#breedresponsibly

[bergenstables]

Man With A Plan (and what a good one!)

On September 5, 2020, we claimed Man With A Plan at Monmouth Park.

Man was foaled in Florida by Carol Hershe at her Turtle Pond Farm. Sadly, Ms. Hershe passed in May of 2020.

After Man was claimed by us, we discovered he has an arthritic issue in his knee and maybe should not have been racing. We would get him healthy and fit and see what he tells us. Man is an extremely loveable and happy horse!

Bergen Stables then received an email from Carol Hershe’s daughter, Tonya. She worked at the farm with her mom and still has it. We explained the issues we discovered Man had and Tonya informed us that if he needed layup or anything, Man is always welcome home. We would keep her posted.

After discussions with our trainer and vet, we all felt Man was really improving. The decision was made to race him again today. Unfortunately, Man With A Plan finished last. He can’t put pressure needed on the arthritic knee. Man went back to the barn so he can heal again over the next few weeks.

We called Tonya and explained his situation and informed her we will not race him any more. It is not in Man’s best interest and his condition will only get worse. A second career doesn’t look to be a good option either.

Bergen Stables is happy to report that Man With A Plan is going home! 

Through tears of joy, Tonya expressed her gratitude. We told her we believe sometimes things happen for a reason. Man will go home and live a wonderful life just being a horse and we have a wonderful new friendship!

Named Man With A Plan but little did anyone know he had one all along! 

[anonanonanonana]

Today was a rough one - I worked with a spay/neuter vet for the day (which isn’t unusual, I do administrative work for an animal rescue and sometimes help in transport and non-tech clinic tasks, like waking cats after anesthesia, so I work in clinics for various veterinary services as needed) and we almost lost a dog on the table. An old Lab who had damage to the uterus from previous pregnancies (the people were purposefully breeding her) and then had been bred immediately after entering heat by her pups (they said they didn’t know this, the vet didn’t know it until going in because her abdomen was so hard from fluid accumulation) - she nearly bled out. For the first time in the years I’ve been working these clinics the surgical table was like a horror movie. And if she hadn’t gotten surgery the poor old thing would have had to try to birth 11 puppies - likely suffering prolapse and infection and god knows what. So a run of the mill spay on a previous breeding dog turned into a “holy shit she woke up okay”. The people had decided they had enough dogs...just in time.  *shakes head* Stop breeding animals to death!