TULALIP – Bucko, a chestnut gelding, suffers from foundering, a painful condition in which a horse’s feet become deformed following an injury.
Bucko needs special care, but he may lose the place he now receives that care. He and 22 other horses will have to find new homes at the end of the month.
“That’s the kind of horse, if we can’t find a home, what are we going to do?” said Vel Moore, who runs the Equine Rescue Association on the Tulalip Indian Reservation.
Moore and 20 other volunteers take in horses that have been abused, neglected, injured or just no longer fit into their owners’ lives.
The group has operated on five acres at 2506 128th St. NE for nearly six years. Barbara Lowe, who owns the property, is selling because she’s planning to move to Eastern Washington.
“I’ve been trying to save this farm for five years now by myself, and I’m getting tired,” said Lowe, 57, who lives on the property with her six foster children.
Lowe has been renting to the group for $300 a month, although she let them stay on the property free of rent the first year, she said.
Moore, 75, has been helping homeless horses in the area for 10 years, for more than four years in Smokey Point before moving to the current property.
Many of the horses come to the farm in bad shape, and the group attempts to nurse them back to health and help them live out their lives in relative comfort, volunteers said.
“We give them their dignity back,” said volunteer Suzette Acey, 49, of Lake Stevens.
The group has taken in more than 70 horses in 10 years and has been able to find new homes for only about 15, Moore said.
One horse named Sean was so weak from starvation he couldn’t stand up when he was brought in, Moore said.
Moore said she grew up learning to ride from expert horsemen in California and wanted to pass her knowledge on to others.
She gives riding lessons to kids for $10 in exchange for their help with caring for the horses. Many teenage girls become regulars and learn responsibility, Moore said.
Acey said her daughter Becky, 16, volunteers 36 hours a week at the farm during school and even more during the summer.
Many of the girls have troubles at home and bonding with the horses helps the girls to heal emotional wounds, Acey said.
“The horse will listen to them,” she said. “The horse helps them to lower their guard down.”
If the operation has to move very far away, many of the girls won’t be able to continue to visit, Acey said.
The group has an offer from a farm in Skagit County but can’t afford the $2,000 a month in rent, Moore said.
It costs an average of $175 a month in food and veterinarian bills to keep an older horse and $155 for younger horses, Acey said. The group’s funding comes mostly in donations from individuals and from lesson fees, but the income tends to be uneven. “We have been totally dependent on the goodwill of the public,” Moore said.
The group has lined up some temporary homes for the horses. They’re looking for five acres with electricity and water and, ideally, a covered arena.
Moore, who lives in a mobile home on the property, also will have to move.
“I have to go where the horses go,” she said.
Lowe, the property owner, said crime is on the rise in the neighborhood and she wants to move her family to Eastern Washington before autumn. Lowe said she’s very sympathetic to the equine group and praised Moore’s work with the kids and the horses.
“We wanted to dedicate (the land) to children and animals,” Lowe said. “I’ve helped her as much as I can.”
Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.
How to help
The Equine Rescue Association can be reached at 360-658-5494 or 360-658-1108.
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