Lynn Reardon - Beyond the Homestretch: What Saving Racehorses Taught Me About Starting Over, Facing Fear, and Finding My Inner Cowgirl

In the horse racing industry, there is no work more important than that done by Lynn Reardon. Through her nonprofit organization, LOPE, Reardon has rescued, rehabilitated, and retrained hundreds of former racehorses and found them loving, lasting homes. Her comprehensive, innovative, and exhaustive efforts have saved the lives of innumerable horses and fostered new partnerships between horse lovers and former racehorses. She is truly a hero.

LAURA HILLENBRAND, author of Seabiscuit: An American Legend

One of the most sensitive and humorous books that I have read in a long time.

[Lynn Reardons] prose is crisp, honest, authentic, full of self-deprecating humor and a passion for doing what is right.

This has got to be one of my favorite books of all timefor a book addict like me that is really saying something. It reads like fiction, has a truthfulness about life that reminds me of Seinfeld skits and it is obviously written from the heart.

I have only known a few accountants in my life and none of them had a particularly good sense of humor. But Lynn Reardons wit and selfdeprecating humor make this a very readable book. Horse lovers and racing fans alike will enjoy these stories.

Beyond the Homestretch is a great read for any horse lover.

Lynn writes eloquently about her equine adventures, really bringing out the individual characters of her horses while also vividly depicting life on a Texas ranch.

It is the horses who provide the drama in the story, not the humans, and you will leave the story with a place in your heart for Thoroughbreds named Tulsa, Zuper and Nacho, as well as a certain disheveled rescue lady in Texas.

This isnt a book that imparts specific techniques for rehoming and retraining retired racers, but instead a feel-good story that will inspire readers to pursue their dreams.

A superb read for those long evenings when sunset comes too early and outside is too cold! Beyond the Homestretch by Lynn Reardon is a marvelous journey not to be missed from start to finish.

Full of humor and insight and peopled with the unique characters that make up the world of racing, this is a cant-put-down book.

Lynns passion and excitement for what she does comes shining through.

Its a terrific guide for anyone full of self-doubt about changing directions, who thinks they dont have the experience or the knowledge it takes to enter a new field.

Copyright 2009 by Lynn Reardon

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, or otherwithout written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Some names and identifying characteristics in this book have been changed.

Text design by Tona Pearce Myers

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Reardon, Lynn, date.

Beyond the homestretch: what saving racehorses taught me about starting over, facing fear, and finding my inner cowgirl / Lynn Reardon.1st trade pbk. ed.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-57731-956-6 (pbk.: alk. paper)

1. Race horsesTexas. 2. Animal rescueTexas. I. Title.

SF338.R362011

636.1'2083209764dc22

2010042712

First paperback printing, February 2011

ISBN 978-1-57731-956-6

Printed in the United States on 100% postconsumer-waste recycled paper

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

S EABISCUIT WAS A BAD-TEMPERED ROUGE, a willful loser at the trackuntil he found a trainer and jockey who understood him. From then on, he was unstoppable, a fierce competitor who consistently outran horses of much better physiques and pedigrees. He was the ultimate underdog. The crowds loved his cocky spirit and working-class ethos. Seabiscuit also loved Pumpkin, his kindly palomino pony horse, and he had a sweet habit of falling asleep on his cross-country train rides.

Secretariat was born on a lost coin toss, his birth representing a second-choice foal for his owner. He blasted the racing world like no other horse, with his tremendous height, deep stride, and overpowering Triple Crown win. Affectionately dubbed Big Red, he was the Muhammad Ali of racehorses, brash, charismatic, and full of himself. His jockey, Ron Turcotte, rarely had to raise his crop or urge him on verballyBig Red had a deep passion to win on his own. His autopsy revealed a heart three times the size of a normal horses, a discovery that surprised no one who knew him or watched him win.

Seattle Slew, the 1977 Triple Crown winner, was born plain but athletic. One visitor commented that he had legs like telephone poles, straight, thick, and strong. A dynamic personality, Slew became so excited before each race that he would pirouette madly in the post-parade, a striking display of such strutting machismo that viewers christened it the war dance. Tremendously intelligent, Slew was well-mannered off the track, showing special gentleness with children visitors. And for some odd reason, he loved snow and cold weather, seeming to happily anticipate each winter.

But what if Secretariat or Seattle Slew had been injured as two-yearolds? Or if Seabiscuit had never found Tom Smith and Red Pollard? We would never have known their incredible spirits and capacity for greatness, not to mention their entertaining quirks, such as loving snow or napping on freight cars. They still would have had all of that personality, that fire, that potentialjust no racing career to bring it out, to give them purpose and challenge. What would have happened to Secretariat, Seattle Slew, and Seabiscuit then?