Bright Eyes: Hope For Animals

B r i g h t E y e s : H o p e F o r A n i m a l s

Story By Hannah Lester Photos Contributed By Bright Eyes Equine Rescue

Bright Eyes Equine Rescue provides a home for horses who have reached the end of their life, a safe place for them to live out the rest of their days. But on the other side of the circle of life, the organization rescues, rehabilitates and adopts out younger horses, as well.

“It is our mission to provide a safe and nurturing environment for them to heal, both mentally and physically, and regain the freedom to live life more abundantly,” said Nicki Perryman, one of the co-owners of the organization.

Perryman, along with Betsy Page are neighbors who run the organization together. Though their friendship started on a rocky note — Perryman’s son had a febrile seizure and Page was there to support her — they have worked together to rescue animals together for years now.

“With our love of animals we connected and have been great friends ever since,” Perryman said. “Even though we are 30 years apart.

The first animal the two rescued together was a horse named Diego.

“[I] was in the process of finding a new horse to love,” Perryman said. “A friend had one that was headed for the Roanoke Sale, which has a lot of kill buyers, so [I] was able to have that horse brought to the farm. His name is now

Nicki Perryman

Diego, but we call him D for short. Diego is around 18 years old and is a Paso Fino. He is very happy and healthy.”

The two named their rescue ‘Bright Eyes’ because of the hope they’ve seen in animals eyes, Perryman said.

“Getting a horse that is malnourished and does not know the proper meaning of love and being cared for, watching them do a complete 360 is just very rewarding,” she said.

Because of the background of the some of the horses — abuse and neglect — it can take a while before the horses trust Page and Perryman, sometimes.

“We have one that it took literally two years for him to take a treat from us,” Perryman said.

The horse would take his food, but no treats, from the coowners, Page said.

Sometimes horses come to the organization because the animal is sick or old. Other times it is because the owner is old, sick or can’t take care of the horse anymore. A typical day with the animals begins with an hour-and-ahalf feeding process.

“We’ve got 11 [horses] right now, two barns,” Page said. “One barn that has two horses and the other barn has nine. So we’ve got a lot of horses to feed and they’re on specialized diets, I think a lot of people don’t realize that it’s a lot harder to feed horses, especially if you have older horses in the mix. It’s not like you can just go put down their food, like you can a dog. We have special diets for each horse.”

The organization is not to the point where it can support many volunteers right now.

“Occasionally, we have volunteers,” Page said. “We don’t advertise for volunteers very much right now because we’re not in the right circumstances, I guess, to be able to direct them as to what to do.

But this time of year, horses are shedding profusely and so sometimes we have volunteers out who help to groom the horses.”

Volunteers help lead horses on the trails, work them in the round pen or go on errands for hay, etc, all regular activities for Perryman and Page.

“We spend the whole day at the barn a lot of times,” Page said.

Perryman said that the organization hopes to host a volunteer day in the future where potential volunteers will be invited out to the property.

They are preparing the property now, however.

“We are in the process of getting our barn completed and

fencing rebuilt,” Perryman said. “This has been very difficult before being approved for our 501(c)(3).”

The funding for Bright Eyes is all out of pocket right now, Perryman said, for the two of them. Funding challenges include, “paying for vet bills, feed and hay, with inflation feed and hay prices are going up,” she said.

Bright Eyes does have a donor, Page said, that has provided funding in the past.

“We hope that she’ll continue to think that we’re worthy of her giving donations to us but her money has helped us a good bit with hay, and feed and vetting the horses,” Page said. “Because usually, immediately, when we get [the horses] most of them have not recently been vetted so we have to call the vet out and take care of their major shots and make sure they are not wormy and sick.”

The organization is accepting more donations, however. To find Bright Eyes, visit the organization’s gofundme: www. gofundme.com/f/bright-eyes-equine-rescue.

When the organization has more funding, through donations and grants, the hope will be to find more horses in need of adoptions and get them into good homes, Perryman said.

“The bottom line is, people get to where they can’t take care of their animals anymore,” Perryman said. “Whether it be time, money or they just don’t care, we want to be that safe haven for these animals to land.”