Once destined for slaughter, Weber’s Jamaica now on equestrian pedestal

The best thing that ever happened to the warmblood gelding Jamaica was that he contracted a skin disease.

That’s because in Belgium, they eat horseflesh, or as the prized meat is called in Dutch, paardenvlees, and viande chevaline in French.

Either way, he was just days, if not hours, away from being steak tartare or a nice pot roast, belonging to a Belgium butcher planning to have the horse end his days under the knife.

Instead, the Dutch Warmblood avoided that fate when he got a bad skin rash and the Belgium butcher was afraid Jamaica might infect his other animals or contaminate his workplace. So the butcher put him up for sale.

The animal changed hands twice until he ended up with his current owner, Chester Weber, 33, of Ocala, an internationally ranked combined driver who competes using horses to pull carriages.

About eight years after avoiding the cooking pot, Jamaica is on the equestrian pedestal with the title of Horse of Honor for 2008….

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Date: 11-28-2008
Source: www.ocala.com