The
Miracle Haven
Photos and Text by Emily Hufford
Exactly So, Iza Valentine, Jamra, My Turbulent
Miss, and Taba at the Our Mims Retirement Haven
The amount of love pouring from every inch of space at the Old Mims Retirement Haven has to be felt to be believed; it is stunningly beautiful and moving. Jeanne Mirabito may be a teacher by day, but her “real” job is something that can be accredited to a miracle worker, savior, or a saint. Indeed, Mirabito may be all of those things.
Our Mims Retirement Haven is a farm that part adopts and part rescues mares who have been pensioned or are no longer useful to their owners. While many major stallions who are pensioned are given the chance to live out the rest of their lives at the farms where they stood at stud, mares can be forgotten, and not just low-level mares. Many of the horses that Mirabito brings in are stars who have fallen from grace. The thought that a once-champion horse is now hungry, cold, or unloved is a sickening one for Mirabito, who runs the Retirement Haven with her husband, Pete, and her three daughters, including sixteen-year-old Cassidy, who already has an uncanny ability with horses.
The farm in Paris, Kentucky, sprawls over forty-two acres, but is hardly impressive to the naked eye. It isn’t until Mirabito opens the stall doors and the elderly mares thunder past that one can truly appreciate the miracles that Mirabito performs.
While their long legs no longer carry them
to record speeds, and their once shining coats are now fuzzy and
perhaps a little worn, the sparks in their eyes are still there,
as gleaming and brilliant as ever. This is especially now that
the forgotten champions have a home full of love. To see them
running with joyful abandon is a sight that can strike a chord
in even the most hardened horseman's heart. A tight-knit group,
they move as one up the hill and into the distance, tails waving
like banners and strides still strong. They are the product of
a daring dream that has become reality, a dream that Mirabito
hopes to continue. |
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Iza
Valentine and JamraIn the summer of 1977, Jeanne Mirabito remembers seeing
Our Mims on the television and telling her brothers that she would one
day own that horse. Years later, Mirabito found herself working right
alongside her equine hero, and then owning her. For the final years
of her life, the 1977 champion three-year-old filly lived in the care
of Mirabito, and the two developed an extremely close bond. Then Our
Mims passed away in 2003, and Mirabito’s closest companion was
lost.
After caring for two more top racehorses in their twilight years, Hope
of Glory and Sugar and Spice, Mirabito had a dream that Our Mims spoke
to her and told her to take in five pensioned mares from a nearby farm.
The group included Argentinian champion Taba, who is the dam of Turkoman,
and My Turbulent Miss, the dam of Prized and Exploit. Mirabito did as
she was told, and now the mares are happy, their bellies are full, and
they have not a care in the world.
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Jamra, the youngest as a foal of 1981, is
a full sister to Clever Trick. The sprightly gray mare has a striking
resemblance to an older woman who refuses to give up her license,
so fleet are her gallop and trot. Twenty-eight-year-old Iza Valentine
has a personality all her own, quietly obeying the command of
Mirabito’s husband but acting up around Miratibo herself.
Exactly So, a twenty-seven-year-old mare, has a gentle disposition
and loves people to the extent that Mirabito is sure that the
mare must have had a “special person” who loved her
dearly at one point in time. Perhaps the most phenomenal mare
of the group, however, is Taba. At thirty-one, Taba is defying
age and logic with a coat that still looks like that of a fifteen-year-old. |
The mares can come in with skin disease, injuries, and general unhealthiness. Miratibo said, “It’s a challenge to win them over (sometimes).” This is especially true with the mare Smokie’s Love, a pretty chestnut in her mid-twenties who has had to endure the loss of her two beset pasture mates. To see the mare grieving, alone and apart from the other mares, head low and spirit torn, is a heart-breaking sight. Miratibo knows that if a companion isn’t found for Smokie’s Love soon, the mare’s condition could worsen.
Smokie's Love
The Retirement Haven relies heavily on donations from outside sources
to continue to care for the mares. New halters and blankets were donated,
but there is much to be desired in the barn and the field. One day,
Miratibo hopes to paint each horse’s stall door with a list of
their accomplishments and offspring. “I dream a lot,” Miratibo
said, stroking the head of one of her four dogs while helping to balance
a kitten who has climbed up her shoulder. Love is expressed through
each touch.
Off in the distance, five of the mares have raised their heads and are
watching. They are happy, healthy, and have the chance to live out their
final days in peace. For that, Miratibo truly is a saint.
If you would like to donate to the Our Mims Retirement Haven, please
contact the Turf Angels staff.
For every $10 donation through us, you will receive an 8 x 10 copy of
any Turf Angels photo.
