‘Dream Horse’ Thrives In Bermuda

A former racehorse which seemed destined for the slaughterhouse just a year ago has taken on a second lease of life in Bermuda thanks to a expressive auction photograph which caught the attention of local riding instructor Esther Douglas.

Last April, she spotted a picture of the chestnut gelding after he was sent to New Jersey feedlot and listed for sale not by his racing name — Whipanny — but just by his lot number, 699. The horse was likely to end up being sold to meat buyers.

“But as fate would have it, his destiny would hinge on a photograph,” Susan Salk wrote at Off-TrackThoroughbreds.com earlier this month. “One that captured a soulful depth in his eye, and became an unshakable image that ultimately compelled a Bermuda riding instructor to intercede on his behalf. ‘When I first looked through the photos of available horses at the Camelot Feed Lot, I didn’t see him’, says Esther Douglas [pictured with Cam here].

“But when she looked a second time, a new picture had been added to the album. This time, she saw the dainty face and kind expression that compelled her to buy the feedlot horse.

“So on April 28, 2011, Whippany’s path in life changed in an instant, veering away from the bloodstained floors of a kill chute and toward pink-sand beaches and the island country of Bermuda.”

After three months in quarantine, the horse — which Ms Douglas renamed Cam — was loaded into a cargo container outfitted with stalls and piled high with bedding, hay, and constantly refreshed water buckets for a three-day voyage to Bermuda and his new home at the Spicelands Equestrian Centre in Warwick.

As Ms Douglas got to know her horse, the first she’d ever owned outright, she grew more and more impressed with his gentle demeanor and willing-to-work attitude.

“His personality was amazing. He was super quiet and when I rode him, it felt like he was looking after me, making sure I was okay,” she said. “He has such a huge heart and all he wants to do is try for you.”

Cam rapidly adapted to life in Bermuda, taking walks to the ocean, and beginning work as a lesson horse for older children.

“And beyond that, he’s more than a little fond of galloping across beaches, and plunging into water. Or just for taking lazy hacks and cuddling with at the end of a long day,” reported Off-TrackThoroughbreds.com.

“I think about it all the time, about how he could have wound up at a meat-packing plant,” said Ms Douglas, “but instead, he came to Bermuda to be my dream horse.”

Esther Douglas And Cam On A Beach Walk

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