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Horse rescues a part of our equine culture
ToThe Res cue
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BY CARLTON REESE | PHOTOGRAPHY BY RALPH DEMILIO
Retired, abandoned and abused horses find comfort in local homes
Memories of those glorious days in the limelight, when the crowds’ cheers echoed through the arena and the adrenaline rush of competition routinely nourished the sinews, may be seared vividly and permanently in the conscience or may be so distant as to no longer own space in the mind. If an aged race horse could talk, perhaps it would regale its offspring with grand tales of past glory on the track, boring generation after generation of wire-to-wire victories in distant lands.
Alas, only God knows if a retired thoroughbred remembers those days of sublime renown or even longs for their return. There is no way the horse could ever understand that it’s true role in younger days was as capital, a commodity investment with the hope of bringing a healthy return to its human owners. If that were so, the horse would certainly realize the pending predicament upon retirement, when it more than likely goes from benefit to burden. For many of these horses, the transition to burdensome beast bodes an unhappy ending that could include neglect, abandonment and, in the worst of cases, outright destruction.
For Story to Tell, who earned over $300,000 in prize money for his owners during his racing days, the ending looks to be a happy one as he roams the Cedar Lock Farm and Racing Stables under the care of Laurine Fuller-Vargas. Before his arrival at Cedar Lock in Morriston, the horse was trending in an altogether different direction, a vector similar to that of many horses past their primes that see the final stages of their lives either neglected and wanting medical care and nourishment or even sent to a kill pen.
“He (Story to Tell) used to be a stakes horse,” Fuller-Vargas explained. “And because of that they kept trying to run him for the bottom claimers.”
For famed racing photographer Barbara Livingston, seeing the horse go from stakes races to $5,000 claiming races meant just one thing: Retirement from racing and a likely surrender from the owners, which could be dire for the horse, was the next step. So, Livingston bought the horse for $500 and sent it to Cedar Lock where she knew Story to Tell would be in good hands and live out its life under the care of loving owners.
Story to Tell represents one of many
...the transition to burden some beast
happy endings in the world of horse rescues that play a prominent role in the equine fabric of Marion County. The breeding, training and competing of horses is well documented in central Florida, but the caring for these animals long after they have served their ultimate purpose is the more unsung flip side of the industry but just as important. From professional organizations dedicated to providing after-care and rehabilitation for horses to individuals eager to foster those in trouble, the Ocala area boasts quite a few soft hearts that assure those happy endings that otherwise would not have been.
Among those is Carla Treitel, who currently provides a home for two rescued horses and a rescued mule.
“In our case, we wanted to make a difference with these horses through kindness,” said Treitel, who with her husband owns horse property at Via Paradisus. “It’s a wonderful thing to save a horse or any animal — our dogs are rescues — because they are essentially homeless and have been poorly treated.”
Among Treitel’s rescues is a white mule named Angel that is being trained to pull a cart and a Belgian named Saffron, previously owned by an Amish family. “They worked
that horse until they were ready for him to die,” Treitel said of Saffron. “For whatever reason, they didn’t feel he was worth feeding and were dumping him. It had such a hard life, when it got off the trailer the guy driving the trailer said the horse was about half dead.”
Treitel says Saffron has “bounced back like there’s no tomorrow” and that it’s “the star of the farm.”
The Treitels purchased Saffron and several others from a kill pen in Oklahoma they have deemed most trustworthy and that is one way to rescue a horse in a desperate situation. There are also organizations such as the Horse Protection Association of Florida whose mission is to rescue starved, neglected, abused and abandoned horses. The HPAF takes in horses, rehabilitates and trains them so they can find permanent foster homes.
Recently, when 16 neglected mustangs were discovered in Williston, the HPAF stepped in to assist with the case. Suffering from severe starvation, three of the horses had to be euthanized while four currently reside at the HPAF farm located in Micanopy. The rest were rehabilitated to where they were able to find good homes.
“We’re talking about horses that are skeletons, are too weak to get up,” said HPAF Executive Director Christine Massinger. “That’s an extreme situation in which we get involved.”
In 31 years, HPAF has rescued over 2,000 horses that include many different breeds beyond thoroughbreds. Among the recent rescues is a group of six miniature horses that Massinger refers to as their “Miracle Minis.” Included in the group was one discarded on someone’s property in Orlando and taken to an equine facility there. The handlers at that facility could not touch the horse because it was so frightened, but after HPAF became involved, the horse has a new name (Courage) and new prospects. “He’s turned around and he loves kisses and everything else,” Massinger said.
The Miracle Minis are now helping in the community, according to Massinger. The horses are integral to the Spirit Walk program in which a person takes a reflective walk with a miniature horse on a mile-long path.
The need for horse rescues grows, thanks to several factors: 1. A sliding economy that makes unproductive horses too expensive to keep, and 2. Voluminous breeding of the animals with the end game not clearly taken into consideration.
Around Ocala, where an abundance of wealth would seem to make the former a moot point, the opposite is actually true as many horse owners have come to find they simply can no longer afford to take care of them. “There’s more of a percentage of horse owners that aren’t wealthy, who are just animal lovers who either grew up with horses or who just love horses,” Massinger said. “Unfortunately, with inflation and everything else, the cost of hay and feed are rising and even well-intended people are not able to take care of their horses.”
Fuller-Vargas, whose mother and grandmother were trainers, grew up in the horse industry and has seen first-hand the unfortunate dark side of the business where some horses face neglect or abandonment
when their productive years have passed.
“I’ve seen so many owners get into the sport and not even think, ‘what are we going to do when we have a broken horse and paying $80 a day to have it trained or cared for until they find a home?’” Fuller-Vargas said. “Money adds up quick and they’re getting rid of the horses quicker and not vetting the people they’re giving the horses to, sometimes.”
At the HPAF facility in Micanopy, Massinger estimates that it costs approximately $9,000 a month to take care of the 47 horses currently residing there. That cost, however, includes only hay and feed; other costs such as veterinary services, farrier services and medicines add astronomically to that number.
“When we get our first frost,” Massinger said, “there will be good-hearted people that might not be able to take care of their horses because of the cost of hay in particular.”
Rescuing a horse from a potential demise brings a level of satisfaction that is hard to deny, but rescuing a horse from a cruel situation where the animal is starving, has been abused or is in desperate need of medical attention makes the rescue especially heartwarming. That is where Treitel sees the biggest impact, especially with those rescued from the kill pens.
“I have to believe they know they were not wanted,” Treitel said. “They were there to be killed, and because they’re instinctive animals, when they get on that truck to go somewhere they have no idea what’s next. But when they get off and start to be treated kindly and are given a stall, and are fed, and their teeth are done, well … there’s such great affection from these horses. We see significant change in the horse as early as the second week.
“It’s extra special when they come to you and you can see in their being that they’re coming from a place they never want
to go back to and all of a sudden they don’t have to.”
To rescue horses in trouble, Treitel goes mainly to the Stroud Oklahoma Kill Pen, one she has deemed trustworthy in a world where some kill pens may try to take advantage of kind hearts. Some pens have a reputation for advertising horses as on the brink of being destroyed so that rescuers will step in and pay higher amounts to rescue the animal right away when in reality that horse is not slated to be killed soon. Treitel is happy she has found a kill pen with an impeccable record.
“They sell horses that can find a home like crazy,” Treitel said of the Stroud kill pen. “Every horse they can save, they save and find a home for.”
According to the Humane Society of the United States, over 23,000 horses were
shipped to slaughter in 2021, down dramatically from the 166,000 shipped for slaughter in 2012. Most disturbing is that 92.3 percent of those horses are in good condition and would otherwise have been able to live out healthy, productive lives. The National Thoroughbred Racing Association recently estimated that 7,500 thoroughbreds each year are slaughtered for human consumption.
The notion that currently abused or neglected horses have nothing left to give has been proven a myth by rescuers such as Treitel, Massinger and Fuller-Vargas. Horses deemed unworthy by previous owners often find homes where they earn their keep as competition horses, trail horses, companions and even therapeutic pets. From retired race horses to abandoned mustangs and minis, there is still much life left in these animals beyond merely fattening up in a pasture.
At Cedar Lock, a bi-monthly hunter-jumper show takes place as well as a three-day Thoroughbred Transformation Expo at the Florida Horse Park in December. At the most recent expo, one of Fuller-Vargas’ rescues actually came to the rescue itself. One horse from a Canadian woman who comes down for the expo came up lame; that’s when Fuller-Vargas called on another retired thoroughbred to step in and compete in place of the scratch.
“He’s been with us five years and is one of our oldest residents,” Fuller-Vargas said of the stand-in horse, referred to locally as Ghost since he is a progeny of Ghostzapper. Ghost’s name in his racing days was Who We Gonna Call and his story is similar to Story to Tell’s.
Ghost was to be an event horse stallion for his new post-racing career owners, but a coffin bone injury would make this impossible. The owner called Fuller-Vargas for help.
“She was hysterical that she had to find this horse a home immediately or it was going to be put down,” Fuller-Vargas said. “So I took this horse in sight-unseen. We got him gelded, started working with him and riding him. The horse is amazing and worth his weight in gold, but he’s limited to what he can do because of injury.”
Despite his injury, Ghost competed in the expo and the rest of his days are spent being ridden by children.
For Ghost, like Story to Tell and Saffron, the Williston mustangs and the Miracle Minis, life goes on in a grand and happy way even when the limelight has dimmed. It’s all thanks to those who come to the rescue.
