Lava Man Retired

[randallscott35]

My bad on Old Friends, he was expected to be sent there. Either way, he was sent to the farm after his retirement in terrible shape.

"The plan was to retire him to Old Friends in Kentucky to live out the remainder of his life. But his ankles were shot. They were "bone-on-bone," as Tom Hudson put it. So Hudson, who operates Rich and Gaby Sulpizio's Magali Farms in Santa Ynez, California, was given the job of nursing Lava Man back to health so that he could be sent to Old Friends in the best possible health.

"He had so many issues at that time," said Hudson, who received Lava Man on Aug. 4, 2008. "His ankles were so bad we had to just let him down; they were like softballs. He couldn't even go to the pasture. He was too sore. He was lame.