Page 197 - Speedhorse September 2017

T T H H E E R RO OA A D D T
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O
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FRIEN
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D HIP
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Cuantemplate & Jess You And I
by John Moorehouse “There have been many instances that we sent
This is a story about redemption . . . about friendship . . . about how one farm rescued
a horse it once bred . . . and how that horse became a rescuer himself.
For Dawn List and the others at the Double Bar S Ranch, breeding and running race horses is a labor of love – the same philosophy of many other operations that home-breed.
But sometimes, unfortunately, a horse gets sold and ends up in destinations unknown. Sometimes, unfortunately, a race horse is not taken care of after his or her career on the track is over.
Such was the case for Cuantemplate (Strawfly Special-Cuantalamera TB, Victorian Prince), a gelding foaled in 1999 at Double Bar S Ranch, located in Temecula, California. Cuantemplate was claimed following his last start at Los Alamitos in 2008. After that, the gelding literally fell off the map.
Fast forward five years or so when Dawn received a Facebook message from a woman with pictures of a bloody, emaciated horse who carried the Double Bar S brand - a dollar sign. Dawn recognized the sign, but not the horse. “We breed so many, but that was definitely our dollar sign,” she recalled.
Dawn asked the woman to take pictures of the horse’s lip tattoo and, with the help of Terry Grant at the American Quarter Horse Association, they successfully identified the horse as Cuantemplate.
Double Bar S Ranch began putting things in motion to get the gelding medical care. Cuantemplate had what Dawn described
as a mangled foot, as well as another severe wound in his side. After receiving treatment, antibiotics, and up-to-date vaccinations, Cuantemplate was brought back to their farm, which would be the “forever home” for the former competitor who won three starts and earned $28,067 on the track.
“When he was coming back to Double Bar S, there’s a video,” Dawn said. “When he came off the trailer, I thought he knew he had been here before. He looked around and we put him in a stall in the barn and he just put his head down and started eating.”
Sadly, as Dawn noted, this is not the first time a horse bred at her facility has fallen into neglect. “It’s hard for us to even think about it, when
we hear word that someone found a horse with a dollar sign on it, it breaks our heart,” she said.
money to get a trailer situated so someone could pick up a horse. Social media is a bad thing sometimes, but in this case and in the horse rescue cases, it’s very good. We just hate to think of the ones we don’t find out about.”
The same year that Cuantemplate was brought back to Double Bar S, another horse living at the ranch was going through an ordeal of a different sort.
On the track, Jess You And I (Feature Mr Jess- Gold Daze, Tolltac) was a huge success. The three- time Champion had won 19 races, eight in stakes company and all Grade 1 events, including the 2006 Golden State Million Futurity. After retiring from the track, the 2004 gelding buddied up with Cassidy Cash, another former home-bred racer who had become the pony horse at Double Bar S Ranch and was then retired out to pasture.
One day, Cassidy Cash died from a heart attack. “Jess was distraught,” Dawn recalled. “It was the worst heart wrenching scene ever.”
Little did she know that, when Cuantemplate returned to the place of his birth, he would find a new friend in the former AQHA Champion.
“We put Cuantemplate and Jess You And I together and they have been inseparable ever since,” she said.
Even moving to the Lazy E Ranch has done nothing to diminish their bond. “They seem to be as happy as two pigs in mud. They look great, happy, well fed, and well taken care of,” she added.
In an industry where so much of the news these days tends to be negative, this is one story from the world of Quarter Horse racing that definitely has a happy ending.