Horse Tales from the LOPE Ranch

LOPE and Twitter

I’m not exactly the cutting-edge type, especially when it comes to computers and social media. But a good friend talked me into trying Twitter last spring -- and I’ve been truly impressed with the friends and colleagues I’ve met there.

There are many terrific horse people “tweeting” -- both locally and nationally. Some of my favorites include:

@alexbrownracing: Alex Brown is committed to racehorse welfare and also is an exercise rider at Steve Asmussen’s barn at Woodbine.

@juliegoodnight: Julie is the star of The Horse Master, a RFD-TV show about horsemanship.

@Monty_Roberts: The original horse whisperer and author of The Man Who Listens to Horses.

@Featherliteinc: Featherlite Trailers has turned out to be very active on Twitter, often providing great advice on trailer shopping and maintenance.

What I like about Twitter is that you can follow people’s “tweets” without having to tweet about anything yourself. It’s very much like listening in on many conversations at a big party. I’ve found myself following all kinds of horse people from every part of the US. And I also follow nature photographers, rattlesnake experts, lady truck drivers and mountain climbers -- just for fun.

Since the spring, the LOPE Twitter account has collected around 2400 followers. We’ve even placed two horses through Twitter too!

If you’d like to see what LOPE is tweeting about, please check out our Twitter account.

Catalissa’s Fans

Catalissa is our most serious rehab case here at LOPE. Read more about his history and injuries.

Recently, I received a call from Laura, a local exercise rider at Texas tracks. She had heard about Catalissa’s injuries and wanted to see how he was doing. Her voice was emotional as she described working with him at the track -- clearly, Catalissa had been one of her favorites. Laura cleared up the mystery of Catalissa’s very feminine name – she said that his breeder named all his foals after his daughter Lissa.

Then, a few days later, an email came to my inbox from Hilary. She is the assistant to Michael Stidham, a very successful race trainer. Hilary wrote:

“[Michael and I] had no idea about Catalissa; he was claimed from us long ago. But we were shocked when one of the outriders here at Arlington told us of his fate. We would love to help and donate.”

Soon, a check for $400 arrived from Michael Stidham’s racing operation. Hilary also told us some stories about Catalissa -- he was the favorite of the racing barn when they had him. He had a big, confident personality -- and liked to make sure he bucked everyone off (but usually just once -- as a kind of “initiation”).

And last week, Bill, one of our favorite adopters (and silent auction supporters), contacted me. Catalissa had caught his eye -- he had decided to sponsor him!

To top it all off, today I received yet another email about Catalissa. Amber, a former vet tech at Austin Equine Associates, had sent LOPE a donation -- and she wanted to apply it to Catalissa too!

Many people assume that no one cares about ex-racehorses -- especially the injured ones like Catalissa. But as we’ve discovered, Catalissa has quite a fan club from both his racing and rehab days. Thank you Hilary, Laura, Michael, Bill and Amber for supporting Catalissa!