Past Editions Archive
Written by Sidelines Staff Thursday, 01 October 2009 00:00
By Jan Westmark
Anyone watching Jennifer Labbe’s pretty dappled grey mare showing in the rings at the Winter Equestrian Festival would find it hard to believe the five-year-old mare was once so wild no one could catch her. It’s also hard to imagine that the same mare, which can go from the show ring to the hunt field without blinking an eye, was found in a kill pen as a yearling and that her short life was slated to end before it even began.
Jennifer’s rock solid mare is named Bleu Marlin, although family and friends fondly refer to the Percheron/Welsh cross as “The Couch.” Jennifer adopted her from Pure Thoughts Horse and Foal Rescue in Wellington in 2004, although she admits it wasn’t a planned adoption. “I went to Pure Thoughts to just watch the auction and ended up leaving with this wild thing,” Jennifer said. “My first reaction upon seeing her was how wild she was because she tried to escape any way possible and we had to leave a lead rope attached to her halter to catch her in the field.”
Jennifer said the mare arrived at her farm as Hurricane Frances was hammering its way toward South Florida. “She ended up spending the weekend in a stall with some bags of shavings and would not let you near her even to brush her,” said Jennifer, who divides her time between her Split Creek Farm in Wellington and her farm in Tryon, North Carolina, where she hunts with Green Creek and Tryon Hounds. 
Because of the mare’s arrival during the hurricane, Jennifer tried to name her Frances. The name didn’t stick, however, thanks to a story that Pure Thoughts founder Jen Swanson shared with her. “Jen rescued her as a yearling and she came directly from a kill pen. At the time Jen told me they were selling the babies and yearlings to make their hides into covers for chairs and couches. So when she showed up at my parent’s farm and they said, ‘What the heck is that wild thing ... send it back!’ I told them that she was rescued from being a couch and after that she was dubbed ‘That Couch’.”
Jennifer sent Couch to Lynard Hills Farm in Tryon, where Clayton Russell broke her as a three year old and started her over little fences. “I was amazed how she loved to foxhunt and gallop around the trails with the hounds running in between her legs,” Jennifer said, adding that she brought her back to Florida where Don Patterson started her in the jumpers. “I train with Penny Lombardo who will be showing her this year. I hope to show her in the child/adult jumpers this year and do some foxhunting with Tryon Hounds.”
When asked about the impact Couch has made on her life, Jennifer is quick to say that the wild filly rescued from a certain death has turned into a true blessing. “She has become so trusting after being sent to a kill pen. She is safe and gets over the jump even if you miss a distance and she tries to be so careful. It makes you believe anything is possible when a wild unbroken yearling from the kill pen can show at WEF.”
Like many rescue horses, Couch has her quirks. “She loves to swim in the pond and eat water lilies,” Jennifer said with a laugh, before turning serious with a message about horse rescue. “I would tell anyone thinking about rescuing a horse to just do it. The cost for adoption is minimal and although the horses seem like a huge project if they are unbroken and running wild, they end up being really good horses due to the ordeals they have suffered. Couch has changed my life!”
