By Kim MacMillan
registered mare named Nakiska sired by Roemer from Iron Spring Farm and out of an approved Thoroughbred mare named Next Ovation,” says his breeder, Mark Rossolatos of Riverbend Farm in Smiths Falls, Ontario. Uro’s sire was Indoctro and Mark describes the dark bay as looking a lot like his famous father. “He was a lovely, inquisitive foal who showed incredible talent for jumping when he was put through a jumping shoot as a youngster. We had him broke as a four-year-old and we started showing him in the hunter ring at the age of six. When he was rising seven he was sold.” Uro went through several changes of hands after Mark
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sold him. He finally landed with an owner who, for an unknown reason, sent him to the Ontario Livestock Exchange (OLEX) to be sold to slaughter in 2011. He was herded onto the auction floor among a group of 20 Standardbreds to be sold by the pound. A member of the Mennonite community who was a well-known meat buyer noticed him and requested that bidding be accepted on just Uro rather than the entire lot.
LUCKY INTERVENTION Gracie McDuffe of Oakville, Ontario was not looking for another horse. However, since she lived close to OLEX, she would frequent the auctions just to keep abreast of what was being sold there. Occasionally she managed to purchase one. “I would keep them for six to twelve months and find them new homes. One is now showing in 1.20m jumpers and another is a sport pony,” she explains. She describes what happened at that fateful auction
where Uro was awaiting his future. “There were probably 60-70 horses at Ontario Livestock Exchange that Tuesday, but one stood out above the rest to me. In the past I have brought a few horses home to my Oendale Yard, but certainly had no plans to add to my menagerie of hunters, jumpers and retired ‘pasture puffs’ that day,” Gracie explains. “I’m not a rescuer; I just live local to OLEX and went weekly to keep tabs...if anything nice came through I likely knew where it was going and if it would be safe. I tried to make what
18 July/August 2013
he handsome Dutch Warmblood who would be named Uro was foaled in April 2001. “His dam was a North American Dutch Warmblood (KWPN-NA)-
It’s a breeder’s worst nightmare… to learn that a carefully-planned foal you lovingly produced ends up in a slaughter house a few years after you sold him. This was almost the fate of a Canadian-bred Dutch
Warmblood gelding named Uro, until a Good Samaritan intervened.
difference I could, but I didn’t need any more horses—money was tight. Yet, curiosity was getting the best of me.” She describes the stockyards as a place for a tight-lipped
group of old farmers, horse dealers and meat agents. That day, she inquired quietly with a young dealer, wanting to know if anyone could tell her who this standout horse was. “He was plain bay, in great weight, with a ‘look of eagles’ and movement that made it clear that his trailer must have taken a wrong turn. ‘Do you know anything about that horse?’ I asked. ‘Just a nice Standardbred,’ was the reply that I received,” Gracie continues. “But, I couldn’t see any tell-tale Standardbred freeze
brand. And, where he lacked a freeze brand, he had a notable crest. His mane was freshly pulled and he came through with a note that read, ‘Dutch WB, Jumps Well.’ I decided I would bid as long as I had to,” she continues. The horse was prime meat and she believed he would probably fetch at least 40 cents per pound. Gracie found herself in a
bidding war. Eventually she won and took her new horse home for $1,500. “After I won the bid, I
immediately thought, ‘What have I done?’ I didn’t know anything about this horse—and I was pregnant. Who was going to ride this horse? Driving home I had a vicious case of buyer’s remorse. But I trusted my gut,” she recounts.
DETECTIVE WORK Upon leaving the auction with her new charge, Gracie had been provided only with a bill of sale and the “blood paper,” a document that made him eligible for slaughter. She called the number provided by the seller/agent on the form. “The dressage ‘trainer’ informed me that I was the proud new owner of her unsellable cribber and a dangerous horse. She
.Above left: Happier times—Uro as a foal in 2001 at his dam Nakiska’s side. Above right: Uro (in the foreground) immediately following his rescue in 2011 in the pasture at Oendale Yard.
Courtesy of Oendale Yard
Courtesy Riverbend Farm
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