‘WE DO OUR VERY BEST’
With regular vet visits, expert caretakers, 13 equines at The Horse Shelter are on their path to recovery
Isaiah, a gray thoroughbred horse, stretched his neck as Traci Kipnes caressed the gentle giant. Isaiah’s mane was patchy, his ribs protruded from his sides, and his legs had scars from his previous life.
He and 12 other horses were brought to The Horse Shelter in Cerrillos in early November after the New Mexico Livestock Board took them from their owners for animal cruelty. It was the largest intake the shelter had seen since it opened its doors more than 20 years ago.
“A lot of them are severely underweight,” said Kipnes, a volunteer coordinator for the shelter.
Isaiah and two other thoroughbreds, Ivy and Ivan, were taken from a former trainer. Rescuers believe they had likely seen a racetrack at one point in their lives. The other 10 were among 31 horses relinquished to the state by a facility in Deming running as an unlicensed shelter. In addition to the 10 sent to Cerillos, nine were put down and 12 went to shelters across the state operated by the New Mexico Equine Rescue Alliance.
The Livestock Board’s deputy director, Shawn Davis, said the Deming facility was not caring for the animals.
“We are going to file charges against the entities for operating without a license, and we are going to file cruelty charges,” Davis said.
The horses came in with a variety of ailments, including overgrown hooves and respiratory issues. Some were emaciated and traumatized from starvation and neglect.
Isaiah had a large abscess on his face and another on his hoof.
“He, by far, was the worst one,” said the shelter’s executive director, Susan Hemmerle.
Now, Hemmerle and the workers at the shelter are hoping to turn these horses’ lives around and eventually see them adopted by loving caretakers.
Hemmerle said getting them back to good health will be a long, costly endeavor because underweight horses, like Isaiah,
require specialized care and need to eat slowly to regain weight, as eating too fast or too much can be dangerous.
With the help of regular vet visits and the expert caretakers at the shelter, the malnourished animals are on the best path to recovery. Even so, their prognosis is hard to guess.
“Just like humans, once your body gets so skinny, it starts eating your muscles, and organs are muscles,” Hemmerle said. “So the skinnier you get, the more damage there is. We can’t look inside and tell if there already is damage to the organs. So, it could still be that in the end they still don’t make it because the damage was too severe when you got them. But, you know, we do our very best,” she said.
The horses get blankets every night to keep them warm, electrolytes to keep them hydrated, and proper care for their hooves and teeth, Hemmerle said.
While Isaiah was friendly and loved being petted, some of the newly rescued horses were not used to being around people.
Some paced nervously back and forth as humans approached, while other, like Ivy and Ivan, were aloof or shy.
The shelter’s goal is to gain these horses’ trust, something volunteer Susan Moss managed to do with a brown horse named Miles, turning both of their lives around.
Moss began volunteering for the Horse Shelter as a way to do physical therapy after she was injured falling off a building. She remembered mucking the pens one day when the wild-eyed horse caught her attention.
Caretakers said Miles was likely abused by his previous owners and was afraid of people. They thought he may be untamable and even considered putting him down because of how dangerous he was.
“That wasn’t going to happen on my watch,” Moss said. “So I spent the next six months camping out in his paddock. He wouldn’t let me get anywhere near him.”
With persistence, Moss eventually gained the young horse’s trust, falling in love with him along the way. Moss said she wanted to adopt Miles and give him the life he deserves, but her property in Santa Fe is not equipped for horses. That’s why she bought a ranch in Colorado, where she will move once Miles is ready. For now, he still needs a little help from the shelter with training and learning how to live with people.
Hemmerle hopes the 13 horses that came in last month get a happy ending like Miles’.