His name is As Himself and we call him Ace.  Ace is a 5 year-old, 15.2 hand thoroughbred that was racing at Penn National Racetrack in Pennsylvania.  When the track closed for the winter, Ace did not have a ride home with his owner - he had no where to go.  Without intervention, Ace would be slaughterbound. Through the efforts of some very dedicated rescuers, As Himself found his way to Friends of Ferdinand.  He's not Indiana bred or raced, but we love him all the same and were happy to provide him refuge and time to heal before moving on to a new career.  Ace has a small chip in his knee and is currently on stall rest and small paddock turnout.  The vet is coming in January to evaluate the knee and we will see if he is a candidate for surgery to remove the chip at Purdue University.  We would like to thank The Exceller Fund.  As Himself is the beneficiary of their support and friendship. 

Here's what his foster home has to say:  "He's actually doing really, really well.
He's settled down a lot - in fact he's down-right sweet.

His shoes came off and he was gimpy for a few days - I'm waiting for the farrier to put shoes back on (in the meantime he's not gimpy anymore though).

He lost a lot of weight and it freaked me out. No matter how many people told me he would deflate, I still wasn't prepared for a drop like that those first 2-3 weeks. Now he has plateau'd and this morning I took his blanket off and let him in the paddock with Remmy....he actually appears to have put some weight on (we started him on the rice bran last week coincidentally).

He's timid right now and is afraid to venture around the paddock. He acts like snow is something new - he is FL bred so I wouldn't be surprised as he only came up north this fall."

Update:  April 2008  Rood and Riddle gave Ace a wonderful gift - they removed his chips at a greatly rate.  Ace will be on stall rest for the next several weeks.

Update: May 23, 2008:  Ace is one of the sanest horses.  He takes such good care of himself and as a result, he has been getting some turnout.  He goes out with another thoroughbred and a QH ex-racer and he does a very good job of keeping himself out of trouble.  He has no heat or swelling in his knee and is steadily gaining weight.