Calling Equine Rescue

It stands tall, its infected leg wrapped in an Ace bandage and its hips straining so hard against its hide that it’s hard to believe it can move without the bones breaking through the skin.
The end of a catheter sticks out of its left side so that veterinarians can feed it antibiotics and other drugs. There is so little muscle left on the animal’s frame that medications cannot be injected.

“When we found him, his leg was so swollen and infected that it looked like just a stump,” said Susan White, of the Richmond region of the United States Equine Rescue League. “He could barely walk, let alone stand and I was worried about how we were going to get him into the trailer to get him out there. He just jumped right up and got in there. He wanted out of where he was.”
The horse was transported to an Albemarle County farm for medical care and rehabilitation last week, courtesy of the organization that spirits away abused, neglected and sick horses — on behalf of law enforcement — from those who cannot or will not care for the animals.

“We take the worst case horses here; the wounded, the sick, the seriously neglected that need a lot of medical care,” explains Rosie, who cares for several horses at the county farm. “We’ve had several really bad cases, but this is one of the worst we’ve ever seen.

Horse protection

Rosie has a last name, but you won’t read it here. Not everyone who has their horses removed is too happy about it and the local folk want to avoid possible retribution. Neither do they want to come home from church to find a dozen horses that owners no longer want tied to the fence post. What they do want is to continue offering to the equine league their services as a medical facility, a rehabilitation center and foster farm.

“We operate because of dedicated volunteers and that includes people who volunteer their barns,” Ms. White explains. “Many of our foster farms are horse farms that no longer have horses but still have the facilities. Our volunteers take care of the horses and the facilities and some volunteers, like Rosie, have expertise to provide medical care and other services.”
Those services are needed. In January, the rescue league took 25 horses from the Isle of Wight in what league officials called “a case of gross neglect.” Two horses were found dead on the property.
In April, another 25 horses were taken from a Bedford County property after attempts by the league to get the owner to provide proper care failed.
In the Richmond district alone, more than 50 horses have been seized due to cruelty or neglect, Ms. White says. One young paint was brought to the Albemarle farm after it hanged itself in its stall, which was littered with debris and about two feet of manure. Its face was paralyzed from hanging while in its halter. It was very sick. It was ghastly thin. It survived, thanks to Rosie and other volunteers, and grazes in a nearby meadow at the Albemarle farm.

‘Cruelty ... all the time’

“We’ve had a lot of cruelty cases, it seems, and the economy has had some impact on that, I’m sure,” Ms. White says. “We’ve had some people contact us because they can no longer afford their horses and they’re trying to find an alternative home.”
The majority of cases are not hardship giveaways, Ms. White admits.
“Cruelty cases go on all the time, even when the economy wasn’t this rough,” she says. “There can be dozens of horses on one property that are kept out of view that are malnourished or abused. It’s been going on for years.”
That, unfortunately, is what got the league into business and keeps it operating. The league, on the Internet at http://www.userl.org, cares for the animals until they can be adopted. Many remain on foster farms for the rest of their lives.
“Our organization started in North Carolina, and Virginia, having a large horse community, was rife with volunteers and a natural place to expand,” Ms. White says. “We’re always looking for more volunteers and especially more volunteer farms and rehab barns. We rely on the generosity of the community.”

They also hope the community will not only support the league, but also seriously consider adopting league horses. They also hope people will think long and hard about owning a horse.
“People need to think about whether they should have a horse or not,” Rosie says. “To treat a horse well is expensive. It requires a lot of effort and it’s a big commitment.” Rosie says. “Just because you have some acreage doesn’t mean you should have a horse.”