Woman rescues horses, finds a passion    • Dana DiRicco rescues
Percheron horses who were being bred in sometimes terrible
conditions for their urine, used in a female hormone replacement
drug. (Courtesy of Dana DiRicco)  The book she has written is,
says Dana DiRicco, an “adventure story.” But it also is a
classic underdog story, of how one woman rescued an unwanted
horse with an uncertain future, turned her into a champion and
found a new passion in her own retirement.  When Hera arrived at
DiRicco's Healdsburg ranch along with three other adopted
Percherons, she and the others were unruly and untamed.  All of
the horses were expendable byproducts of the drug industry.
Their mothers were on “the urine line,” kept pregnant solely for
the urine they produced, which is used in the production of
Premarin, a human hormone-replacement drug. Most of the
resulting foals are sold into often uncertain futures.  But
DiRicco saw particular promise in one of her first four rescue
animals, a young dappled-gray draft hor