Chrome is home! Another 2010 comeback story
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Chrome is home! Another 2010 comeback story
Amy Worden, Inquirer Staff Writer
Give Chrome is home. At last. The standardbred gelding found in October near Gettysburg, attached to a cart with a harness so tight it had carved deep, open gashes in his haunches, is now enjoying the good life on a Kentucky estate.
It was a pre-Christmas miracle of sorts for this forgotten horse. One of the top standardbred breeders in the country and his wife - founder of a large horse rescue group - decided to adopt him from the Adams County SPCA which had seized Chrome after responding to calls about an injured horse found in a supermarket parking lot.
Chrome's story was no different than many racing horses. When he was winning he was cared for. When it was over someone dumped him at auction. He ended up in the hands of an Amish man who likely used him as a buggy horse before selling him to a homeless man and convicted animal abuser.
Cruelty charges filed by the Adams County SPCA against Chrome's owner, Wilbur Frost - who said he planned to drive the horse to Oklahoma - were withdrawn last month. It is not clear why. Frost was convicted of animal abuse in March 2010 after police in Kansas discovered two malnourished and dehydrated draft horses and a puppy wandering on the highway near where Frost was living under an overpass.
Today Chrome is frolicking in his snow-covered pasture at Walnut Hall Farm in Lexington thanks to the generosity of owners Alan and Meg Leavitt.
“He is in better shape than one would have expected,” Leavitt told U.S. Trotting Association News. “All of his wounds have healed and he’s in pretty good flesh. He hasn’t stopped eating hay since he arrived. He loves to be out and he loves rolling, whether it’s in the stall or out in the snow.
“He immediately made friends over the fence with three other rescues (horses) who are in the field adjoining his paddock. Considering his ordeal, he is not bad at all to work around, a little edgy but no meanness whatsoever. He’ll soon be a real pet with the affection and Mrs. Pasture’s Cookies he’ll be getting from Meg.”
Photos/Dr. Joseph Lyman
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- Pet Watch New Jersey
- Pet-Abuse.com
- PetMD
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- The Bark
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