At Sound of the Bell, Mom Comes Running

At Sound of the Bell, Mom Comes Running

The Braille Monitor

January 2003

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At Sound of the Bell,

Mom Comes Running

by

Tom Keyser

Federationist

Don Morris is pictured here with Lunar Indian, a colt in which he owns

part interest. This colt and the filly in the following story were both

sired by Malibu Moon.

From the Editor: The

following article appeared in the October 31, 2002, edition of the Baltimore

Sun. Federationists know all about inventing alternative techniques for

dealing with blindness. Peggy Elliott has told us about the adventures of her

blind cat Sheriff. Now meet a former race horse who is adapting quite nicely

to the combination of blindness and motherhood. Here is the story:

The blind mare, Raging

Smart, keeps her foal in range by the bell hanging on her halter. This is the

way it's been since forty five minutes after Raging Smart gave birth April 25,

and Joyce and Ray Jones slipped the halter and bell onto the filly's neck.

Motherhood completed the

regeneration of Raging Smart, a former one-eyed racehorse who lost her second

eye in her forty-third and final race and then ran upon hard times in neglected

retirement.

The

Joneses brought her in August 2000 to their Cambria Farm in Carroll County [Maryland]

and nursed her back to health, discovering along the way that Raging Smart,

whom they nicknamed Smarty, had been valiant in the face of hardship. "She's

adapted to every challenge life has thrown her way, and I think there's been

quite a few," Joyce Jones said. "She's met each one with grace and

equanimity."

The

nine-year-old Raging Smart lives by sound and smell. When she figures out where

you are, she reaches out her nose until she feels you. She seldom takes a misstep,

even when jogging in her large field, and she only occasionally clunks her head

against a barn wall.

When

she gave birth for the first time, she acted as if this were old hat. She's

a nurturing mother, not overprotective; but the one time her baby lost her bell,

she squealed and carried on because she'd lost her.

"She's

so normal, sometimes I forget she's blind," Joyce said. "She just

needs to know what's expected of her and where she is. She's got a wonderful

temperament."

When

the Joneses agreed to take Raging Smart, they knew only that she was a daughter

of Smarten, a top stallion now pensioned at Northview Stallion Station in Cecil

County, and needed loving care. She was malnourished after indifferent treatment

at a farm the Joneses declined to identify.

They

found out later she had been successful at the track, finishing first, second,

or third twenty of forty-three times, mostly at Pimlico and Laurel Park. She

set a track record at Colonial Downs, covering one and three-quarters miles

on turf in 2 minutes, 45.22 seconds.

They

discovered she had a stellar pedigree worthy of perpetuation, so, after Raging

Smart regained her strength, they bred her to Malibu Moon, a young stallion

at Country Life Farm near Bel Air. The Joneses hope the developing colt joins

their modest racing band, which currently numbers four.

They

usually populate their thirty-two acres west of Westminster with about fifteen

horses, of which six are mares. They do all their farmwork themselves, despite

full-time jobs.

Joyce

works as accounts payable manager at Symphony Health Services in Sparks. Ray

is a professor of pathology at the University of Maryland Medical School.

Raging

Smart, for her portfolio, won four times racing with one eye but could have

won more. Mark Johnston rode her frequently when Baird Brittingham's Lakeville

Stables owned her and King T. Leatherbury trained her.

"She

was kind of tough to ride because she was scared to go inside a horse,"

Johnston said. "She didn't like horses outside of her, I guess, because

she could see them with her right eye.

"You

always had to circle the field with her. She was just real happy racing in the

middle of the track. That's where she did all her running. It was a shame, because

it was such a handicap to lose as much ground as she did. She got beat a lot

of times because you just couldn't get a good trip."

Johnston's

words bear out. Raging Smart, a winner of only four, finished second nine times

and third seven times. Here are typical comment lines: "Angled eight-wide,

rallied," "Came very wide, closed," and "Best too late,

widest."

Elizabeth

Schultz, a Frederick County veterinarian, bred Raging Smart and raced her seven

times until Leatherbury claimed her.

Schultz

said the filly suffered a scratched cornea in her first race, on March 26, 1996,

at Pimlico. Infection set in. Despite treatment at the New Bolton Center in

Pennsylvania, Raging Smart lost all vision in her right eye.

She

lost vision in her left eye in her last race, July 10, 1999, at Penn National.

Ronny Brown, then her trainer, said she got hit in the eye with a pebble or

jockey's whip or something. Within a day or two she'd lost all sight.

Still,

in that last race Raging Smart finished fifth, earning $330. She earned a check

in all but six of her forty-three races, bankrolling $88,083.

Three

years later Raging Smart lifts her head out of the damp grass when she hears

the gate rattle. Ray Jones pushes the gate open, and he and Joyce step into

the paddock lush from fall rains.

Of

the four horses in the field--two mares with their foals--Raging Smart, surprisingly,

leads the way. "She thinks they're going to feed her," Ray said, laughing.

"She's

a good girl," Joyce said, stroking Smarty's neck while pushing aside the

probing, jealous nose of her foal. The two will remain together for another

month, and then the filly will be weaned from her mother.

Joyce

and Ray have thought it all out. One morning they'll remove the bell from the

foal's halter and lead her to a new field. Raging Smart will be led to her familiar

paddock with the other mare.

The

Joneses expect Smarty to carry on for a while, as all mothers do, but they also

expect her to adjust quickly, as routinely happens. They plan on keeping the

bell handy because they figure on breeding Raging Smart next year.

Until she gives birth again,

though, one thing's for certain. It's going to be awfully quiet around Cambria

Farm without that bell.

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Did you know that you can

make a gift to the National Federation of the Blind and save taxes three ways?

Well, you can! With a gift of appreciated stocks, bonds, or mutual funds. For

more information, contact the National Federation of the Blind, Special Gifts,

1800 Johnson Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21230-4998, phone (410) 659-9314, fax

(410) 685-5653.