Count Our Blessing and Genuine Reward?

Question

I heard about Genuine Risk's death and was shattered. She was an amazing racehorse. I am having trouble finding where her only two sons are. The first is Genuine Reward, who is a stallion. The second is Count Our Blessing, who is a gelding. Can someone please help me find where these horses are (basically, the farm or person they're owned by), and possibly a picture? The owner is more important to me, but a picture would be nice. The only picture I have of either of the colts is of Genuine Risk running in her paddock with Genuine Reward, as a foal.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Why get upset about Genuine Risk's passing? She was 31 years old, and that's roughly the equivalent of a 93 year old person. She died peacefully of old age in her paddock- which is not a bad way to go, if you ask me. I watched her race in 1981 ( I was 16 at the time and in high school) and I remember when Genuine Reward was born- I read about his birth in the Chronicle of the Horse. You might want to give their offices a call if you are looking for information about him or his half brother, Count Our Blessing. They are an official publication of the US Hunter/Jumper Association, among others, and they might just have the information you are looking for.

Genuine Risk led a long and happy life- she was far luckier than most racehorses generally are. It's unfortunate that she wasn't able to have more foals- they never did find out why she kept having miscarriages and stillbirths.Events like that don't just happen on their own- there's always a reason for them. We will likely never know what it was, now that she's gone.

Good luck in your search.  

Answer 2

I know, I was really upset to hear that Genuine Risk died too.  She raced before I was born, so I didn't get to see her personally, but I've read about her and watched videos of her races.  It's amazing that she raced into her 4 year old year and never finished out of the money.  Such a great filly.  I read a comment earlier about her saying: "I think of her now with Ruffian, Winning Colors, and Eight Belles. With endless love for them all."  I thought that was really nice.

As for her foals, I know that Genuine Reward is a sire in Wyoming... he's making some good polo ponies!  And Count Our Blessing is a show horse in New York... he's doing hunters!  http://www.drf.com/news/article/97405.ht...

I just found some info about Genuine Reward.  http://www.pedigreequery.com/genuine+rew...

According to that page, he's standing at Perk's Horspital and it gives their phone number: 307-674-4928.  That website is user-updated, but it goes along with what I read from the DRF earlier, so it seems accurate.  The pedigreequery website also gives this link to an article about Genuine Reward's birth: http://www.threechimneys.com/articles/ag...

As for Count Our Blessing, the best advice I can say is to contact the Firestones who owned Genuine Risk... they'll probably know where her babies are.  And I'm sure they'll appreciate a little note of consolation after their beautiful filly passed away.

For pictures, I too only managed to find the ones of her and the foal in the paddock.  

I believe these ones are Genuine Reward: http://www.tonyleonard.com/images/pre_ge...

http://www.loudounfarmmuseum.org/images/...

And this one is Count Our Blessing:

http://www.finalturngallery.com/albums/a...

Sorry that two of them are so small :o(

This link has some pictures of the old girl, herself:

http://www.barbaralivingston.com/gallery...

Edit:

My apologies about the article... I always forget that you can't link to DRF articles.  Here are the last few paragraphs from the article:

Genuine Risk produced only two live foals during her time at Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, Ky. The first was the colt Genuine Reward, by Rahy, in 1993, and the second was the Chief Honcho colt Count Our Blessing in 1996. Both were unraced. Genuine Reward has become a successful polo sire in Wyoming, while Count Our Blessing is a show hunter in New York.

The Firestones moved Genuine Risk from Three Chimneys to Newstead Farm in 1998. They pensioned her in 2000.

Genuine Risk has been buried on a patch of lawn surrounded by flowers across from the Firestones's house at Newstead. Bert Firestone said the family will plant a horseshoe of roses around or over the grave.

And here's a link to another good article that I found: http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/other/...

I looked up Genuine Reward a bit more and I think the farm where he stands is JC Ranch Inc 844 Beaver Creek Rd, Sheridan, WY 82801-9056, United States.  The people who own the ranch are called Mike and Perk Connell.  Actually, the pedigreequery page says he's owned by Eagle Point Farm http://www.eaglepointfarm.com/home.htm ... their website has a contact us page, so you could e-mail them to check if they still own him.

I didn't manage to find anything more about Count Our Blessing/Westley.  I'd suggest since he is doing hunters, to contact USHJA (US Hunter Jumper Assn).  But for many shows, you don't have to register with any organization... a lot of shows are small gatherings at local barns.  So you might not find him through an organization... but it never hurts to try.

Starlight, that's a nice way to look at it!  To me, anyone dying is sad, even if they are old and had a good life.  But approaching death as a celebration of all the wonderful things during that person's/horse's life is very nice.  Kudos!

Answer 3

If you go to bloodhorse.com there is an article about ,genuine risk,

and it tells you where genuine reward is and count our blessing, COB is in NY, and GR is in ok. or wyoming,GR is a sire to ponies.It is a free download,hope this helps

Answer 4

The only thing I can add to kmnmiami's answer is that Count Our Blessing' show name is Westley. The poster gave some very good info on these two.