Meet My Herd: Biff

After losing a mare that I tried to rescue to a Strangles complication (strangles + severe neglect/starvation + complications = poor mare was euthanized on Christmas Eve, and I hope that whoever let her get in that condition goes directly to hell), I spent the next few months deliberating on rescuing another horse as a riding horse, since my current one was psychotic and unrideable (another blog for another day). Finally, the stars aligned, and I had the time, space, and money for a 2nd horse. So, being the sucker for hard-luck cases that I am, I called my friend Cathy (author of the Fugly Horse of the Day blog) and asked if she wanted to accompany me to the Woodburn Auction, since I had never attended an auction, and I wanted to get a feel for them before making any rash decisions on my next rescue.

At Woodburn, we signed in and got a number (the rationale being, of course, that they had tack there. Ha.) and went back to wander around the barn to look at horses. There was about 70 horses, one of the biggest groups of horses to go through Woodburn in a single night. I wanted to rescue something that had a pretty good shot of being bought for kill, but not something that was insane or mysteriously unsound. We didn't even look at horses who were obviously Aced, nor did we look at horses who were being ridden or were generating a lot of interest. It was hard, but in that kind of an environment, you are truly not "rescuing" as much as you are objectively deciding which one is more deserving to live than the others.

We walked past a nondescript dark bay with his head in the corner. We almost walked completely past when we both noticed that he had pin-firing scars on 3 of his 4 legs. Pinfiring doesn't scare me. In fact, to me, it says, "I had a job once. I'm probably broke." We caught the gelding's attention and checked his lip- yep, a racing tattoo. I guessed his age to be around 10-12 years old based on his teeth. Excellent. I liked him. We were a little concerned that he was drugged since he was so calm, but after playing with him a bit and scratching his butt, we determined he was just laid-back and people-oriented. Another plus. We KNEW he wasn't a Thoroughbred. We also knew he wasn't a QH. The racing tattoo was perplexing. It took us a while to realize that he was a Standardbred (Standardbreds are almost non-existent in this area). We tried to get info on him from the office people, but they said he wasn't dropped off with anything. Hmmm.

When the auction started, we grabbed our seats and immediately picked out who the kill buyers were. They were the guys in front with cowboy hats who bid on EVERYTHING.  When the pinfired Standardbred was led through, the auctioneer introduced him as a "Spanish Driving Horse." Say what? What the hell is a Spanish Driving Horse? We had to laugh about that, but when I saw that the kill buyer was the only one bidding on the big, adorable gelding, I handed my number to Cathy, shut my eyes and said, "I don't care if he goes to a private home, but don't let him go to kill." Within seconds, Cathy sat back down next to me and said, "Congrats, you got a new horse."

When we got him to Cathy's house (she offered to quarantine him for me), I spent the next week cleaning him up, I longed him, and then I rode him. He was sound. He was safe. He had an insanely huge trot that would be expected of a Standardbred. He had so much character. I ended up naming him Biff, at my friend Katie's suggestion, after the main character in one of our favorite books, Lamb: the Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore. 

Biff's tattoo tells us that his registered name is Class Flirt, and that he was raced extensively (for 8 years) but never really did that well. He was also a pacer, which we found out when we asked him to canter. Now that I have my colt and my show horse, I don't really have a use for him, but he is so much fun and such a character that I keep him and keep working on getting that dang canter. We'll get it someday. I know it's in there. In the meantime, he's an awesome trail horse and I feel safe putting my guests up on him. As far as I'm concerned, he was the best horse at Woodburn that night, and I am happy that he didn't go home with the kill buyer.