COCHRANTON, Pa. — Tucked away along the winding back roads about an hour outside Erie, Pennsylvania is a place where a handful of thoroughbreds are living out their wonder years. Among those calling Bright Futures Farm home is Trusted Company, one of the last living direct decedents of the 1973 Kentucky Derby winner Secretariat.
At age 34, it’s believed Trusted Company is the last living daughter of the Triple Crown winner.
“So as far as we know, she is the last and most likely is because she’s 34,” Bev Dee, owner of Bright Futures Farm, said.
Dee has had an interest in horses since she was a little girl. This lead to around 20 years of caring for horses who have no other place to go.
Trusted Company came to the farm in 2018 after her last owner couldn’t take care of her anymore. Something Dee says happens a lot.
“They fall through the cracks, they get shipped off to slaughter in other countries, it’s horrible. No animal should have to go through that,” Dee said.
That realization led her to quit her good paying job, sell her house, buy a farm, and start a sanctuary for elderly horses. She’s been a forever home for animals like Trusted Company ever since.
“Kind of just dove in with both feet without realizing what I was getting into, but it ended up all right, it turned out really well,” Dee said.
Looking after Trusted Company and the other aging horses is a full-time job. In their old age, these ladies are accustomed to their daily routines and often need medicine or doctor visits.
“It’s pretty special here,” Michele Eire, who serves on the sanctuary’s board, said.
Why has Eire dedicated so much of her life to these animals for the last two decades? “The love for the horses, and I know Bev takes really good care of them.”
And while the daughter of one of the most famous racehorses is long past her riding days, Dee says like every other horse here, Trusted Company deserves to enjoy the rest of her life stress free.
“You know we bred them and we raised them to do a job, and now that job’s over, it’s somebody’s responsibility to get them a good life,” Dee said.
While caring for aging horses is time consuming and increasingly expensive, at least at this farm, these special animals are treated like racing royalty.
Before his death in late 1989, Secretariat sired around 600 foals. Trusted Company was born that same year on Valentine’s Day.