IT IS hard to believe that just two years ago Tasmania's Horse of the Year was a bag of bones.
Gerry, a former racehorse once owned by Gerry Harvey and trained by Lee Freedman, had been sold and put out to pasture in northern Tasmania but there was not much pasture to be had.
Gerry was leading a lonely, starved existence in a paddock at Deloraine and was due to be put down.
Enter Hobart horse lover Sara Faulds.
"Gerry had gone from the upper echelons of racing to a terrible existence," she said yesterday from her Acton home.
"He was so weak I would have to lay with him to encourage him to eat. I couldn't even put a rug on him because his bones stuck out so much and the material would rub."
That was two years and 600kg ago. Gerry, a six-year-old hunter hack gelding, is now 800kg and in December he will represent Tasmania at the national Horse of the Year titles.
Ms Faulds saved another horse languishing at Seven Mile Beach a few years ago. It also won awards at the Tasmanian Horse of the Year titles.
"Life after the track is not always kind to racehorses," Ms Faulds said.
"With love and attention there can be a healthy and stimulating life after racing."
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