Out to pasture

Suzanne Moore's farm is like a nursing home for ailing horses.

By JACKIE RIPLEY

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 11, 2000

KEYSTONE -- Black is a geriatric gelding whose gray whiskers speak volumes. The horse's life story could well have come from the pages of The Horse Whisperer, the best-selling novel about the mystical abilities of a horse trainer who brought a severely injured horse back from the brink.

Hit by a train at the age of 3, the now 27-year-old Black is living out his days in pampered comfort at Moore & Moore Horse Farm, 10 acres of equine paradise on Gunn Highway.

"He's like an accident victim, crippled for life but not in pain," said Suzanne Moore, who owns and operates the farm for brood mares and ailing equines. "He runs and plays and when he wheels around and kicks, it thrills me to death that he can do that."

Five-hundred stitches took care of the horse's soft tissue damage from the train accident, enough so that Black was able to spend many successful years as a harness racer. An injury to Black's right front leg about 10 years ago, however, earned him a stall at Moore's farm.

"Eighty percent of what we do is tender loving care," said Moore who limits the number of horses she takes in to about 14, and charges less than a regular boarding stable. "They've had a long, rough life and deserve to live their lives out in comfort."

And that they do, in the company of dogs, cats and roosters.

"We have a slice of heaven here," Moore said. "Wild turkeys come out and roost on the rafters, our banty roosters sit on the horses and keep warm in the winter. The horses like it because the roosters scratch their backs."

Tinky, whose owner was transferred to North Carolina eight years ago, is another of Moore's geriatric boarders. Arthritis kept the aging horse from making the trip north. So now at 31, Tinky spends much of his time lying down in his stall in front of a fan. However there are days when Tinky too kicks up his heels.

"He spends a lot of time rearing and bucking," said Moore who uses Tinky to help wean the babies. "He's good with them. He doesn't kick but he does correct them."

Moore, 55, was raised in Alabama around horses and spent about 20 years in Tampa selling real estate. Eight years ago she bought the Gunn Highway property. Her teenage daughters and her 80-year-old mother help.

"It's very quiet here. There's no riding or commotion," said Moore, taking Grace, a six-year-old mare out of a stall. Three months ago, Grace gave birth to Pepper, a fawn-colored foal who was scheduled to go home Saturdaywith Emmet Stevens.

"She's a good-looking horse with good muscle tone and a great blood line," said Stevens, who shoes Moore's horses and runs his own horse farm in Dade City.

It was Pepper's second day away from her mother and both horses were upset by the separation, whinnying back and forth to one another.

"The babies cry, the mothers cry but most babies are sold before they're weaned, if it's to the right person," Moore said. "It's bittersweet."

Moore, who shows her barn by appointment, said most of what she does is monitoring, maintenance and tender loving care.

"I do this out of the pure love of doing it," said Moore, who can be reached at (813) 920-0575.

- Jackie Ripley can be reached at (813) 226-3468 or ripley@sptimes.com.

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