The “Lexington” Project
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As told by Aleta McCormick
Omni Equus Research Center (O.E.R.C.) has accepted its first rescue horse rehabilitation research project - - an elderly horse named Lexington. 
Lexington is a big, 17-hand, almost solid chestnut Thoroughbred gelding with one small white ankle sock on his rear foot. His life story is vague and varied. He had once been a hunter-jumper show horse and, after a lengthy career, was “abandoned” by his owner and confiscated for past unpaid board fees by The Paddock Equestrian Center, a training and show barn outside of Los Angeles. The estimate and general consensus of his age was “somewhere between late ‘teens and early twenties.” Just to look at him and his teeth had me believe his age was closer to mid-twenties.
Then I began a little research into Lexington’s history. A very close friend recognized Lexington’s description. We went back and forth with the details of his size, build and coloring until she said, “Yep, that’s him alright. I know that horse. My horse, Kelly and I competed against him when we were a lot younger. At that time, Lexington was an older, more seasoned horse than my Kelly.” Then my friend revealed that her horse, Kelly had just passed his 30st birthday! Turns out that Lexington is indeed an equine senior citizen!
Lexington’s story is the story of so many of the horses that end up in rescue homes. I had no desire to take on another horse, but who could deny that soft nuzzling I felt on my back as I taught one of my equine massage classes at The Paddock. As I turned around, I gazed into one of the saddest faces I’ve ever seen on a horse. Deep hollows above Lexington’s haunted eyes tore at my heart strings. He was hungry for affection and I made the comment that “one day, O.E.R.C. will be able to take in rescue horses and work with them to give them a new start in life. “Oh, this horse is a perfect candidate,” I was told. “They’ve been using him as a school horse and, all of a sudden, he’s starting to “freak out” and act up under saddle.” As always, I put this “one more sob story” out of my mind as an all too common experience, knowing I could not save the world.
It was only a few days later when I received an excited telephone call from Sue Pandy, one of my students and a friend of O.E.R.C., exclaiming “he’s yours!!” I was floored. How did this happen? I’m always turning down horses - - some really nice ones, because until O.E.R.C. can support them directly, the financial burden falls squarely on my shoulders. But I felt that, somehow, this was meant to be. We all discussed and finally agreed on a date for his transfer and everyone pitched in to plan his move up to my home, Twin Oaks, and O.E.R.C.
Over the next several weeks, I visited Lexington at The Paddock each time I went there to work on other horses. We had a six week window in which we had to wait before moving him, because he was body clipped, had to wear a blanket at night and because, in Twin Oaks, the temperatures would dip below freezing at night. Each morning, as I broke the ice in my horses’ water buckets so that they could drink, I knew it was just too cold and too soon to bring Lexington home to Omni Equus Research Center in Twin Oaks. During these visits at The Paddock with “Lex,” he was aloof, barely friendly, and not all that lovable. What had happened? This was not the horse that, only a few weeks before, had torn at my heart strings. But I was committed, and determined to keep my end of “the bargain.” There was something there - - an invisible, emotional connection that occurred at our first meeting - - that signaled to me that this was the way to go and that everything would somehow work out.
As the weeks wore down, I prepared for Lexington’s arrival at Omni Equus Research Center by securing a corner of the geldings’ (“the boys”) pasture, so that he would have some private space and time to meet the other two boys before I put them together in a single, large pasture. I found a blanket that would fit him and keep him warm and cozy at night. We were finally ready for his arrival at Omni Equus Research Center.
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