Do It For Devyn: Special OTTB And Rider Pay Tribute To Friend’s Battle With Cancer

The Thoroughbred Makeover has been over for a week now. Horses and humans who came to the Kentucky Horse Park from all over the country have returned home, jumps and competition arenas have been packed away, and the last ribbons have been awarded. But for anyone who showed up to watch the finale competitions on Oct. 15, one performance probably burns clear in the memory.

Meg Hems and her off-track Thoroughbred Nucks arrived at the covered arena well ahead of their scheduled finale ride, streaked in silver and glitter. Hems and Nucks had qualified for the finals in barrel racing, and had also participated in the Thoroughbred Incentive Program Barrel Racing Championship earlier in the week, but their first performance was something completely different.

Their first ride on that Saturday was for Devyn.

Hems and Nucks were also finalists in Freestyle, which is a delightfully open-ended discipline at the Makeover. It has basic requirements of horse and rider – that they showcase the horse's ability to walk, trot, and canter in both directions, halt and back up, do a lead change and trot in a figure eight. They have five minutes to show the horse off however they like. The discipline has seen a wide variety of creative performances through the years, with riders foregoing saddles and bridles, leaping their horses over fire, wearing costumes, and hauling props to music.

(See the 2018 Freestyle finals below.)

Generally, the horses who demonstrate the most versatility and most bombproof nature prevails, and with the top five competitors advancing to the finals, the discipline is a highlight of the Makeover's last day for spectators.

Hems had practiced the core elements of her routine for a few weeks before shipping to Lexington from her base near Hamilton, N.Y. Hems works long hours at a car dealership and has a daughter who is ten months old – not exactly a combination that leaves a lot of time for riding. She said she rode Nucks in the dark by the light of her truck's headlamps more often than she did in daylight.

So for her, putting on a blindfold at the start of her routine made the crowd twitter, but was just another ride in the black, with Nucks to guide her like he always had before. With blindfold in place, Hems trotted and cantered Nucks around the indoor arena as Tim McGraw's 'Live Like You Were Dying' played over the loudspeakers. The pair looped figure eights over an enormous tarp laid in the middle of the arena, Hems counting strides and using the sound of Nucks' feet on the plastic to help her get a sense for where they were in the ring.

Having practiced the pattern at home, Hems said Nucks turned himself through the space, knowing the center of the figure eights should fall over the tarp.

Nucks' quick mind was one of many reasons he had converted Hems from her skepticism of Thoroughbreds. From time to time, Hems hauls horses for Second Chance Thoroughbreds, bringing them from the track to the facility's base. Something about the Mission Impazible gelding, who retired a maiden after 12 tries, stuck out to her. Nucks called the program's coordinator and asked what his story was.

“I was not looking for a horse. I did not want another horse,” she said. “I really liked him. I had picked up a rehab project, a mare from my track, and I said, 'I'll switch with you.' She said, 'I don't have room for another mare but I'll tell you what, I'll pay you the first month's board to take him. People brag about getting a free horse but I got paid to take him.

“I've worked with quite a few [OTTBs] but I've always trained them for someone else or rehomed them … I've never connected with one like I do with Nucks. I trust him with my life. He's not going anywhere. I love that horse.”

Hems has done a little bit of everything as a rider. She runs barrels and does a lot of trail riding, but has evented, driven, done Western pleasure, roping, and hunters.

“I grew up riding English and decided I didn't like placing off someone's opinion,” she said. “Now, we just place off the clock and it's a good time. And I can wear sparkles.

“I'm weird in the sense that I like finding the job the horse likes, and then I enjoy doing the job with them.”

Her equestrian horizons were widened by the influence of her close friend, Devyn Merritt Anderson. While Hems grew up riding 4-H, Anderson grew up doing Pony Club, ultimately earning the organization's highest certification level in horse management. Anderson evented in the Genessee Valley, becoming the beginner novice champion for Area 1 and also drove carriages.

Hems and Anderson met while working at a farm and garden store a decade ago and realized they had horses in common. Their bond became a strong one. Hems stood up in Anderson's wedding and she was there for her friend throughout her ten-year battle with ocular cancer. Anderson was there for Hems' brother when he too was diagnosed with cancer.

Anderson (left) and Hems (right) at Hems' first event

“She lit up every single room she went into. If you needed someone to talk to or someone to cheer you up, Devyn was the person,” said Hems. “Devyn was the one who helped him through it more than anyone. Any time he was scared or unsure, he'd call or text Devyn. She'd walk him through it and tell him it would be ok. He ended up beating cancer, and that was their deal was he beat cancer so she had to, too.

“He fought, he won, and he gives a lot of credit to Devyn.”

Anderson also saw something special in Nucks. It was Anderson who convinced Hems not to make him a resale project, but to keep him. Anderson gave them both dressage basics that made Nucks' strides even and easy to count.

So as Hems prepared for the delayed 2020 Thoroughbred Makeover, she had an idea. She planned to take Nucks to the freestyle, which Anderson knew. What she didn't know was that Hems was planning to dedicate the routine to her.

“I was going to come in that arena and, surprise, this whole routine's for you,” she said. “She was going to cry. There was no question there. But it would be all the best tears. Her and I lived off surprising each other. I'd send her flowers randomly to brighten her day. She'd call me to tell me I was doing a great job. That was our friendship – we went out of our way to cheer each other up.”

Having wowed the crowd with her blindfolded trot and canter work, Hems signaled to four people standing in the arena with her – including her younger brother. Each lifted a corner of the enormous tarp, with Hems and Nucks walking underneath. Hems shed her blindfold and grabbed a flag from her brother, then galloped out from underneath the tunnel. The black flag showed a rainbow of cancer awareness ribbon colors, each representing a different type of disease, surrounding white letters spelling out “No One Fights Alone.”

Hems sent Nucks at a gallop around the arena's perimeter, the glittered tassels on her show shirt flying, the flag flapping, her hair streaming behind her. And then, she dropped the reins, throwing her arms open and letting her Thoroughbred sprint at full speed, completely free. To anyone sitting in the crowd, she had an otherworldly power to her, racing the wind on her nearly-black horse like something out of an ancient myth.

“I am going to be completely honest – I didn't plan to throw my hands up,” she said. “I didn't practice it, I didn't plan on it. The emotion hit me, and Nucks has my back through everything and I knew it. It just felt right.”

Anderson wasn't in the stands, as Hems had planned. Just a month before the Makeover, she lost her battle with cancer at the age of 31. At the conclusion of the song, Hems looked skyward. She said she knew that even though she wasn't sitting in one of the seats in the front row, her friend could see her.

“It's very true that nobody fights alone, as cliché as it sounds,” said Hems. “I wanted every single person in that crowd to know they're not alone. The disease is nasty, but there are people out there. We all have to have each other's backs.”

Hems and Nucks finished second in the freestyle competition, third in barrel racing overall and 3D Average Champion in the TIP Championships and High Point Adopted Horse Award.

“He's got an old soul to him,” said Hems. “He's only six years old but that horse, I can put my daughter on him. I knew he wouldn't do anything dangerous. He knows he's got to take care of his people and he genuinely loves to be loved. He lives for me to tell him he's a good boy.”

Now, she said Nucks will get a vacation. They'll spend the winter trail riding through the snow before gearing up for shows again. He may learn to work cattle in springtime. Whatever comes, Devyn was right about Nucks – he belongs with Hems for life.

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Bonne Chance Sends Horse To Young Event Horse Championships, Finishes As Top Thoroughbred

Although the Breeders' Cup is still to come, Bonne Chance Farm has already had a successful debut at a different kind of championships. While the operation hopes to send three horses to Del Mar in a few weeks' time, it also sent a former runner to the U.S. Eventing Association's Young Event Horse East Coast Championship in the 4-year-old division.

Bonne Chance had high hopes for Judge Johnny, the son of Empire Maker and Silver Deputy mare Lucas Street. JJ, as he is known more fondly, is a half-brother to Wavell Avenue, winner of the 2015 Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint and earner of $1.1 million in multiple graded stakes. JJ's race record was much less glitzy, with five races and no better than a sixth-place finish.

Aftercare has always been a priority for the small operation, so when JJ expressed disinterest in his job, the farm sent him to local OTTB specialist Carleigh Fedorka of Sewickley Stables. Originally, the then-3-year-old was supposed to be a quick retraining and resale project. When Fedorka first swung a leg over the big bay, she knew she had something special.

“He's almost a little unassuming when he's just standing there. But when you put him together, he just blossoms into almost a completely separate animal,” said Leah Alessandroni, bloodstock and office manager for Bonne Chance.

It took JJ some time to grasp what Fedorka was asking of him over fences, but once he figured it out, he approached even three-foot obstacles with calm, relaxed energy more characteristic of much older eventers.

In addition to being an accomplished researcher in equine reproduction at the Gluck Equine Research Center, Fedorka's equestrian resume is also impressive, ranging from ranch work to preliminary-level eventing. She maintains Sewickley as a boarding/lay-up/sales center which specializes in developing young ex-racehorses. When she told the Bonne Chance team their ex-racehorse had incredible potential in a different sport, they listened.

“The original plan was to try to just get a good education for him,” said Alessandroni. “I think she got him in August of last year, and our goal had been to get him sold at the end of the year. But when it was obvious he was so nice, Alberto [Figueiredo, Bonne Chance CEO] didn't hesitate to say, 'Let's see what we have as a 4-year-old, because maybe he'll be even better. To his credit, any time we wanted to do anything or take him anywhere, he said yes at every turn. He had faith in the horse.

“It's one of those fairy tale stories where you have all these goals, and very, very rarely do they all pan out.”

Figueiredo asked Fedorka for a plan of what she thought she could do with the horse in a short timeframe, and what she thought a realistic goal might be. Fedorka sketched out an ambitious schedule on a piece of paper, with the USEA Young Event Horse Championship as the ultimate goal.

The YEHs, as they're known colloquially, exist to help the national governing body for eventing begin identifying young prospects who could someday become Olympic team horses for the United States. There are separate classes for 4-year-olds and 5-year-olds. Horses must earn a qualifying score in order to enter the YEH Championship, with the top-place 5-year-old finisher receiving a grant to travel to Europe, with a promised spot to represent the U.S. at an age-restricted international competition for 7-year-old event prospects in France. Fedorka said most of the top-place finishers are imported European Warmbloods campaigned by riders who routinely compete at the Olympics and other top international events.

Scoring at YEHs and at its qualifying events is different from a traditional three-day event. At a typical three-day event or horse trial, a horse and rider begin with a dressage test and their score represents the number of faults or deficiencies in that test. From there, they may accumulate additional faults for knocked rails, refused jumps, or time penalties in a course of stadium jumps and a course of cross country obstacles. The lowest overall score is the winner.

In the YEH system, horses are instead scored based on the potential they show in each of the traditional three phases as well as conformation.

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Fedorka was thrilled to get JJ's required qualifying score on their very first attempt this spring and spent the summer and fall bringing him through the novice and training levels. The pair finished 19th in the Novice Horse division at the American Eventing Championship. Coming into YEH last week, Fedorka said her goals were modest.

“I had very low expectations, because pretty consistently the top ten are big imports ridden by big name people,” said Fedorka. “I said all along I wanted him to be the highest-scoring 4-year-old, because I thought he was the most quality 4-year-old in the country and I wanted him to prove that.

“I wanted to beat my qualifying score, which was a 79. I really wanted to score an 80, and I scored an 85, which was insane. I just wanted the score; I didn't know how it would stack up against other people.”

JJ accomplished the goal, placing sixth overall out of 32 and claiming the prize of top-placed Thoroughbred and rating the second-highest score for conformation. Looking back at her performance, Fedorka said she can see areas where she left a few key points on the table thanks to a silly stumble in the dressage ring and a knocked rail in the stadium jumping. She believes that next year, JJ could enter the YEH for 5-year-olds with a serious shot at the championship's top prize.

Judge Johnny shows off in his dressage test at the YEH Championships

“He was over-prepared for the level [of the 4-year-old jumps] and it's not because we rushed him up the levels, it's because he has the brain of a unicorn, just wanting more and more,” she said. “I'd never say it about any other horse I've sat on, but 100%, Judge Johnny is the horse who could be the 7-year-old running at the three-star level, without a question in my mind. I think he's the best example of the breed to the masses who aren't quite sure about the Thoroughbred.”

Fedorka and Alessandroni took note of the fact that there are different types of incentive programs and special awards beyond the championship for horses who participate from different breeding programs. Although the Thoroughbred Incentive Program does give an award for best-placing OTTB at YEH, there isn't a grant or other incentive to tempt upper-level riders to hunt for ex-racehorses for the purpose of that program.

“We have the financial backing for the Thoroughbred Makeover and that is amazing,” said Fedorka. “But we have to realize that eventing is our bread and butter for these Thoroughbreds, and we need to find a way to get support for these little phenoms like JJ. I'm lucky that I have breeders who have the ability and desire to support him. Without them, I'm doing this as a side hustle on the side of being a scientist. This is not a full-time professional endeavor that funds itself.”

Fedorka also said that since other breeders have seen her work with JJ, she has had two send her horses to sell for them, while promising to fund their retraining to ensure they have the best possible start in their new careers. Without JJ's success, she's not sure those connections would have realized that placing a horse with a 're-trainer' was an option.

“I think the thing I'm most proud of is that we could showcase a path in aftercare that is very, very rarely taken,” said Alessandroni. “I think that's probably because owners and people involved in the management of these horses don't even know it was a path to take.

“So many of our aftercare organizations are doing great, great work, but they have their hands full with horses who need rehab or who don't have connections with the financial ability to support the horse. If we can alleviate some of the burden from those programs by doing some of the work ourselves and putting our money where our mouth is, I think everybody should be doing that.”

Alessandroni encourages other racing owners or breeding farms to connect with reputable sport horse trainers who can help them evaluate retiring horses and help them network a horse to an appropriate barn where they can get some basic retraining in the sport they're best suited to.

“So much of it is getting them into good hands and making sure that instead of that horse dropping down into a $2,000 claimer, you're giving them the best chance to get a good education and a second career, or really just a life,” she said. “If they don't have an affinity at the racetrack but you keep them sound and happy, they can truly do anything. You saw it at [the Thoroughbred Makeover], horses doing any discipline in the book.”

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Watch The TRF Second Chances Program Horse Show On Oct. 21

Join us at 8 p.m. ET on Oct. 21 to “come inside” the program at Lowell Correctional Institution. Our global audience will See, Hear and Feel the magic of the horses who are changing the lives of the women who love them. This special livestream of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation Lowell 20th Anniversary “Horse Show” will present the horses and the women of the Second Chances program as they work together, every day, to care for one another and to build brighter futures.

Prepare to be inspired! For more than two decades, thanks to extraordinary support from the Thoroughbred industry and the Florida Department of Corrections, this unique program has been “Saving Horses and Changing Lives”. With the success of each graduate, the ripple effect on friends, family, colleagues and neighbors in society is beyond measure.

Read more about the impact of the Lowell program in this week's edition of our In Their Care series. Writer Tom Pedulla spoke with women say their lives were altered (or in one case, saved) by their powerful bonds with off-track Thoroughbreds.

Paulick Report News Editor Chelsea Hackbarth met a successful graduate of another, similar program at the Blackburn Correctional Facility in Lexington, Ky. That TRF program gave Joshua Ison the job skills he needed to launch a new career after completing his sentence. Read more here.

The livestream is set to begin at 8 p.m. ET and will be available in the embedded video player below.

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Kirkpatrick & Co Presents In Their Care: TRF Program Gives Bonds Back Her Mental Health, Purpose

Caroline Bonds planned every detail of her suicide, including payment for her funeral.

She was facing a five-year sentence for money laundering. She accepted responsibility for what occurred while insisting she was an unwitting victim of a man she once loved, a man she thought would someday be her husband. She felt the shame associated with the crime was more than she could bear.

“If I was around, I was a huge embarrassment to my family,” Bonds said. “I just couldn't take it.”

She saved three months' worth of her blood pressure medication, bought a bottle of Tylenol PM, and ingested it all. She narrowly avoided the outcome she wanted badly when someone checked on her. She spent a week on a ventilator before she gradually recovered.

When she began a sentence that was accompanied by 25 years of probation and an order to make financial restitution, thoughts of suicide returned.

“Being in prison was really starting to play with my head,” Bonds said. “I thought, 'There is no way I'm going to be able to do this. You're not going to be able to do this. Just end it.'“

Her grim outlook changed forever in 2014. That is when she became involved with the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation's Second Chances Program, overseen by John Evans at Lowell Correctional Institution in Ocala, Fla.

“When we drove over that hill there in Ocala and I saw that farm, something changed,” Bonds said. “But the main change in me was when I got assigned Frosty Grin.”

Bonds had never been around horses. She did not know what to expect the first time she called out to Frosty Grin.

“He come running up to the gate and something inside of me started crying like a baby,” she said. “Somebody does want to see me. It changed me. It truly changed me.”

Bonds finally had someone to talk to – without fear of judgment.

“He would look right at you and he would know if I was having a blue day. I felt that horse looked right into my soul,” she said. “I talked to that horse like he was a human being and he would come back at me like 'I know. I know.' I had some heart-to-heart talks with that horse.”

The blue days became fewer. Then they were gone.

“I went from 'Damn, I woke up again' to 'Thank you, God!' “ Bonds said.

Her transformation provides one of the most inspiring stories as the Second Chances program at Lowell marks its 20th anniversary with a horse show that will be livestreamed on Oct. 21 from 8-9 p.m. ET. The show takes viewers inside the gates of the correctional facility for women to demonstrate how the program saves horses from potential slaughter and changes lives.

Bonds with Frosty Grin

Gigi Brown provides another example of someone profoundly impacted by Second Chances. She began working with retired Thoroughbreds at Lowell in 2018 while serving a four-year sentence for selling drugs.

“That was the only way I thought I could make money and succeed in life,” Brown said. “But come to find out that is so far from the truth. I would never in my life go back to anything like that again.”

She credits Evans – and the horses – with helping her see a path to a better life.

“He is one of a kind,” Brown said of Evans. “He will do everything in his power to help you succeed, if that is what you really want out of life. I've never met a man like him. He is amazing.”

The skills he taught her proved invaluable because she gained employment at Tickety-boo Farm in Melrose, Fla., a long way from peddling drugs and far more rewarding emotionally. “I like working. At the end of the day, I feel I accomplished something,” Brown said.

Evans, 73, arrived at Lowell in 2005 and works as the equine educational instructor and farm manager.

“That man, he has such a heart for the ladies out there and the program,” Bonds said. “He doesn't look at you like 'Oh, you're a convict' or 'Oh, you're a criminal.' He never once, never once, made you feel like that. He made you feel you were somebody.”

Evans initially planned to stay at Lowell for one year. Despite the blistering summer sun in Ocala, he found the work too fulfilling to leave.

“I couldn't believe how much better you felt when you influenced someone who had not had very good life experiences,” he said. “The most amazing thing was seeing the transformation of these people when they got around a horse, even if they never touched a horse before.”

Many women endure the pain of knowing they cannot be there for their children. They turn their strong maternal instincts to horses that welcome their care and affection.

“You start seeing them nurture,” Evans said. “You start seeing them wanting to be better in their lives, not to have the addictions that they've had.”

There are failures, too. Evans noted that one of his first students was a heroin addict who initially feared horses. She overcame that fear and did so well in the program that she landed a job in the industry upon her release. He and others did everything possible to see that she was successfully rehabilitated, assisting with living arrangements and the purchase of a car. Tragically, there was no escaping her heroin addiction and she eventually returned to prison.

Bonds fully embraced her second chance at life. After filling out more than 1,000 job applications in vain, she found gratifying employment with Lighthouse Ministries in Lakeland, Fla. She fills some of her spare time by volunteering at Hope Equine Rescue.

Tom Pedulla wrote for USA Today from 1995-2012 and has been a contributor to the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Blood-Horse, America's Best Racing and other publications.

If you wish to suggest someone as a potential subject for In Their Care, please send an email to info@paulickreport.com that includes the person's name and contact information in addition to a brief description of the individual's background.

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