Slide Show: Horse Down! (Way Down)

by Fran Jurga | 7 October 2009 | The Jurga Report at Equisearch.com

This is not a drill. This mare was caught in the current of the American River near Sacramento, California and was unable to make her way out of a canyon under her own power. Sacramento Bee photo, from a fascinating slide show sequence.

California horsewoman Alicia Hutcheson spent the night in the bottom of a ravine in September with her mare Natasha. They weren't exactly on a camping trip; they were waiting for a rescue helicopter to lift Natasha to safety after the mare was injured after being caught in the current of the river.

The Sacramento Bee newspaper has published a terrific slide of images that show the rescue, step by step. I hope you will take a minute to follow this link and view the slides so you can see what is involved.

The Veterinary Emergency Response Team (VERT) from the nearby University of California at Davis, fire and rescue teams, and a Navy Seahawk helicopter all coordinated their services and expertise to assist in the rescue.

Click here to read a newspaper article from the Auburn, California Journal.

This accident happened in an area where horses are very common; it is also the area where the Tevis Cup endurance ride is held each year. The proximity of the veterinary school in America best known for its rescue expertise--and which happens to employ the veterinarian who in fact invented the airlift harness--makes this a happy-ending story. I wonder how different the story might have been if it had occurred somewhere else.

How knowledgeable are the rescue crews in your area? Could a helicopter rescue at the bottom of a ravine be executed with the equipment and manpower available? Horse groups need to work with and support both human and equine emergency response crews and ambulances and sometimes even helicopters like this.

If you are interested in this subject, I highly recommend a textbook called Technical Large Animal Emergency Rescue by Gimenez, Gimenez, and May (Wiley-Blackwell Publishers, 2008). This book should be in city and town libraries wherever horses are found and should be presented as a reference to rescue departments and animal control officials. Even better, more people could attend courses in large animal emergency rescue.

It could have been any of us at the bottom of that ravine. And any of us could still be there. Alicia and Natasha got out because someone knew what to do.

Video: Charity Shows That Rescuing a Horse from Cruelty is Only the Beginning

by Fran Jurga | 6 September 2009 | The Jurga Report




The mainstream news media bombard us with dramatic stories of horses and ponies and donkeys rescued from abusive or neglectful owners. We hear about horses being taken into custody and all breathe a sigh of relief. But then what?

What many people don't realize is that a horse that has been abused or neglected is likely to be cautious or suspicious of human handling and may react with behavior that is dangerous to the very people who have removed it from harm. This is always a right of passage for good-hearted volunteers: a starved horse may well bite the hand that feeds it, out of fear.

Some neglected horses may not have felt the touch of a human hand in years, if ever. You may remember our video from this summer showing the roundup of a semi-feral herd of horses living and breeding in a field in Scotland, in clear sight from the highway. Generations of horses lived together in the mud until World Horse Welfare intervened.

But how do you roundup and trailer horses that fear humans or don't even know how to lead?

This little video from World Horse Welfare helps explain some of the "after-the-drama" work that a rescue farm with a properly trained staff will undertake. Panda the Pony was rescued because of neglect and a badly infected eye; she was taken to a rescue farm and her eye was surgically removed. But her eye needed ongoing medication and attention and she did not like the idea of humans getting too close.

Trained groom Sara-Louise Jerman explains how Panda has been handled and desensitized to human touch. You can see that Panda still is reactive about Sara's movement around her body and touches.

I hope Panda finds a good home. Thanks to World Horse Welfare for stressing this important but often overlooked aspect of dramatic horse rescues: the long path to recovery and trust of humans again, or perhaps for the first time in a horse's life.

Hold a Thought for California Horses in the Fire's Path

by Fran Jurga | 30 August 2009 | The Jurga Report

This blog publishes a lot of advice and safety information about disasters and evacuation. My heart sinks every time an emergency situation affects horses and I wonder how well prepared people are.

That's the case today, with the California wildfires blazing in the hills outside Los Angeles. Tragically, two firefighters have been killed, caught in a fireball as they tried to escape.

Of course horse owners have been complying with evacuation orders. The Los Angeles Equestrian Center at Griffith Park was full by Saturday, and the latest order has horses being sent to Pierce College in Woodland Hills, which also hosted evacuee equines in 2007.

But my heart broke when I saw this image today in a gallery of startling fire images on the Charlotte Observor web site. The caption says that this two-year-old had not been trained to load onto a trailer so he was being pickup-ponied to safety. One can only wonder how many miles this horse had to travel and what shape his feet might have been in at the end of his journey. A horse trailer ramp might look pretty good after a few miles. With luck he had some protection for his hooves.

People are doing what they can for horses to get them out of the fire's path.

As of last night, this fire was only 5 percent contained. The area is particularly popular with horse owners. Rainbow Ranch, which is home to 60 horses, and the non-profit Animal Acres are two of the many horse facilities under evacuation orders. Animal Acres put out a call yesterday with a wish list for help: Trucks, trailers, pickup trucks with camper shells (for the birds), carriers for the birds (chickens, turkeys, etc.), large water bowls, people good with herding, animal soothers, bedding, food, water hoses. That's a pretty good list of priorities during a disaster, assuming they have some veterinary expertise and fresh water available as well. Animal shelters and rescue farms generally are not easy to move, and many animals in their care have special needs.

Video: World Horse Welfare Rescues Semi-Feral Horse Herd from Scotland

by Fran Jurga | 9 June 2009 | The Jurga Report

Is 2009 the year of the Neglected Horse-Herd Bust? Here in the United States, there have been some high profile cases, and the burden of helping care for confiscated horses falls on the shoulders of the already cash-strapped non-profits who have the expertise and facilities to help--but not always the funds or the acreage.

For years, we've heard about cat hoarders and dog hoarders, and it's hard to say what horse hoarding is, by legal definition, but we may be seeing some cases brought to the harsh light of publicity that will help the judicial system gain a frame of reference.

Today I received an email from World Horse Welfare (formerly the International League for hte Protection of Horses). I often receive video of their efforts in South Africa or Eastern Europe or Mexico, but today's video is right in the backyard of their Belwades Farm in Scotland.

WHW Field Officer Doug Howie was sent to investigate a report of thin horses in a field in Aberdeenshire, Scotland and found several bands of semi-feral horses trying to live in a marshy field with little grass. Mares, stallions and young horses were pastured together. He found a stillborn foal in the field. These were all bad enough.

But Doug smelled something, and it smelled like death. It was coming from a barn on the property. “I went to investigate and found the rotting corpses of a large number of horses," Doug said. "The smell was overpowering and it was difficult to tell how many bodies were there. I kept the discovery to myself for the time being so as not to jeopardize the safe removal of those horses that were still alive. I wanted to do all I could to prevent them from suffering the same fate.”


The horses had formed bands around several stallions and formed territories in the big field. It was hard to say how long they had been there. As it would turn out, many had never had contact with humans. It was a challenge, but this video shows how they tried to keep stallion and mare bands together as they had been in the field.

As soon as the living horses were safe, the health authorities were notified about the public health risk in the barn.

I hope you will watch the video and notice that World Horse Welfare puts forward this story in a quiet, factual way and does not exploit either their role or the horrors they found. It has not been sensationalized, since the scene speaks for itself. It doesn't even mention the owners.

It will take level heads and competent, trained horse welfare professionals to manage situations like these in the future. It will also take lots of money.

How can you help? Here are some suggestions:

1. Discourage horse breeding. Encourage adoption or buying of made, trained horses for recreational riders.
2. Encourage the castration of colts.
3. Lobby veterinary organizations and non-profit groups to support community low-cost castration, euthanasia, and carcass disposal grants or subsidies. Do you know how many stallions are in your town this year? The number might shock you.
4. Go to horse auctions or rescue farms and see the huge inventory of surplus horses with your own eyes. Take a friend. Don't just read about it. Do you really need to breed your mare?
5. Volunteer. Donate. Talk to others quietly, in a non-confrontational way, and know what the laws are in your community and state and how to report what you think might be horse neglect or cruelty. Realize that you might be mistaken, in some cases, and that the judgment must ultimately be left to law officials.
6. Encourage breed organizations and shows to offer more classes for older horses and to put less emphasis (and prize money) on classes for young horses.
7. No matter what you do, do it quietly and carefully and intentionally. Don't shout, don't lecture, don't shake fingers, and don't judge: use the WHW approach and let the facts speak louder than your own voice.

What would you add to this list? Click on the comments button and add your thoughts.

Homestretch: No Better Time to Watch This Film

by Fran Jurga | 18 May 2009 | The Jurga Report



By now, everyone has heard about the wonderful finish of the 2009 Preakness Stakes on Saturday, when the flying filly, Rachel Alexandra, streaked over the finish line just ahead of the fast-closing gelding-from-outta-nowhere, Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird.

Ratings are up, interest in racing is up, and yet the issues remain. Mine That Bird's trailer heading back to Kentucky from Maryland passed plenty of turnoffs for small tracks where there may be no tomorrow for some of the horses.

Bringing the public's attention to programs that help off-the-track Thoroughbreds is the favorite cause of a growing legion of non-profits, artists, writers, filmmakers, photographers, and anyone with a blog or website that has an audience.

Some speak to the people in their own communities, others speak to the entire nation. Some shout in anger, some whisper in poetry. Filmmaker Sheri Bylander projects her thoughts on the screen or, this month, on your television, as her terrific documentary, Homestretch, airs on stations across the country.

Homestretch advocates the rehoming of Thoroughbreds as therapeutic projects for inmates at state prisons around the country, and takes you to a point where you might stop and wonder, "Who's saving whom here?"

Click here to go the Homestretch web site, where you can download the air time schedule, order the DVD, and learn lots more.

Click here to read about the children's book Black Diamond and Blake, by Deborah Blumenthal, the fictionalized story of the bond between an ex-racehorse and a prisoner, published this spring by Knopf.

"A Bad Time to Be a Horse": New York Times Examines Struggling Horse Businesses and Rescue Farms in the Northeast

by Fran Jurga | 2 March 2009 | The Jurga Report at Equisearch.com

Empty saddle racks in a New York City area stable reflect empty stalls at boarding barns. Where did the horses go?

Yesterday's New York Times was filled with financial news, economic downturn reports, and more stories yet about how people are coping with less or clinging to their jobs for dear life. It seems like only yesterday I savored Sunday morning with the papers spread out around me on the living room floor. Coffee in hand, I'd read about art and films and museums and books and peruse the ads for cars or clothes or jobs. 

Newspapers are different these days. The ads are all but gone and the cultural coverage is a shadow of itself. Instead, the paper is a survival guide to life here in the New York/Boston neighborhood. And the New York Times, thanks to its excellent web site, is as likely to be read online as on the living room floor.

Imagine my surprise when I saw an article about how the economic downturn is affecting horse businesses in metro New York. I did a double-take. A photo of a tack room, sans tack, really hit home with me.

I've just returned from attending the American Farrier's Association convention, a rare horse-related event that possibly exceeded its organizers' expectations. I know there were more farriers in attendance than I had expected, and they were in good spirits. While some shook their heads and told tales of how bad it (supposedly) was in some part of the country or another, the farriers who spoke with me said cautiously, "It hasn't hit me...yet...." 

But I noticed that the attendees tended to have gray hair and the look of successful professionals; I was obviously talking to established businessmen and -women. How different might it be for someone further down the success ladder, or for someone starting out? 

One farrier school owner told me that applications were up, and that he had more students than ever, a fact he attributed to insecurity. "People are losing their jobs, they want a backup skill, they want to work for themselves," he assured me. But will there be work for them all?

They can't shoe horses that aren't there anymore.

The Sunday papers are stuffed in the recycling bin now, but I want to share the Times article with you. I know that not everyone is out of work. I know some people still have the means to help out a horse in need. Whether it means bringing one home or sending a monthly check to a rescue farm or putting a donations jar on the counter where you work or rolling up your sleeves to clean stalls at a rescue farm...what are you doing? what can you do? when will you do it?

We can all do a lot more than we think we can, and the editors would welcome an article or a flurry of letters about how the horse world is pulling together in spite of the empty stalls and lifeless tack rooms. A good-news story would be welcome next Sunday on my living room floor, and yours, I'm sure.

Click here to read the New York Times article on horse rescue farms and businesses in the area.

Click here to view a slide show of images from the Times article.

Video: Footage Released to Press, Public as Massive Horse Cruelty Trial Continues in England

This is the complete, straight footage from the RSPCA, without narration.
Warning: this may be too graphic for some people to view or comprehend.

This is the television network version, with narration.

I was saving this story for the end of the year. I would have labeled this the worst news story of the year.

The story comes from England, the country on the planet with some of the strictest provisions for horse welfare and some of the most enabled law enforcement agencies dedicated to horse advocacy.

But it wasn't enough. Last January, a horrific news story broke, with tales of unimaginable, disgusting conditions. Agencies worked together to rescue close to 100 horses and house them all over England, but for many, it was too late. By the time they hacked through the red tape to get onto the farm, many horses lay dead and decaying on the ground.

The case, the horses, the entire saga has been encapsulated into a single word in British horse minds: "Amersham". Say no more. Amersham is the town in Buckinghamshire where horse dealer James Gray warehoused horses.

The farm's owners are now on trial, and this week a London newspaper, The Sun, went to court to release video taken by the Royal Society for the Protection of Animals (RSPCA) when the premises were entered. Yesterday a link was released to a video download site, which is normal for the press. I didn't dally, but by the time I got to the link, the maximum downloads (usually 500 or 1000) had been reached.

That gives you some idea of the intensity of this trial. It will be the horse cruelty event by which all others will be measured. The news report shown here is from the ITN network and shows the less sordid footage; the narrator also provides some background.

I don't know how long it will take to reach a verdict, but it's not always a foregone conclusion that the owners will be convicted.

Click here to go to a dedicated site with a press file documenting the unfolding of this case.

There are many things I don't understand about this case and, until now, I had not seen the video, which is deeply disturbing. The fact that so many of the horses have stable blankets on seems so incongruous with neglected, abandoned, starving horses. There are also many, many questions about previous investigations of the property.

Kentucky Equine Humane Center Is Officially Open

(The following is edited from a press release. These people have the right idea. They also have a very promising web site with lots more information. It looks like they plan to do more than rescue horses; hopefully they will be able to provide leadership in instilling responsible ownership awareness in the general horse-owning public.)

LEXINGTON, KY (April 13, 2007) Horses of all breeds in Kentucky who are currently in life-threatening situations will receive the gift of a second chance at the Kentucky Equine Humane Center (KyEHC), which will officially open its doors on April 16.

“This is an opportunity for all of us to do the right thing and play a role in ensuring the welfare and humane treatment of horses here in Kentucky, the Horse Capital of the World,” said the organization’s president, Staci Hancock. “With the Kentucky Derby, just around the corner, we believe it is an ideal time to open our doors and bring attention to the plight of horses who are at risk.” Hancock and her husband, Arthur, own Stone Farm in Paris Kentucky, where Kentucky Derby winners Gato Del Sol, Sunday Silence and Fusaichi Pegasus were bred and raised. Both are on the frontlines of the equine welfare and anti-slaughter movements.

KyEHC is a first-of-its-kind facility, established with the specific goal of providing owners with a humane option when they need to give up their horses. The Center is located on a tranquil, 50-acre horse farm just outside Lexington, Kentucky, and will be a safe refuge for at-risk horses of all breeds and disciplines. No horse in a precarious situation will ever be turned away. Adoptable horses will be placed in loving homes. Horses which are unadoptable due to chronic pain or permanent, crippling injuries will be humanely euthanized.

Kentucky Derby-winning trainer, Nick Zito (Strike The Gold and Go For Gin) and his wife Kim, are on the KyEHC board of advisors. According to Nick, “Regardless of pedigree or performance, all horses have to be treated the same. Consequently, we all have the same responsibilities to meet those needs, whether we are working with Kentucky Derby winners or horses that are just horses. Again, they have to be treated the same.”

John Nicholson, Executive Director of the Kentucky Horse Park, home of legendary racehorses John Henry and Cigar, observed, “A tremendous responsibility comes along with the privileges of being the Horse Capital of the World, so our industry and state need to make certain we are setting the highest possible example when it comes to equine welfare.

"Unfortunately, there is a vast, urgent need for shelters that will take all breeds of horses. The Kentucky Horse Park is contacted on a regular basis by people who are desperate to find a safe place for horses who are in a vulnerable situation. We are very happy that the Kentucky Equine Humane Center will ease suffering by meeting some of those needs.”

The KyEHC is governed by an impressive board of directors and advisors, representing a number of breeds and disciplines. The organization’s executive director, Lori Neagle, was co-founder of the successful Thoroughbred rescue organization, ReRun, and has extensive management and hands-on experience with racehorses, and in particular with geriatric horses.

The KyEHC has already received tremendous support from the equine industry and the community. Among those who have already committed their around-the-clock support are Hagyard Equine Medical Institute, Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital, Sallee Horse Vans, Jerry Parks Insurance Group, Equus Media, The Bell Group, Griffin Industries, Kentucky Horseshoeing School, Stephen Hillenmeyer Landscape Services, and Dean, Dorton and Ford. Several organizations in the National Horse Center at the Kentucky Horse Park are also networking with the group, including the United States Equestrian Foundation and the Kentucky Horse Council.

All financial and in-kind donations are tax-deductible. Monetary donations will be received through the KyEHC Fund at Bluegrass Community Foundation, 250 West Main Street, Suite 1220, Lexington, KY 40507.

For more information on the Kentucky Equine Humane Center, click on www.kyehc.org or call Lori Neagle, Executive Director, at 859-327-9866 or 859-881-5849.