Huey's secret identity revealed!

Continuing the story from the previous post..

Last summer, when we'd only had Huey for a month, I remember standing with my mother watching him in the pasture. I said to my mother that he looked a lot like Mr. Prospector.


Mr. Prospector was an influential Thoroughbred sire. He had a tendency to pass on "bench knees" (offset). He also had a lumpishly muscled build, to my eye. Huey has both of these characteristics.

Huey was sold to us as an "Appendix Quarter Horse". Since I remembered hearing somewhere that Mr. P showed up in xQHs, the resemblance did not alarm me. Huey came with a lip tattoo, which we could read as "Something-1-(6 or 8)-5-2-1". (Want to know more about tattoo formats? Read more...) Huey's tattoo seemed too long for a QH. So we wondered if the first or last digit was a smudge. We did a few look ups but nothing matched.

Finally the Jockey Club recently began looking up tattoos for free. I re-examined Huey's lip with the assistance of a carrot. The first character looked rather like a faded D. So I sent the JC "D16521" along with photos of Huey. When they sent me a match I was shocked. After a very courteous JC registrar called me and spent time reassuring me, I realized I was convinced.

Huey is...

"Word by Word", a chestnut gelding born March 2, 2000 in Kentucky. His paternal great grandfather is Mr. Prospector. He is out of a mare with Prince John two times, a line reputed to have good temperaments and hunter quality movement.

I immediately emailed the breeder. But I was disappointed to hear that any information on Huey would be in storage and that they were not interested in searching. Undeterred, I looked up his race record. Then I bought a subscription to EquiBase and watched a video of Huey losing his last race. Ah yes, I have trouble motivating him to be forward too.

Huey raced 46 times and won 8 for a career total of $96,195 between 2003 and 2007. He raced almost exclusively at Mountaineer Track in West Virginia. My instructor checked with the trader who sold Huey to us. He remembered that the trader he'd bought Huey from said he'd come from Mountaineer but that guy had said he was a Appendix Quarter Horse. He assumed that was right and hadn't pursued it further (he buys and sells many horses a year). The date checked out as a month or two after Huey's final race. I've sent an email to the racing office to request win photos. Once I can get a photo and get in contact with a person from his past, I will have tied up all the loose ends.

So now we know who Huey is. I had wondered if we ever would. As I said to my mother, Huey doesn't mind. He doesn't know if he is a Quarter Horse or a Thoroughbred or a zebra. He just is who he is. But we promised him a carrot cupcake on March 2nd next year...