Wild Eyed Dreamer Gets A New Home

Wild Eyed Dreamer was bred in Florida by Gilbert G. Campbell. A foal of 2003, he is by West Acre out of Classic Dancer by Sovereign Dancer. He won seven races with lifetime earnings of $166,915, including the Longfellow Stakes at Monmouth Park as a four-year-old. He started 25 times from age two through five. Then he was injured. He bowed a tendon- the same tendon he bowed once before in a race. This time, his racing days were most likely over. Dreamer was stalled by a compassionate exercise rider at Delaware Park until a TRF volunteer could pick him up and ship him to “Barn 4”, this is what we call the TRF vocational training center at the James River Work Center.  In the meantime, a group of reporters at the Daily Racing Form heard of Dreamer’s situation. Through an email campaign, they raised more than $1,000 towards the expense of rescuing Dreamer. 

 In June of 2008, when he arrived at Barn 4, his leg was literally hot to the touch and he bore hardly any weight on it. The men in the program who gathered around him were part of new class in the TRF program. They were in awe of the size and majesty of this thoroughbred and shocked by the obvious intensity of the injury. They felt it for the first time: this beautiful horse needed them and they had to rise to the task. 

They got right to it: Dreamer’s badly-bowed leg was iced and poulticed twice daily. Will Washington, his inmate caregiver, was given responsibility for keeping the schedule of treatment with two other inmates, Tamio and Eric.  Dreamer was confined to his stall with only brief walks. They groomed him meticulously and rubbed him down daily to try and keep him comfortable. Initially a good patient, Dreamer one day “hit the wall.” Three months of confinement finally got to him and he became almost unmanageable, but the team of Will, Tamio and Eric never gave up on him. Eventually, his hand-walks led to the round pen, then a small paddock and, finally, Dreamer went out in a big field to be just a horse. Nothing was asked of him for six months as he healed in body and mind.

Then, last summer, we began riding him lightly. His kind disposition had been restored and his leg was strong. Enter Claire Schiefer, a 13-year-old girl who had been catch-riding and who wanted a horse of her own.  She heard about the TRF horses for adoption at Barn 4 through thoroughbredadooption.com. She and her mother and trainer arrived, saddle in hand, not sure about what to expect when horse shopping at a correctional facility! She rode three horses but she already knew which one she wanted. With her trainer’s blessing, Claire chose Dreamer. She paid the adoption fee out of her own piggy bank. Recently her mother wrote to tell me and the men who nursed him back to health how much Claire and Dreamer loved each other. She reported that the big bay horse gallops along the fence to meet the school bus – and his new owner – every afternoon.

The Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation has accepted or rescued more than 3,000 horses in twenty-six years and more than one hundred in 2009.  Many have stories similar to Dreamer’s. Yet for me, this story is special because through his great heart, he brought out the best in so many people.  To think about what that horse went through and to realize how many TRF friends helped him reach a happily-ever-after home is what makes me get up every day and go to work volunteering my time and resources to support the TRF and share its mission with everyone I meet.

Barn 4 at James River is just one of eight TRF farms at correctional facilities. Other farms in New York, Kentucky, Florida, South Carolina, Indiana, Maryland, and Massachusetts are home to hundreds of horses like Dreamer and men and women like Will and his team.  In addition, at TRF’s ten other farms, horses are rehabilitated and retrained for adoption by people like Claire and her family. The TRF and its horses touch hearts every day and help make new beginnings for countless lives across the country.