Dappled sunlight danced across the back of a brown and white pinto mare staying one step ahead of the patient man in the paddock with her. Desmond Henley, unruffled, kept his eyes on the 4-year-old horse, calmly stepping into her path as she made a nimble show of resisting the halter he held. In fairly short order, she agreed to the game plan and was led quietly by Henley to a round training pen to continue the ground and saddle work that will hopefully help her be adopted into a permanent, caring home soon.
Similar scenes play out regularly at the Golden Triangle Horse Rescue (GTHR) in Clay County. There, volunteers like Henley give of their time, knowledge and compassion to help rehabilitate horses that would otherwise often have reached the end of the line.
Formed in 2012 by a group of horse enthusiasts, GTHR is a horse rescue and rehabilitation effort serving northeast and central Mississippi. It assists law enforcement when those departments must seize abandoned, neglected or abused horses. More rarely, the organization takes in horses directly from owners who can no longer care for their animals.
Teresa Scott heads a leadership team that oversees the all-volunteer group. Scott and her husband, Steve, have devoted themselves to the organization’s mission: to provide the best care possible within the limits of its resources to every horse that comes to them, and to facilitate getting the horses, when healthy, adopted into good homes.
“Some people think we are here to take people’s horses. That is not what we do,” Scott emphasized. Instead, they assist law enforcement and offer free consulting to owners having problems with temporary illness, loss of work or other circumstances that impact their ability to care for their horses. GTHR would much rather get a phone call before a minor health issue left untreated becomes a full-blown case of neglect, not after.
“We are here to help,” she said. “We have developed a large network of equine-related professionals in this area and are glad to share what information we have.”
When GTHR is called to take in horses, the care needed is often substantial.
“It can mean an extended stay with us, from several months to a year or more, to build their weight back up to healthy levels,” Scott explained. During that time, the horses receive medical, dental and hoof care and plenty of doting attention from volunteers who feed, groom, nurse the sickly, scrub troughs, clean stalls, mend fences and willingly take on any number of other tasks.
“They’re an exceptional breed of people,” said Frank Portera of the volunteers. He owns the land in the Tibbee community that is home to GTHR. Land is the first essential ingredient required for horses. He asks zero rent. It’s one way he honors his wife’s lifelong passion for animals who can’t help themselves. She is now an Alzheimer’s patient, but her commitment to four-legged creatures rubbed off on her husband long ago.
“So when they said, ‘We don’t have a place,’ I said, ‘Oh, yes you do,'” the landowner remarked. “The horse rescue can have a permanent home here.”
Barely able to walk
Portera has witnessed the trailers arriving with horses law enforcement in various counties has had to call GTHR in for.
“Sometimes these animals come in hardly able to even walk, and you think they’re never going to make it,” he said. “But these people work sometimes around the clock; they may be here at 2 o’clock in the morning. … There’s a place in heaven for these people, and I have all the respect in the world for them.”
It is true that volunteers have seen dire cases. Sometimes the horses come in waves; they tend to be grouped initially by names such as “The Tippah County 15” or “The Oktibbeha County three.” Many are severely malnourished, often suffering from an assortment of health issues. The influx of “The Lowndes County six” seized June 17 triggered an intense schedule of health care and small feedings three times daily.
“We spend countless hours trying to save every horse that comes through our gate,” Scott stressed.
Bobby Reeves is an animal control deputy who has served in the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Department for 16 years.
“They’re always willing to help us; they’ve rounded up the volunteers and brought as many as five, six or seven trailers before,” Reeves said. “They don’t ask for a dime from law enforcement, and they’re a great help to all our surrounding counties.”
From the heart
The current roster of more than 60 volunteers is “the backbone” of the rescue, Scott said. It consists of adults — working and retired — as well as a large number of Mississippi State University students.
Like the Scotts, Desmond (Des, for short) Henley lives in Noxubee County, but the competitive team roper frequently drives to Tibbee to help assess horses in condition for temperament, ground manners and rideability. He is among the volunteers willing to work with the most green (untrained) or problem horses.
“We try to decide what the problem is, how to resolve it,” Henley said.
Why spend a broiling summer day evaluating the unknown?
“It’s just, I don’t know, a passion for horses,” the modest Henley said. “I just love what I do and want to jump in and help any way I can. I just grew up like that.”
MSU junior Kalisha Yankey of Madison, Alabama, 20, is a former MSU Equestrian Team member and serves on the GTHR leadership team.
“Sometimes we find a horse that comes in has a good foundation; sometimes we’re not that lucky,” said Yankey, who often spends hours on a horse’s ground work. “If they don’t respect you on the ground, they’re not going to respect you when you’re on them.”
Lives changed
For some, volunteering is more than a chance to do something they love — it can be a form of self-therapy.
Hanna Lewis of Pearl, a junior at MSU, tries to get to the barn several times a week during summer, between juggling two part-time jobs. “I’ve seen people’s lives changed because of this rescue,” the former horse owner said. “I suffer from depression, and when I first started coming out here and was able to get away from the world for a little while, I noticed that I was happier.”
Lewis savors the “feel-good” stories.
“I love seeing these horses changed, horses that are scared of everything when they come and some don’t even want to fight to stay alive any more. But all of these volunteers fight to help them,” said the 20-year-old.
Dr. Susan Woodard of Starkville also volunteers. The licensed psychotherapist spends part of her week in Jackson, where she has a private practice. Being at the rescue fills a need for this former horse owner who said she headed straight to the neighbor’s pasture to pet his horses as soon as she was able to take her first step.
This past spring, she adopted a horse voluntarily surrendered at GTHR. Fancy, a Tennessee Walking Horse, had belonged to “somebody who loved her very much, but that person’s circumstances were changing,” Woodard said. She would want that person to know Fancy is much-treasured and “will get the best life I can give her,” the doctor said.
Finding home
Adoption of healthy horses into caring homes is the optimum goal of the rescue. Some animals have gone on to be trail riding companions, compete in barrel races or roping events, or work cows. Others become part of equine-assisted therapy programs. Since the organization’s inception, the rehabilitation success rate for 300-plus horses is 97 percent. It has been a team effort.
“First of all, none of this would be possible without the generosity of Frank Portera,” Scott said. “He is our Godsend, and we are abundantly blessed.”
In talking of the horses and the people who help give them a renewal on life, tears came to Scott’s eyes. She spoke of driving to the feed mill, a prayer on her lips that God will continue to guide them in providing for horses who need them.
“And I’ll get there and someone will have paid for feed,” she said, her voice breaking.
The organization, not yet an official nonprofit, raises support with activities including trail rides, silent auctions and even the occasional bake sale. Adoption fees help defray some expenses.
There are scheduled events like a fun day for Palmer Home for Children’s Hope Reins program, or a weekend Boy Scout camporee, where youth leave with a better understanding of proper horse care. Periodic Volunteer Work Days bring the masses in to knock out several projects in one day. Scott also welcomes invitations from organizations to speak to their memberships. Volunteers know education is key to communities filled with more healthy animals.
The “horse bug,” as it’s often called, is an entrenched and powerful force. It probably infects everyone involved in this humane circle. The rewards can be many.
“For me,” said Portera, “the reward I get is every time I look down the road and see an animal that hasn’t been here very long and is in very poor condition … and I look to the other side and I see horses that have been here a while, and they’re just as fat and sassy, and ready to be adopted out — and I know it’s just a matter of time before the poor horse will look like that, too.”
Editor’s note: For more information, contact Teresa Scott at 662-418-2333, or visit goldentrianglehorserescue.com. Follow GTHR on Facebook.
HOW TO HELP GTHR
A Fall Volunteer Orientation is set for Aug. 27. Call 662-418-2333 for more information.
Jan Swoope is the Lifestyles Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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