The New Reality: Helpful Horse Health Weekends

by Fran Jurga | 27 September 2009 | The Jurga Report at Equisearch.com

Oregon farrier Gregg Meyers was among the many horsecare professionals who donated time on Saturday to work on horses who needed some care. A special horse health fair in Albany, Oregon helped prepare needy horses for the winter ahead. (Photo links to Albany Democrat-Herald story about this event.)

I don't get to watch television very often. This weekend was an exception, but only because I was feeling under the weather, and home-in-bed seemed like the place to be.

CNN had a feature about a free health clinic at a big convention center in Houston, Texas. They showed a view of the people lining up about six in the morning on Saturday to take advantage of free medical services from a small army of 700 medical professionals who had volunteered their time. The event was organized by media MD Mehmet Oz, who is often featured on Oprah Winfrey's television show. By day's end, they had helped 2000 patients, many of them chronically ill and without health insurance.

"Wow," I thought, through my feverish haze. "Someone should do that for horses."

And they did.

On the very same day, the Oregon Horse Welfare Council organized a free health fair for horses whose owners needed financial help. At the Linn County Fairgrounds in Albany, Oregon, they set up something quite parallel to what Dr Oz was doing at the same time for humans in Houston. Horses traveled around to stations set up in a big arena and visited a farrier and a massage therapist; they got vaccinations and worming. There was advice from a nutritionist and a trainer. And a lot more.

The professionals providing the services donated their time as an acknowledgment of the hardship some horse owners are facing in providing for their animals during challenging economic conditions. A similar event was held in Sutherlin, Oregon in the spring.

According to its web site, the Oregon Horse Welfare Council is an ad hoc group of concerned horsepeople from throughout Oregon dedicated to helping horse owners struggling to provide for their animals, and saving as many horses as possible from abuse, abandonment and neglect. The group is comprised of individuals from rescue organizations, breed groups, veterinarians, state officials, law enforcement agencies, equine media, and concerned citizens.

You can read a newspaper article from the Albany Democrat-Herald about the horse health fair if you click here.

Meanwhile, in Minnesota, it was a big weekend for the Minnesota Horse Welfare Coalition's Gelding Project. Colts and stallions were castrated by supervised veterinary students from the University of Minnesota at a clinic at the Washington County Fairgrounds in Lake Elmo. Horse owners needed a referral from a veterinarian or a humane investigation team, but the surgery was free.

Lots of the news you read on this blog is about how bad things are, but I never, ever underestimate the good and kind spirits of horse people to help each other out. Organizing to help a horse get a healthy start on a winter that will be here before we know it, or to remove the possibility of a stud horse breeding foals that won't have rosy futures--those are very worthwhile ways to spend a weekend as a volunteer in the horse world.

I hope the Oregon and Minnesota organizations have a lot of imitators out there; you can also visit either website and make a donation.

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.

Horses and Humans Get Fit Together at British Charity's Rehabilitation Farm

At World Horse Welfare's Snetterton Recovery and Rehabilitation Centre in Norfolk, England, members of the office staff volunteer at lunch hour to exercise the smallest ponies who are in the weight reduction program but too small to be ridden. The ponies go for a brisk walk around the property along with the office dogs and help keep the office staff fit as well. The farm houses 100 horses at a time; most are being rehabilitated by the organization as part of their preparation for finding new homes.

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.

Video: Christmas Message from the World Horse Welfare Organization

World Horse Welfare (WHW) Chief Executive Roly Owers wraps up the year in this comprehensive look back at the charity's efforts to help horses around the world. WHW is the world's leading horses-only charity operating on both a national level in Great Britain and on the global stage representing ongoing interests in horse health and care.

Back home in Britain, WHW (formerly the International League for the Protection of Horses) operates as a leading resource for education of horse owners and has lead the way in campaigning for awareness of the ill effects of obesity in horses. WHW staffers are dedicated, highly educated in the specialty fields of horse welfare and health, and moving forward.

Directly or indirectly, we all benefit from organizations like WHW. The people there, and the people who donate to WHW programs, are at the top of my Christmas wishes list. While the stories I report on that involve WHW are not always easy or pleasant to write, I know that whenever I see their name involved, it is likely that the best and most knowledgeable minds in the horse world are working on this problem.

It's hard to ask for anything more, and we must never expect groups like WHW to just be there for us and our horses. We make them possible. And they, in turn, make us possible.

Merry Christmas to every horse and human who has benefited from or who is helping this wonderful organization. Go to www.worldhorsewelfare.org to donate whatever you can and be part of this important effort to help horses.

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.