None of the horses rescued by the HOPE nonprofit were beaten, said Sharon Vandiford, director of Horses of Pamilco, Etc., a sanctuary for abused equines. That doesn’t happen much, she said.

Rather, the 20 horses the organization currently cares for at 135 Moore’s Swamp Road, New Bern, are victims of neglect, Vandiford said.

Sometimes, family difficulties can be the issue — divorce, the unexpected death of a loved one, the loss of a job. But more frequently, it’s simply because the person buying the horse has no idea of the time and expense they’re walking into. And the price the horse pays for that well-meaning owner can be extreme.

“I cry when they come in, and I cry when they go,” Vandiford said of the horses HOPE receives. The group’s farm is at capacity, though she said she finds a way to make room when Animal Control Director Berkley Hill shows up with confiscated animals.

The horses can be in seriously bad shape. “Some of our horses are what you would consider feral,” said Keely Starr, HOPE’s director of volunteers.

They are skittish and don’t like to be touched or groomed. They can bite or kick, leading to injuries such as broken arms for the caretakers. “We bring them around, eventually,” Starr said.

Most will be adopted; some will live out their lives with HOPE because of their age, their health or their post-trauma condition.

“Our slogan is, ‘Rescue, rehab, rehome,’” Vandiford said.

She described a feral horse that recently arrived. “We just got her,” Vandiford said. “When you have horses like that, the vet comes to help you.”

That’s to protect both the horse and the handlers from injury.

The HOPE team treads carefully with the most severe of its horses, getting them into a stall, treating them gently, simply spending time with them and slowly getting them to trust the handlers.

Then there was a feral mini mule named PeeWee. “He bit the crap out of me,” Miller said.

She showed a scar on her forearm. “When I went to get the halter on him, he grabbed my arm, and I just thought: Don’t break my arm!”

She doesn’t hold that against him. “He was scared. All his animal friends were leaving,” she said.

She went in to give it another try and he tried to barrel-kick her, a kick with both hind legs. In the end, the vet had to be called in to tranquilize the horse for his necessary care.

While PeeWee is making some progress, his chances for adoption aren't good. “He’s still a liability,” Vandiford said. “I can’t let people go near him, so he’ll stay (here) forever.”

Waynette Rowe is a regular volunteer. She runs a second HOPE ranch on Saints Delight Road in Craven County. “When they’re really scared,” Rowe said, “I just sit with them, let them know I’m not going to hurt them. We just build up trust with them.”

They’re all good horses, Starr said. “Even PeeWee’s good,” she added.

Most of the horses there are not able to be ridden — and likely never will be. They’re considered pasture horses. It’s  like having a really big dog, one who eats 10 to 20 pounds of food a day, and costs $300 in farrier bills every six weeks.

So why would you want a 1,000-pound-plus pet that you can’t even ride? For the love of horses, Starr said..

“Every horse out here has a personality,” she said. “You don’t say a word, but you know what they’re telling you. You just love them. They get into your soul.”

“But if I can’t ride the horse, what’s the point,” one might wonder.

Helgi Sangret of Two Strides Forward coaching addressed this issue in a blog post.

“This is a question I get asked a lot, both implicitly and directly,” Sangret said. “It can be a blessing in disguise.”

She emphasizes that the best thing about owning a horse isn’t riding it; it’s knowing the horse. Even a riding horse, she said, needs to have its owner spend significant quality time hanging out and not hanging off its back.

From a relational perspective, nothing is more valuable than taking the time to work with and get to know your horse on the ground, she said.

From the horse’s point of view, it spends 23 hours a day just doing horsey things, and then we show up asking, expecting or demanding it perform for us for an hour. That might explain why many horses might prefer the other 23 hours to the one they spend with us.

Imagine if you had a friend who was constantly asking you for favors every time you got together, she said. This is the dynamic people often have with horses.

With an average lifespan of 25 to 30 years, a horse is a long-term commitment. As it ages, a horse eventually is not going to be able to be ridden anymore. Will your bond continue when it cannot be ridden?

Starr and Vandiford described one of the worst cases they had encountered — a horse named Squirt.

“He was a bag of bones,” Vandiford said. They gave him the lowest possible rating of 1, with a healthy horse rating 5.

“He was the ugliest horse you could ever see,” Starr said. He was a stallion, a horse that’s considered capable of being bred. But “he was so badly emaciated you couldn’t tell. He came in as an animal control seizure. … He looked like the ugliest horse you could ever see. … He didn’t understand anything. He’s very smart, and he would try, but he was confused a lot.”

He didn’t even know how to be tied, Starr said. “He didn’t know how to pick up his feet to be cleaned,” she said. “He had to be taught how to be groomed.”

Starr really took to Squirt. “I came here determined not to adopt a horse,” she said. “But I adopted one.”

Squirt is now in Starr’s care but he has a long way to go.

He was a rescue from Craven County. Like many abused horses, he had been starved, and faced a long road to healing. “It takes about two to five years for those body systems to recover from starvation,” Rowe said. “You can’t see it on the outside, but inside they still have issues.”

They also develop serious psychological issues that do not heal quickly, she said.

Squirt has come a long way and will soon be sent out for training. He is currently a pasture horse but she believes he will become a riding horse. “It’s like the ugly duckling story. He’s absolutely gorgeous,” she said.

How does a horse come into neglect? Generally, even the worst offenders don’t dislike their horses. Often the neglect is a result of ignorance. “People don’t realize the responsibility or the expense,” Rowe said.

And, sometimes, the neglectful owners know how to care for the horse, but circumstances  have taken away their ability to handle it.

The cost of keeping a horse in North Carolina — depending on the source — ranges from about $8,800 to $12,600 a year. This estimate includes boarding and farrier costs, vet care and feed.

Also, they need a lot of room. “Often weighing in excess of 1,000 pounds, they have long legs and tons of muscle that needs to be exercised on a daily basis,”  the Equine Institute notes. “Moreover, horses eat incredible amounts of plant matter, which requires ample land to provide.”

If you’re not boarding the horse, a rule of thumb is to have two acres for one horse; and one more acre for each additional horse.

Along with room, a horse needs personal care: you need to spend time with it, and you need to get regular veterinary checks and regular visits by a trained farrier to care for its hooves.

Hill said horse abuse is decreasing in Pamlico, although he has handled a few calls in the past. “Horses are becoming a lot more popular for some reason,” he said. “I’ve got groups of horses in every little town, every little district. For the most part people do take care of their horses well.”

Nationally, however, neglect is a serious problem. According to vetexplains.com, the American Society for the prevention of Cruelty to Animals, or ASPCA, estimates that about 100,000 horses are abused, neglected or abandoned in America each year. It said that online horse trading and sales make it “easier for unscrupulous individuals to mistreat horses or sell them to inexperienced owners who are ill-equipped to care for them.”

The American Association of Equine Practitioners noted that hoarding is a problem, and advises that “a horse or group of horses with poor body condition scores in a pasture devoid of forage may be the most common presentation of neglect encountered.”

If you see what you believe is a neglect situation, the group asks that you notify local animal control authorities.

Horses are amazing animals and lifelong friends, but be sure you can afford to care for them, experts say. If you cannot, volunteering allows people to spend as many hours as they like around horses.

Starr said HOPE is regularly seeking volunteers. For information, call her at 252-269-0970 or Vandiford at 252-675-7306.

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