SEP Member of the Month
October 29, 2004,SEP Member of the Month
Scooters Baby & Diane Spera
By Diane Spera
Edited by Anne Chunko
I adopted Scooter’s Baby from the Standardbred Retirement Foundation when he was 20, from a picture on their website. I’ve never done anything like that before!
Scooter is my fifth horse. I started adopting geldings–you know: free to a good home–about 20 years ago and have been so fortunate to have had such wonderful horses to love and learn from. The older horses have so much to give.
Diane Spera and a friend showed Direct Scooter, sire of her adopted mare Scooter’s Baby, a picture of his daughter, when Spera and friend visited Walnridge Farm. Photo courtesy of Diane Spera.
I decided to adopt a Standardbred because a good friend of mine previously adopted a wonderful mare, Sassy, from SRF. Scooter is a pacer, and my first mare. She’s a 15 hand bay with a little white star on her forehead and some white with black spots on her feet. She only raced for a year and a half, 15 starts, and has no race injuries. She had one win at Harrington Raceway in September 1985. Her lifetime mark is p,3,2:12h and she earned $1,634 in her career.
She was retired from racing to be a broodmare for many years. She is out of the Airliner mare Ata Penny, and her sire, Direct Scooter has been called one of the most prolific registered stallions in New Jersey Sire Stake history. She had six foals, and three were by the great Niatross. Her best foal was the 1991 mare Supreme Highness by Niatross, who earned $64,601. Four of her foals made it to the races.
Somewhere around the year 2000, she was placed in the SRF adoption program by obviously very caring owners, Bondlyn Meadows of Greenville, New York. I’m her second “Mom” since she’s been in the SRF program: Her first adopter lives in Maine and loves Scooter very much. It was difficult for her to give Scooter up. We talked for hours during the adoption process and still keep in touch. She was the first person that we know of to put a saddle on Scooter, and Scooter just took right to it.
I adopted Scooter strictly for hacking around the farm and trail riding and to help fill the void in my life from losing my Quarter Horse, Cruzer, who tragically broke his leg in his pasture. I haven’t pursued much retraining for Scooter at this point. Her calm and willing nature make her perfect for giving “pony rides” to my friends’ children and grandchildren, which she seems to enjoy. She always stands patiently while being brushed and fed carrots by her little friends.
I’m fascinated by the fact that my Scooter’s life journey has taken her back to within 30 miles of where she was foaled, in Cream Ridge, N.J. My friends and I shared a special experience in meeting Direct Scooter, her sire, due to the hospitality of the great people at Walnridge Farm. I have to say that everyone I’ve met in the Standardbred world couldn’t be nicer. It’s been a truly wonderful experience and I’m looking forward to many more years with Scooter. The SRF program is the best!
I think my biggest accomplishment with Scooter was getting her to trust me. I’ve been told that mares take longer to bond, but Scooter was extremely cautious in accepting anyone in the beginning of our relationship. I can only imagine what she must have felt like, leaving someone she loved, going for a twenty hour trailer ride from Maine to New Jersey, and meeting all new people and horses. When I got her, she would do anything asked of her but wouldn’t make eye contact or take a carrot from any of us for the longest time. She gave us all a run for our money when it was time to catch her, even for her dinner. One particularly bad day, it took me over an hour and a half before she decided she would let me catch her.
Now, if she even sees me or hears my voice, she hurries to greet me. Scooter has proven over and over that with love and patience, you can accomplish anything.