Lothario
The story behind Lenny
Lenny was born to a mare named Fairy Footsteps on April 23rd 1985. Her sire was the great Mill Reef. Fairy Footsteps won the 1000 Guineas in 1981 and Mill Reef won the Derby amongst other races. He was the greatest sire of his era and his mark is still prominent in breeding racehorses today.
When Lenny reached 2 years old he went into training with Henry Cecil. He did not race until he was 3, then only twice. His first race was at Leicester, 30th may 1988. It was a 2 km, 3 year olds maiden race. There were 16 runners. He chased the leaders most of the way and was 3rd going into the home straight, but he weakened 3 furlongs out and was placed 14th out of the 16. His second race was on 23rd June 1988. It was a 3km maiden race at Ripon. 11 horses ran, he was 5th going into the home straight and made an effort 4 furlong out. He was ridden hard but made no impression over the last 2 furlongs. He finished 5th out of the eleven starters. It was decided that he just wasn’t going to live up to his breeding. In September he was sold through Tattersalls to Mr Barry Byford for 6800 guineas.
He was allowed to settle in and relax for 12 months before it was decided to run him at Uttoxeter. On 21st September 1989 he was entered in a 1km hurdle race. This was mainly to see how he would react to racing over a course of fences. There were 16 in the race. Lenny was always behind and tailed off even more towards the end. He finished 13th of 16 (the other 3 did not finish the race) after this race, Lenny was given some time off due to a tendon injury he picked up. It wasn’t until the following November he would see the racetrack again. On the 9th November 1990 he travelled to Market Rasen for another go at hurdling. This time over 2km. There were 13 horses in this race. He ran a poor race and finished 7th out of the 13, but he beat his stable companion, Ibn Naas, by a neck. Again he tweaked a tendon and was given a long time off to recover. 26th November 1991 he travelled to Huntingdon to try his hand at proper national hunt fences. The decision was made to try him over the bigger fences as he jumped the hurdles too big to be able to do well when racing over them. It was a 2km race with many future stars in it (rough quest, Grand National winner to name one) he was always at the back of the runners, and hit one fence hard enough to cause his jockey to fall. Just over a month later, 28th December 1991, he ran his last race at Folkestone; this was another 2km race over chasing fences. He was pulled up before the 9th fence with yet another damaged tendon. It was in his time off recovering from this injury that I bought him.
I left him at Barry’s yard for a few months as he was being used by a friend to escort the young racehorses on exercise. I eventually decided to move him to a neighbouring yard where my sister could look after him for me, as I lived away from home at that time. He spent the winter of 1992 with 2 x 12hh welsh ponies and a 14.2hh cob pony. Then in the spring, I moved him to a nice yard nearer home. We would go out hacking for hours on end when I was home. We thoroughly enjoyed our life together and got to know each other and trust each other. I would take him to the occasional local show or hunting when the hounds were local. My sister took him out with the bloodhounds a few times and we both thoroughly enjoyed him. In 1993, I left college and Lenny was moved down to Dorset with me to start my first proper job. Whilst here, if there was a space on the lorry, Lenny was allowed to occupy it. We had a lot of fun going show jumping and cross country. In our first team chase we achieved 7th out of 40 entries. As it was all of our team’s first attempt we were very pleased. Then in 1994 I decided to move closer to home. Lenny had already travelled home as I had not got enough time to do him justice, so I sent him to my sister to start working on as her horse had pulled a tendon in the field.
I went to work on a show jumping yard and Lenny went with me. He did not go to any shows but he was there as an escort for the sillier horses and even went to a cross country course with some of the grade A’s to show them that non painted fences can be jumped too. But we were only to stay here for 6 moths, and then we moved on again. I sent him back to my sister. After a couple of months, my sister was talking about where she was going to college etc and mentioned that they were looking for thoroughbred horses to stock up the student research yard. The horses had to be thoroughbreds as they wanted to compare within a like group. They had mares and geldings (7 of each) so they came to try Lenny and off he went one night, all the way to Lincoln. He was fine for the first year he was there as he was being worked regularly and keeping to a routine, but he started biting students. He ended up being muzzled, but then he started kicking out at people (I knew he was like this and had forewarned the college that if anyone shows an ounce of fear towards him he will use that fear and attack himself) So they moved him onto the riding school side of the college. He was not a happy bunny here. He was expected to work in a 20 x 40 school, which he had never done in his life, and he got more and more agitated. I was aware of this move through communicating with my sister, but no-one from the college had contacted me to change the details on the contract. I wrote and asked for the letter to be seen as notification to terminate the contract. I arranged for him to be collected and delivered to the yard I was then working on.
He looked well in himself but his shoes were hanging off. When I finally got him reshod and found time to ride him, I put his bridle on. Walked once round the field and had to remove the noseband and change the bit. He totally freaked out over a metal bit being in his mouth and being unable to open his mouth to evade it. So I put a cavasson noseband and rubber snaffle on him. He was happier but not content. I continued with riding him in the field around the jumps that were laid out. I was intending to practice over some fences with the idea of going to the local show centre at the weekend and doing one class. I asked him to canter on the right rein first. He obliged, but when we were heading for the field boundary and I wanted to turn right to continue the circle we were on, he threw himself about and turned his head to the outside almost as if he’d had a slap across the face from a whip to get him to stop fussing with his head or to get him to turn. I rode him a few more times, only down the bridleways and roads in the area; it was as if the brave horse with spirit I had known 18 months previous had been beaten into submission. As the end of the summer started to get busy, I turned him out with a mare.
He was in a field next to a few other horses and the fencing was good. However, he struck out over the bottom strand of high tensile wire and pulled his foot back. He was found lying in a pool of blood, very weak but alive. He was taken back to the yard, the bleeding was stopped and the vet arrived. It did not look good for the old chap but the vet wanted to give him a chance. The wound was healing quite well when Lenny developed an abscess in the wound, the poison from this ran up through the tendon sheath and up into his leg. Because he had been pin fired when he pulled his tendons the first time, the infection in the tendons could not drain down. He had to have a lot of injections and TLC to get him through this. The old chap fought it every inch of the way. After 6 weeks I had to move him down to my parent’s property as I had discovered I was pregnant and was leaving the job. Lenny was dosed up with pain killers and well strapped up when he was loaded into the trailer for the journey home. He travelled well considering he couldn’t use one of his front legs very well. I put him into a stable 1 mile from home and looked after him there. He could not have his good foot shod for nearly 5 months as he could not stand on the bad one. We were very close to rigging up a block and tackle for him so we could support his weight whilst he had his foot done. But eventually he could bear to stand on the bad one for long enough to do the good one. Lenny was 9 months in confinement through this injury when we turned him out for the first time he simply stuck his head down to the grass and grazed just inside the gate. It was a beautiful site, he was free again. He will never be 100% sound again but he has hunted once or twice since the accident and is perfectly capable of being lightly worked by a confident rider. I just play with him, doing loose work and lunging, or even taking the kids out for a walk on him.
He owes me nothing, he has been a great friend and wonderful company for me over the last 11 ½ years. I only hope he continues to thrive.
Lennys pedigree
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