Shiloh

The following appeared in a Fund For Animals newsletter in the late 1980’s:

Last Two Atlantic City Diving Horses Rescued by Fund

Imagine you are a horse, and, after unbelievably difficult training, you have to spend your life diving 60 feet into 10 feet of water - four times a day, seven days a week (pictured on cover). Then imagine that, when the job folded, you’re sent to an auction and sold to anyone who could get something more out of you before eventual slaughter. That’s just what happened to the famous Atlantic City Steel Pier diving horses, the act finally folding when the pier was sold to Resorts International. Fortunately, the last two of these horses, Gamal, 26 years old and Shiloh, nine years old, were rescued by the Fund. Now the only time they hit the water is when they feel like - as they did here (pictured at left) on an outing with Fund agent Cynthia Branigan (left) and Laura Fetko (right). Gamal and Shiloh will spend the rest of their lives in peace and contentment and will serve as living symbols teaching school children and other visitors about cruelty to animals. (Note: We did not include the pictures referred to above because they did not reproduce well.)

UPDATE

Gamal and Shiloh were both scheduled to go to Black Beauty Ranch. However, Cleveland writes in Ranch of Dreams of what actually happened.

"On top of all this, our plans to take both Gamal and Shiloh to Black Beauty went awry. The reason for this had nothing to do with Shiloh, who still today is an extremely happy Black Beauty horse. It had to do with Gamal, or rather Cynthia and Gamal. Cynthia, like so many women I have known, was unreliable where the first horse of her very own was concerned. In the two days she had Gamal before he was to be taken off to Black Beauty, she fell head over heels in love with him. Above all, she wanted him to stay with her and not go all the way to Texas. To build her case she foisted argument after argument upon us, claiming she would pay for every cent of his stable care and would look after him every day. She even went to such despicable lengths as persuading various horse authorities to tell us that Gamal was far too tired and sick to make the trip to Texas. As if that were not enough, even after it was obvious that Gamal was neither tired nor sick she pressured the same authorities into telling us that he was now too old to make the trip."

Cynthia finally won out over the Curmudgeon, and Gamal lived for ten years under her faithful care. And one gets the feeling reading Cleveland’s book that maybe he doesn’t really consider this such a despicable thing and that perhaps has gone to similar lengths himself.

Shiloh did come to live at the Ranch and she had a foal. Both Shiloh and her daughter still live happily at the Ranch.

Shiloh