A Champion Race Horse Finds Its Forever Home At The Lily Pond Sanctuary
Last week, I was invited to be part of the welcome committee for…a horse. But not just any horse. Super Tuesday is a former champion racehorse whose more than $67,000 in winnings made no difference when he ended up in the kill pen. Like so many horses, he’d been sold to the Amish and used as farm labor until he was no longer useful.
You already know this story has a happy ending. But this homecoming was hard fought. Not that any of the animals at The Lily Pond Sanctuary and Gardens in Ghent have had an easy time finding their way to safety and security. Too often there’s a horror story behind them, and the delivery of Super Tuesday (racehorse stats: 137 starts, placed first 22 times) turned a distressingly common situation into a tale of triumph that astounded even Susan Bandy, who created the Lily Pond in 2015.
“The stars just aligned for this horse,” says Bandy. The chain of events started with a phone call from the Standardbred Retirement Foundation, alerting Bandy that Super Tuesday was in a kill pen in New York. In most cases, the SRF raises the bail, and the sanctuary pays for the mandatory 30-day quarantine and transport (plus lifetime care). In this situation, Bandy would have to raise the funds to bail him out. There was precious little time until the next transfer to slaughter in Canada. “Time was ticking,” she says.
Susan Bandy welcomes Hogue's Best Sunday and Super Tuesday to The Lily Pond Sanctuary.
As the clock ticked, it happened that Cooper’s Daughter Spirits at Olde York Farm in Claverack was holding its fifth anniversary party, and The Lily Pond was this year’s designated charity; a portion of the party’s proceeds would go to the sanctuary. Bandy set up a donation jar at the fundraising table, uncertain that the proceeds from Cooper’s Daughter and guests would cover Super Tuesday’s bail.
Out of the blue, a woman was blunt — and generous. “I want to save the horse’s life,” she said. “How much do you need? Done.” Right then and there, while people were enjoying Cooper’s Daughter cocktails, she called Liz Ingersoll, who runs Vindonah Horse Shelter, a quarantine facility in Beavers Dam, NY. “Pull him,” Bandy told her. Super Tuesday was out of the kill pen that night. A check for $1500 arrived in three days.
But the story gets better, because saving Super Tuesday led to ripple effect that spared four more horses who had not long for this world. Shortly after getting Super Tuesday to quarantine, Bandy was contacted by Ingersoll: Hogue’s Best Sunday, a senior registered Standardbred that had been bailed out by Standardbred Retirement Foundation, had been at Vindonah for three months. He came out of the kill pen in such bad shape that he could hardly walk. Ingersoll nursed him back to health, but nobody, it seems, wanted to adopt a horse they couldn’t ride. To add to the urgency, there were three other horses bound for slaughter. If The Lily Pond could take Hogue, Ingersoll could take in the other three. Because the sanctuary had recently lost a horse, there was room for one more. Now, five horses were saved, two bound for The Lily Pond.
Brenda Izzo leads Hogue's Best Sunday over to meet some of his new stable mates.
If that’s not reason enough for a welcome homecoming gathering, what is? Bandy invited supporters and those who contributed to the Super Tuesday effort to the sanctuary for a tour before and a champagne toast following the horses’ arrival. The 80-acre property, with three ponds, a stable, paddocks and several other buildings, is home to the least adoptable animals, providing them with quality care and a forever home. The Lily Pond, which was incorporated and designated a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2019, focuses on senior, special needs, and disabled animals, and offers hospice to animals diagnosed with a terminal illness. It doesn’t adopt out the animals.
“We take the ones no one else wants, or is equipped to handle,” Bandy says, introducing us to the cats in the special needs cat room (a lot of them have bathroom issues, we’re told, although the space is spotless). We meet the other felines in the cat house, the friendliest of the dogs — some blind or wobbly, but still loving — and feed the horses apples and sweets. Currently, the sanctuary houses 52 animals —37 cats, 5 dogs and 10 horses — cared for essentially by two people: Bandy, and Brenda Izzo, the barn manager and resident horse whisperer. Each evening, Bandy tucks in all the animals on her own. “Everyone gets a treat and cuddles before bed,” she says.
Originally from California, Bandy knew she wanted to create an animal sanctuary all her life. She worked in finance for 20 years, saving all that time to fulfill her dream. She’d been transferred from San Francisco to Manhatttan, and after five years there, when she hit her mid-40s, she says, it was time to get her dream underway. She began looking for property in Columbia County, and moved to the country full time in 2016 after purchasing the farmland. She’d already named it The Lily Pond for the lily’s association with fresh life and rebirth. It was just one of those star-aligned moments when she found the property actually included a lily pond.
It's always exciting when a new horse comes in, Bandy tells us as we gather outside waiting for the transport vehicle to come up the long drive. And it’s obviously exciting — or at least means something — to the horses in the paddocks and the stables. As soon as Erin Brodeur, who transported the horses (at cost, mind you) opens the trailer door, the resident equines raise a chorus of vocalizations and stamping hooves.
We toast the arrival of Hogue and Tuesday.
We follow as the new guys are walked to the pen and wait to observe the reaction of the residents. It’s pretty calm; Hogue and Tuesday seem more interested in eating the hay on the ground than interacting with anyone else at the moment. We take some photos and head back to the cottage to toast the homecoming.
The other day, I checked in to see how Super Tuesday and Hogue’s Best Sunday are doing.
“It’s clear to me that Super Tuesday was abused, probably with his time with the Amish,” Bandy says. “He’s hesitant and unsure of himself. We’re working to build up his confidence.” Hogue is more laid back, going with the flow. Both of them get along with the other horses.
How’s that for a Thanksgiving story? The horses may not be able to give their thanks, but Bandy can.
“The community came together, with phenomenal results,” she says. “We’re so grateful for everyone’s support.”
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