Harris Farms News

Ron Mesaros Photo

Brad Penny, Alyssa Milano and John C. Harris

Alyssa Milano said she agreed to partner with consignor Harris Farms on Peace By Peace, a Yonaguska filly who was bought back for $55,000.

“I just opened the catalog to the page and I liked the name because I’m an ambassador for UNICEF, and we’re in war times, so Peace By Peace was kind of cool,” Milano said after taking pictures of the filly outside Harris’s barn. “I don’t know. I just saw her and fell in love with her.”

Milano said she was also taken by the filly being an orphan. Her dam, the Hold Your Peace mare Peaceful Road, died from colic complications. Brown Bess, champion turf female of 1989, raised the filly.

“She has a great story, and I always find that the winners have something to run for besides just athleticism, coming from these great tragic stories,” Milano said. “I came here not even planning on doing this. I have eight [non-Thoroughbred] horses, so what’s another one. Right? It’s exciting. Brad’s addicted. He wants winners. I’m a lot more like, ‘Oh, she’s an orphan.’ I just want a happy, healthy filly.”

Dr. Bowers:
The mare Peaceful Road was purchased at the November Keeneland sale of 2003. I had earmarked her prior to the sale because she was a California 2 year old stakes winner, the family was really strong and I felt the mare had been bred to all the wrong stallions, especially since her sister had done well with the Unbridled line (Mr. Prospector).

The day she came up for sale was cold and rainy and not a lot of people were looking at horses. Mr. Harris was in a meeting and I called him to say I thought we should get this mare. He agreed and I was able to get her for 17,000. I was excited as the mare had a yearling by El Corredor (Mr. Prospector line) and was in foal to Yonaguska (broodmare sire is by Mr. Prospector).

Unfortunately within two weeks of foaling the mare suffered an attack of colic and died on her way to surgery. The filly returned home and we tried to get her to drink milk from a bucket but she refused. She also wasn't interested in a bottle. I got goat's milk (most foals love that) but she still refused to drink. I remembered that a week or so previous to this event that the mare Brown Bess had tried to steal a calf so I got the idea to see if we could turn Bess into a nurse mare.

A colleague of mine (Dr. Peter Daels) had developed a protocol to induce lactation. That worked well and Bess quickly had a full bag of milk.

Unfortunately she didn't like the foal and we spent almost a month having to do round the clock supervised nursing sessions. Everyone thought I should just give up but I didn't want this foal to grow up as an orphan. In desperation I repeated injections of hormones that are present during the birthing process and miraculously the mare acted like she had just given birth.

Bess became the perfect mother as she was dominant in pasture and instilled an incredible amount of confidence in this foal. Her name Peace by Peace came to me when I was searching for meaningful Indian names. It just seemed to fit as her sire was named after an Indian Chief known for peacemaking. One could also say that the events in her life all came together piece by piece. In any case having an ambassador for UNICEF being a part of her life seems quite appropriate.

HARRIS FARMS HORSE DIVISION
27366 W. Oakland Avenue
Coalinga, CA 93210
Tel: 559.884.2859 or 800.311.6211
FAX: 559.884.2855
Internet: info@harrisfarms.com