Sahara, a Palomino
mare, recently rescued from neglect, now recovering
Robert
Frost spoke of how his “little horse” must have thought it queer that he
“stop[ped] without a farmhouse near” when he had “promises to keep .. before I
sleep.”
Sahara,
a Palomino mare, with a young foal was abused and neglected, starved by her
absentee owner in Gold Vein, Virginia, and thus bony as could be, down 400
pounds. The owner of the farm in Gold
Vein is reportedly being prosecuted for abuse and neglect of Sahara and as many
as 17 other horses. They were all in a
pasture and the stallion was fed and fat but the other horses including Sahara
had no access to feed.
Cheryl
Rogers and her Mom, Pat, have saved hundreds of horses over the years from
neglect and abuse, and found them homes.
“We
agreed to take on four mares and their four foals, eight horses this past week,”
Cheryl said during the barn tour last Saturday, “and that’s a lot to do, but
that’s what we do here at the Equine Rescue League.”
The
Rogers’ farm, near Lovettsville, is aptly called “Promise Kept” – and the promise
is to rescue these horses, and, like Frost, Cheryl, and Pat, with the critical
help of their 40 volunteers are not resting until they’ve done all they can,
and they have nursed and fixed the injured horses, and found them good homes;
incidentally, they’ve been keeping this promise for 23 years.
Despite
the fact that the mare Sahara was starving, had almost no sustenance herself as
reflected by her ribs and bare hip bones pushing through her skin when she was
found, she nursed her foal, kept the filly alive.
“Sahara”
might rightly have been called oasis, given her motherly heroism, and she had
no name until transported and reborn at the Rescue League; Sahara’s filly has
been named Dolce by volunteers, Allison Sowell and Kendra McGahan. It’s amazing that the other three mares,
despite their own starvation, did the same and nursed their foals as well.
Sahara with her foal,
Dolce
Mahatma
Ghandi said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by
the way its animals are treated.” If the
League were the nation’s standard we could claim progress, but, when there is
such abuse, our moral progress is at risk.
Cheryl
galloped horses for Firestone, and ran their hunter barn, but before that,
Cheryl said, “I went to school for 14 years to learn how to take care of
horses; that’s my purpose in life.” When
her Mom first started this shelter, Pat said, “Cheryl told me, ‘I’m with you
all the way, Mom.” Asked about her
husband, Bob Saulnier, she said, “he’s philosophically supportive, but
physically terrified of horses.” Bob
said, “I’ll walk George,” an 8 hand mini pony.
Of course, Bob and his brother, Tom, worked all day long that day of the
farm tour, when, Tom said, “we had more than 200 people visit us today.”
Cheryl
walked over to Ted, a Welsh cross, on the other side of a gate, one of the
Rescue League’s saves, and gave him some feed; he wouldn’t have been there had
Ted’s former owner done that.
“What
we need,” said Cheryl, “are funds, volunteers, and homes for these horses. That’s what we need. That’s what we ask our friends and neighbors
to do and to give.”
Cheryl feeds Ted, a Welsh
Cross, and a rescue
(For
more information and donations, visit the League’s web site – http://www.equinerescueleague.org/donations.htm)
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