126 SIDELINES MARCH 2014
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
SIDELINES JUNE 2012 3
e
Horse Rescue - Colorado
Mother
Knows
Best
From Broken Down to Colorado’s Horse of the Year,
This Rescue Horse Beat the Odds - All Thanks to a
Horse Collecting, Thoroughbred-Loving Mother.
By Dani Moritz
B
ini Abbott and her daughter Kris Nixon, of Arvada,
Colorado, had two very different ideas about a
Thoroughbred gelding named JJ. Bini, the president of
Rocky Mountain Horse Rescue and lifetime horse-saver, saw
a skinny, funny-looking Thoroughbred who had some potential.
Kris, owner and trainer at Noontide Farm, on the other hand, saw
another of her mother’s equine collections who probably wouldn’t
even survive the night.
As it turns out, mom was right – as moms usually are.
Bini purchased JJ for $625.80 at an auction. She just couldn’t
help herself. After she walked him up and down the aisle and he
stayed on all fours, Bini decided that she would buy him.
She readily admits that she’s a “Thoroughbred nut” so she
was willing to overlook the health issues – the ones Kris wasn’t
so sure of. “I really, really yelled at her because I had been telling
her to stop collecting horses, which will never really happen,”
Kris said. He was in really bad shape. His stifle kept locking
up every time he would move, his hind leg would get stuck out
behind him and he could barely drag himself around the pen.”
Kris was right about one thing – he was in horrible condition.
He was a beat-down horse. He made a pretty poor racehorse
and obviously hadn’t been taken care of in his previous home. All
signs pointed to him being put down, but that didn’t stop Bini.
The vet suggested that the stifle problem might correct itself
as JJ gained some weight. As it turns out, mom was right (once
again) and JJ showed Kris his life was far from over.
When JJ put on a little more weight, Bini asked Kris to hop on
him to see if they could adopt him out. Kris somewhat reluctantly
slapped on some tack, hacked him around in his pen and took
him out to the field. She was surprised with the result. “He was
just such a nice-minded horse,” she said. “I didn’t think I would
keep him. I just thought we could sell him to a kid or something
and he could have a nice short stirrup career.”
Kris quickly changed her attitude about the once end-of-the-
road Thoroughbred and, as she puts it, “brought my trailer out
and stole him from my mom.” Not that Bini minded, of course.
Within a week, Kris took JJ to his first show and their
partnership took off. The longer she kept him, the more she
loved him and the more she realized his potential. “He loved to
jump so much that every time I thought he couldn’t jump any
higher, he would jump higher and win.”
Bini commented that Kris did a fantastic job with him. She
laughs as she remembers his peculiar, but obviously talented,
jumping style. “He was kind of like the horse with the flying tail
over some of the jumps. He had his tale whipping up and over,
but she just started riding him and from then on he was such a
good boy.”
Kris and JJ at the Colorado
Horse Park in 2001.
Photo Courtesy of Kris Nixon
