meant when Kelly Smith, founder of Omega Horse Rescue and Re- habilitation, saw the horse, under- weight and struggling to breathe, she could not post pictures to social media or fundraise for her purchase and care that day. Not Ours, Sold for Her Meat Price, Is Now a Top Young Event Horse Two and a half years after her last race, Not Ours had gone from racetrack to kill pen to the barn of Erin Sylvester, who is on the Pre-Elite list for the American eventing team who will compete at the Tokyo Olympics this summer. ‘Ears’ and Sylvester are shown at the 2019 Fair Hill International, where the mare won a slew of awards. The Maryland bred mare raced as Sweet Batch (Cherokee’s Boy—Ketubah, Broken Vow), winning $12,000 in seven starts for owner Maryland Racing Club LLC. Her last race was in January 2017. By March she was in the kill buyer’s lot. Seeing her potential, Smith bought her anyway for her meat price: $600. Not Ours, it turned out, was suffering from a potentially deadly throat infection. The cost of her surgery was $3,000 and required a four-month lay-up that would test even the most patient horse. That’s when veterinarian Nikki Scherrer met her. Scherrer, a clinical assistant professor of oph- thalmology at New Bolton, works with many of the sickest horses that come through Omega Rescue. “It was like she was breath- ing through a straw,” said Scher- rer. “I wasn’t sure she’d survive. There was the reality of possibly having to euthanize her.” But Not Ours’ tenacity to live and patience with the extended treatment and her oversized ears, won over Scherrer. “We decided to nickname her 'Ears,' she said. And before long Scherrer was her new owner. The adoption came with some initial pushback from her husband, who thought adding another horse to their two might be too much. That’s how they came up with her show name, Not Ours. “I was sure I wanted her and my husband was on board,” said Scherrer. By July, Ears had moved to top flight event rider and trainer Erin Sylvester’s barn, ES Event- ing, in Cochranville, PA where Omega horses receive treatment and training. She progressed so quickly Scherrer decided to enter her in the Retired Racehorse Project competition that fall. Ears was not among the winners but she demonstrat- ed her talents. “We took her to Lexington just because we wanted her to have a good experience,” said Scherrer. “She had a few stops [at fences] and worried about the water ob- stacles but she was happy and relaxed.” In 2018, with Sylvester in the saddle, Ears competed in novice level events. “They clicked,” said Scherrer. Sylvester, reached in Welling- ton, FLwhere she is competing Olympic prospect Paddy the Caddy, said once Not Ours figured out the water obstacles, she’s proved a bold competitor on the cross-country course. “She loves most everything we ask her to do,” said Sylvester, who has made the Pre-elite list for the Tokyo Olympics this summer. “She hasn’t looked back.” Sylvester bumped her up to training level in 2019. “She was a little emotional in dressage, but she was a superb jumper,” said Scherrer. “She really blossomed.” Suddenly, the unwanted ex-racehorse, sold for her weight in horse meat, was sweeping the top prizes on the eventing circuit. USEA Reserve Champion In October Not Ours took reserve champion in the 5-year- old division at the U.S. Eventing Association Young Event Horse East Coast Championships at Fair Hill. She also won the Born in America award, the Ameri- can Thoroughbred award and the Jockey Club Thoroughbred Incentive Program award–all designed to recognize second careers for retired racehorses. Scherrer says the increased awareness and appreciation for American-bred thoroughbreds and the expansion of re-homing efforts of racetracks, as well as breed-spe- cific shows and events, has helped reduce the number of ex-racehorses coming into Omega rescue. Those that do arrive at the rescue are adopted pretty fast, she said. Ears’ story is an important lesson to the public that young, sound horses are regularly sent to slaughter, said Scherrer. “The kill pen is not filled with old, broken horses,” she said. Today Ears is the “queen of the barn,” said Scherrer. “She seems to say, ‘I’m a baby cham- pion.’ It’s pretty cool.” Amy Worden spent 15 years as a reporter for The Philadel- phia Inquirer, where she founded Philly Dawg animal blog. Her blog continues as Philly Dawg on Facebook.