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A Horse With Heart
North Dakota's most famous horse is a thoroughbred filly which nature adorned with a perfectly shaped white heart that's perfectly positioned on her forehead.
"The Jockey Club of New York, which has registered thoroughbreds since 1894, tells me the unique marking. has never been seen before and probably never wi
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A Horse With Heart AG WORLD Ag World 14-2-20 North Dakota's most famous horse is a thoroughbred filly which nature adorned with a perfectly shaped white heart that's perfectly positioned on her forehead.
"The Jockey Club of New York, which has registered thoroughbreds since 1894, tells me the unique marking. has never been seen before and probably never will be again," notes Peter Petersen, breeder and owner of the famous filly who's appropriately named "Heart".
Newspapers and periodicals across the United States and Canada have bombarded him with requests for pictures of Heart. Gov. George Sinner named her an official centennial princess during North Dakota's statewide centennial celebration last year. And there's talk of her appearing in a movie called "Dakota Dawn."
Petersen, who operates a horse-breeding ranch near Douglas in north central North Dakota, attributes Heart's unique marking to heredity, the result of mating Will's Lark with Chapter. "Chapter's father had threequarters of a heart on his face. I figure it just kicked down through the genes," says the veteran horseman.
He adds that,"Heart has a personality to match her unique marking. She calmly allows children to ride her, tourists to take pictures of her and parade spectators to gawk at her. She isn't scared of anything .and she's got a lot of fire."
The filly also has a physique to match the large heart on her forehead. "She matured out twice as fast as any ordinary horse ù I've never seen anything like it. When she was a yearling, she was already the size of a 2-year old."
Now about 1-1/2 years old, Heart weighs 1,000 lbs. and stands 15 hands tall. "I'm going to try to get her into some TV commercials and let her mature, then try to run her when she's three," says Petersen, adding that he later plans to sell a majority interest in Heart, keeping only a small share for himself.
For now, Petersen is galloping Heart several miles each day on his 300-acre spread and feeding her the "power diet" that bud-ding racehorses require. It includes vitamins, minerals, alfalfa hay and "good North Dakota-grown oats, the best in the world," says Petersen.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Peter Petersen, Douglas, N. Dak. 58735 (ph 701 722-3387). (Reprinted from North Dakota REC Magazine).
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