Milltown Road (Click here for Past Performances)

NS Founder Karin had the opportunity to visit with Miller and caregiver Geri and reports that Miller is now walking comfortably and that his leg (pictured) is no longer swollen although rather deformed.   Miller was in great spirits and allowed Karin to give him a massage and was extremely friendly, relaxed and cooperative.  His rehab at Rancho East and with Geri has not been without its ups and downs though.  Recently Geri began ponying him with her Tennessee Walker, Samwise and that has sometimes been quite an adventure.  Ponying with Samwise makes Miller think he might be going out to the track!   Things are really looking up for this boy.  He is really spoiled though and a such a treat beggar.  He would paw a giant crater ogling for treats if allowed.

Milltown Road at Magali Farms

A few years ago the racing syndicate both Geri and I belong to private purchased a gelding named Milltown Road by Tough Knight. His grandfather was the great Mr. Prospector. Geri and I both immediately recognized what a special horse he was in terms of his supreme intelligence. However, because of this intelligence he was very strong-willed and wanted to do things his way. Doing things his way resulted in much punishment at the track that we were even unaware of. Miller loved to race though and showed he had some talent. Unfortunately he had a weakness and injured his suspensory ligament November 2005. Consequently he was treated through stem cell therapy and sent to Magali Farms in Santa Ynez, California to recuperate. Now in hindsight, we know he was brought back to the track too early and only had nine months of rest. From our research we now know he should have had a full year off. However, when he returned to the track in August 2006 and resumed his training he was strong and determined. His first race took place exactly a year from his last race at Hollywood Park. It was again a night race and we know he doesn’t like to be out nights but he did alright and it was more or less a practice drill. In December 2006 he raced again and this time finished a strong second on the turf. On January 18th he raced again at Santa Anita and came from behind to win once again. Thereafter he developed a filling on his leg. For some reason or another this reoccurrence of injury was not deemed to be critical and he was raced for the last time on March 17th at Santa Anita. Miller was racing strongly and one of the front runners when at the last turn he went bad and although he finished the race was vanned off the field immediately afterwards. Michael Baze who has since become the leading rider at Hollywood Park this season, did all the right things and we feel saved his life. This diary of his struggle and recovery is provided by Geri who was there for the last race and adopted him shortly afterwards, paying significant expenses and investing an enormous amount of time and emotions into this magnificent gelding. In reading this account, you will discover the bond between an equine and his care giver that will surely put a a tear to your eye.

Karin Wagner

Milltown Road’s Courageous Battle
by Geri Minott McCarron

March 22, 2007

I'm exhausted, but Miller is here. He seemed to like his stall. Actually, he ate such a big chunk from a board that it startled me. I sprayed the wood with mosquito repellent to make it less attractive. My trainer called him a "barn termite." He liked eating and had no interest in the calls of the neighbor's peacocks. He will no longer get handfed treats-- to try to stop the pawing habit. He was still wearing the bandage that the vet put on him last Saturday, but my vet will change it in the AM. I got him an ice boot and a very soft goat hair brush. He can watch both sunrise and sunset from his stall.

March 23, 2007

The vet's outlook on Miller was not good. She said that if it were any worse, the horse would have to be put down. She said. "You wouldn't spend thousands of dollars to try to save the horse. I said, "Yes I would." She is going to consult with a surgeon and see about surgery and a cast. Meanwhile, Miller has to be kept as quiet as possible for 30 days. We have pills if we have to sedate him. He's so tough that he isn't showing the pain that most horses would. As sometimes happens when a horse is injured during a race, the suspensory doesn't really drop until a few hours later. It didn't look as bad Saturday as it does now. It is going to take an effort to save him even if he were just to be retired at CERF. He has kind of figured out that I am the person that belongs to him, and he's very relieved that dinner is served twice a day. I should probably put up a hay net. He needs to drink more water. I hope he'll realize how much we're there for him. It's staggering to think that such a fine creature could just be thrown away in the racing industry. The critical issue is whether or not there are enough fibers left in the suspensory that scar tissue could fill in and hold it together.

The surgeon said I'd need extraordinary patience to see this thing healed. I said I teach ninth grade, He said I'd have enough. I can say that Miller is sooo much like a kid who has had to act tough to survive but is gentler by nature. I follow all of the vet's instructions, but I have also called in an "alternative healer" and applied some interesting therapy. We did quite a bit of acupressure. Holding that horse from chest to tailbone was quite an experience. Then we did some music therapy. I'm sure it sounds odd, but I have a real interesting picture of the horse's face upon first hearing Mozart.

In the moments when he is relaxed and friendly (and probably hoping for a treat of banana or peppermint flavoring) he is a soft, kind, intelligent companion. In the recent hot weather he got up and down for several naps. This weekend in the arena in front of his stall we had a Police Pros horse training clinic where we rode through scary obstacles and ended the weekend with an equine soccer match. This is played with two teams of five horses and a giant ball 6 feet in diameter. The object is for a team to get a line of horses pushing against the ball with their chests and rolling it into the goal. The ball squggles away easily, and the game is fast and lively, but my greatest surprise of this game was that Miller slept through it.

I highly recommend the Police Pros to anyone who wants to observe or to learn about handling horses safely through all of the distractions of the modern age.

Geri with Milltown Road

Both vets observed that Miller is a very athletic horse. He learned instantly to turn around by pivoting on his hind end like a reining horse. He also instantly discovered that the cast makes a wonderful pawing and excavating tool. He'll probably be sore tomorrow from all of his new activity.

Miller is becoming a gentler creature than we knew at the track. Today I saw him rubbing faces together with a friend's seven-year-old son! I thank you again for your prayers and healing thoughts.

Dr. Stevens looked at Miller today to see how he is getting along on his "toe shoe." He's very agile and contented with it, and has take to ballet-like moves. He has his own versions of pirouette and jete when moving (often quickly) around in his stall. We can only hope that his contented behavior is a sign that there is much healing going on.

He's getting more agreeable to being touched, but is very fearful and threatening when I place a hand near his rump. I think that he may have been a runner on which a whip should not have been carried.

Leandro once told me that "The problem with Milltown Road is that he is smarter than we are." There's a lot of truth in that. Miller is quick to indicate what he likes or doesn't like, and quickly learns to signal for what he wants. He is also VERY set in his ways of doing things. This may be why he went through so many different jocks.

When he has demolished a molasses ball, he waves his nose up and down in the space where it hung, and I install a new one. We're on ball number 13. He has a CD collection and seems to like baroque flute music-- perhaps these are closest to the sounds that horses make. He really likes one New Age CD which I'll tell you about if anyone is interested in a a major relaxation CD.

Miller is so smart that he now takes a mouthful of water before he works on the Bizzy Ball. He slurps the water over the ball to make it dissolve faster. He is so athletic that he can trot with the toe cast on. He isn't supposed to trot, of course, but I made the mistake of putting a half ration of vitamins in his feed. No more of that. The owner of the ranch passed away and I'm sure it will be sold within the year. I'll have to find a place to keep Samwise and Miller.

June 5, 2007

Miller will have a vet check and cast change tomorrow, and I'll let you know how it goes. He was pretty happy today. Building trust is a slow process. I know exactly what Grace meant when she said that you have to let the horses adjust on their own time "IF they ever do." If Miller can't trust me, he'll never trust a human being again. I do think that he appreciates me, though. He likes his music hour each day, and so do the horses around him. He has a hard time getting used to being touched-- he's so afraid he's going to be hit. When he flattens his ears, I say, "yeah, right," and rub his ears anyway, but he's very uneasy about behing touched past his shoulders-- and some days I don't push it that far. This is a horse that should never have been whipped.

Milltown posing for the camera

June 21, 2007

Today Miller's vet, a very conservative person, said that she was ecstatic and amazed at the healing that Milltown Road has done. I could send pictures from today, but I took them on a cell phone, and I don't know how to transmit them. Meanwhile, I have attached a photo of Miller taken last night. As the vet said, "He has no shortage of personality." He will still be confined to stall rest for a very long time. He got a new speacially made shoe today and we took the cast off and wrapped him in just bandages. We finally took off the front shoes he wore in his last race three months ago. This was the first time he could stand well enough for us to take them off. If you ever have a horse that loses shoes, well, Doug's racetrack shoer, Jim Jimenez, really had those shoes put on well. Miller will probably never be able to carry a rider again, but he's a very entertaining companion. Thank you for your prayers and healing thoughts.


August 27, 2007

Looking back at the write up made me realize how far we have come and how scared Miller used to be. Yesterday I set a record for time rubbing and petting him while we listened to a whole CD of James Galway playing Bach. Miller relaxes a lot to that one. He didn't want me to leave yesterday.

The Kimzey splint is back on (after Miller got it off last week). The vet says that if we get any improvement in the lift of the fetlock joint, we'll try the splint some more. If we don't, we settle for what we have. There is strong tissue in the ligament now, but the fetlock joint is not aligned enough for Miller to ever carry a rider. Dr. Stevens says that he can live comfortably, but he probably won't be able to do much. Believe me, the phrase, "Live Comfortably" was music to my ears.

For a high-strung horse that has been stall-bound for five months, he is wonderfully content. Dr. Stevens commented on his changes in behavior and said that it will be interesting to see how his personality develops as we work with him more. Tentatively, the date to start hand-walking him is October first.


August 28, 2007

Miller is keeping a positive attitude in spite of wearing a heavy splint in heat and humidity. We had an interesting day, though. I've heard that competitive runners look other horses in the eye, and I've seen pictures of those looks in races. Today I got to experience it up real close. Miller wasn't liking having me dust off his back, and he turned towards me, flattened his ears, and glared. I glared back. We moved toward each other and stood there literally cheek to cheek and with our eyeballs maybe two inches apart just staring. I finally said, "It's OK, Miller." For his part, he didn't nip or gnash his teeth. It was a unique experience.

Last spring I got to talk to the head trainer of the Cavalia show. He does the final number with three stallions that are free on the stage. He said that his horses take their cues by watching the movements of his eyes.

There is much, much more in a horse's mind than we can ever discern from a racing form, though I do read the form.


September 6, 2007

We have taken the cast and heavy bandage off of Miller's leg. We had to wait some extra time because it isn't safe to give a horse a tranquilizer shot in very hot weather. Actually, Miller only needed half a dose of the shot because he was relaxed with his Vivaldi CD playing. It's something like his teddy bear I guess.

The foot had enough strength for Miller to support his weight on it. It isn't pretty, but it functions. We will keep a light bandage on for awhile. The joint does not have much flexibility right now, but that is a good thing for now because it keeps him from over stretching the new tissue.

His coat is soft and glistening, and his eyes are bright but calm. Dr. Stevens said it will still be a long time before we know how much he'll be able to do. I didn't tell her that I had already seen him trot and even take a canter step with the heavy steel splint on when he was startled. He may begin being hand-walked and the end of the month.

September 19, 2007

Tonight Miller will spend his first evening in his stall without bandages on. The vet said it would be time to take them off soon. When I visited Miller today, he started grabbing the whole top of the bandage with his mouth and pulling, then nodding at me, then repeating the move. I decied that he knew it was time. Although the fetlock joint is disfigured, he can put his full weight on the foot. Yesterday was the first time that he stood on it while I held his other front foot up.

He may even be able to have a normal walk, but the vet said that he still must be kept at stall rest for another month. The ligament fibers will strengthen with the bandage off, but he isn't ready for official exercise yet. We did get some "unofficial" exercise when we were buzzed by a helicopter with a whistling rotor and he scrambled a bit. He contemplated mischief after that-- you can tell because he always crinkles his nose when he's contemplating mischief. He settled down with a sugar ball and a CD of Handel. If we ever have a super nervous horse in OS, I recommend Miller's CD collection.

October 7, 2007

Miller has had his best week so far, and his left fetlock joint has almost raised to the level of his right one. He keeps his knee bent most of the time, not putting his full weight on the left foot, but he can stand and walk on it without any support when he is asked to. He may be allowed to take walks by the end of the month-- the vet will say when.

He continues to be a character. He's a master of the baleful glance. He'll direct it at the radio when he doesn't like a voice on the radio. Like many barn radios, it stays on the Latino stations. Miller likes Gloria Estevan and also a group with a very pretty sound called Reik. I have no idea what the songs are about, but find that some voices and beats are claming to animals. Salsa is a much softer beat than I ever realized, and he listens to it calmly. Miller still gets his classical CDs, and the vet brought one by a really good new Italian singer named Vittorio.

He's on his fourth carton of Pony Pops. The music and the Pops have been a huge factor in calming and saving the life of this horse, who was a 24/7 stall weaver and cribber at the track. Last week I took a Pop out of his stall when I decided that he had had enough sugar for the day. I put it in a sealed plastic bucket outside of the stall and turned to work on my other horse. I heard a strange noise: Miller had craned his head way under the stall guard, grabbed the bucket by the handle, taken it into his stall, and was trying to pry the lid off with his teeth.

In the last two days his winter coat started growing in-- at least 3/8 of an inch of it. This may be a sign that our long hot spell is coming to an end. I hope he gets enough coat not to need a blanket. He would probably be a blanket-eating horse.

This month he'll get his yearly vaccinations. I wish we knew for certain that all horses at the track were getting these regularly, but vet statements come out for different vets, different horses, and different intervals. It's difficult.

Miller get shots for Rhinopneumonitis and flu, Potomac horse fever, and EPM. Lately a couple of people at the barn bought horses that had EPM-- a shame when it's so preventable. In December we'll give the West Nile update. I mention these because people who are newer to buying horses would want to know about them. Vaccinations run about 300 dollars per year per horse.

I got a pair of hiking shoes and look forward to being able to walk with Miller.


October 22, 2007

Say a prayer for Miller. I had to leave him behind when the fire came into Rancho Santa Fe. I had planned to make a stand. One fire chief said the fire would blow on over the ranch in about 5 minutes' time and horses in open areas would be safe. I thought that Miller would go into a dangerous panic and hurt himself or someone else if he went back to the Del Mar Race Track, and he isn't supposed to be even walking around yet. So I waited. Then the sherriff made me get out when the flames were 1/2 mile away. By the time I left, the ashes were so bad I couldn't see. A friend took my other horse to Olivenhain, but then had to evacuate again from there up to Carlsbad.

If Miller survives this, he is an incredibly lucky horse. I can't believe that a man who was firefighter of the year told me this morning that the fire would mostly jump over the ranch -- and we could duck behind the brick barn while it came over. It wasn't worth any more than a tip at the race track. The fire has been burning the canyon for the last 12 hours now. I know from the TV that everything 1/4 mile away from the barn, in a horseshoe arc, is burning.
We had a false sense of security there with at least ½ billion dollars worth of homes in the surrounding hills, and a fire department on each side-- thinking they would go to great lengths to protect the area, and never thinking that the enire county could go up at once.
The fire is 11 miles away from this house in Cardiff now. If it comes here, I have one place to go: surfing. Thank you for keeping us in your prayers.


October 24, 2007

Thank you all for your prayers and good wishes. The last I heard (yesterday) was that the horses had water and were OK. The ranch owner sneaked back in by driving through the next door neighbor's burning gate and going up the power line road-- some of the very power lines you saw burning on TV. Of course, the power was out; then her cell phone battery wore out.

I have another song going through my mind now-- "Maggie's Farm." That's because, where Miller is kept , "The national guard stands around the door." They wouldn't let me through to see him, and I can appreciate that. Many times yesterday the news highlighted the danger of the fire going down the dry Escondido Creek bed, which begins near the ranch and burning all the way to the beach. Unfortunately, that broadcast could give the wrong people the wrong idea and I'm glad the guard is there. Channel 10 repeated a video of two horses standing in an arena, a white and a chestnut. Those two live right next to Miller. Their actual stalls are almost exactly two miles south-southwest of the entrance to the Seven Bridges Golf Course. My only worry at the moment is whether or not Miller did any damage to his leg with all the stress. I have bought some eye ointment and skin gel to use as soon as I can get to him.

There is a whole community of equine refugees at Ride America, where we sent the horses which we could get out. One had a clever owner. She had dipped her fingers in a jar of white poultice and written her horse's name and her cell hone number right on the horse.

When Thomas first posted Miller as an OS offering, he wrote something like, "Join the Adventure." Adventure has been an understatement. The "adventure" has included-- watching Miller run sideways, while looking at the crowd, down the stretch at Santa Anita when he was the favorite in the bottom leg of the pick 6; watching him run a mile split of of 1:33 and change; watching him win at Santa Anita; feeding him carrots with many OS friends, watching him be vanned off the track at Santa Anita; being with him as he was tied on an operating table for a new surgical procedure, holding his head in my arms while a vet applied a specially designed cast, buying him a rack of classical music CDs; trying to hold him still while a water-droper-chopper flew 50 feet over our heads; and being forced by the sheriff to flee and leave him behind. If he's Ok when I see him again, it will be a bigger thrill than winning the pick-6.

In any case, this week we are probably all not thinking of what we woulda-shoulda-couda done, but rather being very thankful for what we have.


October 25, 2007

Miller is doing well. In fact, he had himself a real party the night of the fire. He was smart enough to open the latch on his temporary corral and he ran loose during the fire. He went to every corral and told the other horses who was king of the ranch. He lost quite a bit of fur in those exchanges, but he was very proud of himself. The leg seemed no worse for the wear. He is like a kid who doesn't appreciate how much we might worry about him.

I got this account of Miller from some friends who risked arrest by sneaking past the National Guard to take care of the horses. They used a little-known horse trail through a place called Spooks Canyon, and called to mind the phrase, "A cowgirl don't need to have a horse; she just gets where she's goin'.

The fire chief's daughter has a horse at our ranch, and the chief said that the fire would probably jump over the ranch and burn around it. That's what the fire did, although the high flames shown on TV were 100 yards from the ranch on three sides.

By the (fourth) time we were told to leave the ranch in the afternoon, my eyes were so inflamed from all the ash that I could barely see. I had a respirator mask from my gardening. The gal who owns the ranch managed to sneak back and drive through the burning gate of the ranch next door, go in through a back road and hose down the hot spots. We stopped her from doing that a couple of times in the afternoon, but she was determined.

Now that we can relax about the safety of the horses, we'll turn our attention to helping others in this difficult time. Thank you for all your moral support.


October 26, 2007

The vet looked at Miller's leg today to check for any damage done while he was loose during the fire. She said that it looked good, and it seemed to be strengthened by exercise; however, Miller is "grounded" for another week and cannot begin his rehab exercise program until she makes sure there is no residual damage from his escapade.

Miller is pushing, pulling, nudging, and beckoning me to let him get out and explore the world some more. He wants the company of other horses now, and leans out toward those passing by. He seems like a normal young five-year-old horse who has his life ahead of him.


October 28, 2007

I'll post this later, but Miller showed his real character yesterday. I had him out of his stall while it was being cleaned. Sometimes he's antsy and rushes when I take him back in the stall. Yesterday I turned him at a little too sharp of an angle. Stupidly, I looked back to see if his hind end would clear the doorway. Right away, the two of us were stuck together in the doorwary like Abbott and Costello. I stood still, waiting to see which side of me would get trampled first, and Miller stood still. I could just feel the gears of his mind working. Then he backed up two steps and waited for me to get clear. What a sweetheart.

During the fire evacuation as I was putting Miller into the last holding pen quickly because the sherriff was herding us out I had the thought that Miller was smart enough to undo the latch, but I couldn't bear to put a second chain on it. If he had to fight for his life, I wanted him to have a chance to get out. When the TV showed the flames all around the ranch, I was praying that he would get out somehow. Well, he did, but I didn't expect him to go make a party out of it. A shed 50 yards from the pen he was in burned to the ground.
In all of this he showed what you and I always knew--he's a special, special horse.
Meanwhile, Samwise has cheered up a lot by being home.


November 17, 2007

Eight months have gone by since Miller was vanned off the track. He can take 10 minute walks now. Friends say that his walking stride looks normal.

If he gets spooked and has "thoroughbred moments," this exercise is like trying to hold a half-ton whirligig on a lead shank. If his environment is calm, however, he behaves well.

I visited his grandsire, Mr. Prospector in 1990. That horse was fuzzy, calm, and huggable. I'll hope that Miller can "grow up" to be like that, though I think that Miller got both his face and his "wired" moves (throwing both feet straight forward, or kicking his heels skyward) from his Hail To Reason ancestry. The Halo offspring had moves like that. Miller definitely got the elegant ears from Man-O-War, who is eight generations back. The trademark steep locomotive shoulder probably came from Northern Dancer. I wish I knew what line his wonderful intelligence came from-- that's his most endearing quality.

He's hanging out at a barn with practical horses who have one-syllable names-- Sam, Zack, Zip, Beau, etc., and he's happy enough to get to see a little more of the world each day.

December 6, 2007

Miller has had a great week re-discovering life's simplest pleasures.  On Tuesday he was able to stand out in the sunshine a long time for the first time since he left the track.  He was really soaking it in and taking a more concentrated look around his new home. 

Yesterday he consented to be rubbed all over with a rubber-tipped pet massage brush, and he made deligeted "camel faces."

He has been in an isolated stall to keep him still and quiet, but today other horses were brought into his barn because of the expected rain..  He could just get his nose over the wooden partition between stalls to rub noses with the horse next to him.  We hoped he'd have stablemates that he'd get along with so he wouldn't try to kick out the wall between them.  

He turned out to be overwhelmed with joy to rub noses with a 16-year-old chestnut Arabian named Quint (the most animated horse in the area, next to Miller).  He was sooooooo happy just to bond with another horse again.   On the other side he has a 28 year old son of Cougar II named Gato.

I took him into our arena, which looks like a small training track, and he began trembling and fishtailing around, so I took him out.  Perhaps it gave him the feeling that too much would be expected of him.

He appears to have a normal walking stride.  This is much more than we expected.  When he's spooked-- which is often-- he seems to have normal leaps, spins, bucks, and kicks, too.

May 9, 2008

Alan (my husband)  got an Appaloosa named Sparky. He can be as lively as Miller.

Miller's latest game is that he stops and won't be led forward. This happened after I let him graze in the spring. Now he just wants to be looking for food (Why are we not surprised?) He can walk for thirty minutes a day now -- if I have the energy.

October 16, 2008