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One Woman's Drive To Save Neglected And Abused Horses

Jessica Farren
Bonnie Hammond, SAFE's executive director, with Speedy.

 

Anyone who is remotely interested in buying a horse should talk to Bonnie Hammond first.

“Caring for horses is expensive,” says Hammond.

Hammond is the executive director of SAFE, otherwise known as Save A Forgotten Equine.

She says if you buy a horse be prepared to spend serious money on food.

“The cost of hay has gone up obscenely,” she says.

Horse teeth need to be filed down. If not, they get jagged and cut the inside of the animal’s cheeks. Hoofs have to be trimmed.

“Even without putting horse shoes on them it costs $40 dollars a trim,” notes Hammond.

“They have complicated digestive systems. There is a lot that can go wrong in there,” Hammond says with a tone conveying some unpleasant past experience in this area.

If you don’t have enough space for them at your place, you’ll have to pay rent for them to live somewhere else.

In the Seattle area boarding rates go from $600 a month up to $1,200.

Many of the horses at SAFE are there because their former owner did not think these things through.

Finding Her Calling

Hammond did not plan to be the person who takes in the starving, fearful creatures that are the result of people’s poor planning and mistakes.

In fact, Hammond didn’t have her first riding lesson until she was in her 30's, when she had a job as a graphic designer.

She says she was a “horse-nutty girl” as a child. She read the entire black stallion series, and “all of the Marguerite Henry Misty of Chincoteague books. I read all those to tatters,” Hammond says.

By the time Hammond was 39 years old, she finally realized her childhood dream of learning how to ride and owning her own horse.

"Then my horse needed a friend and that’s the point when I stumbled upon efforts that people were making in this area to help horses headed to slaughter,” recalls Hammond,  “And once I found that world everything really started to snowball.”

’I Had No Special Training’

She worked with others to save two horses stuck in a feedlot, which is where animals are housed before they are slaughtered for their meat.

Once word of this successful rescue spread, Hammond’s phone started to ring with news of other horses in desperate need.

“It was early 2008 and we were asked to help with a neglect case that was going on in King County and Snohomish County,” said Hammond.

“We were being asked to take in 17 horses. It was a horrible case of neglect or abuse done by someone who considered himself a professional horse breeder,” she remembers. “There were 9 horses that died on the properties as well.”

She helped organize a candlelight vigil at a park in Monroe for the horses that died. It was after that that she realized rescuing horses was something she would be doing for the rest of her life.

“And I didn’t do it through any other means than just having the energy and the inclination,” she remembered. “I had no special training. There was nothing that led me to this point except having the desire to do it.”

Doing The Work

SAFE went from being an idea to a farm in Woodinville with pastures and stables. The organization cares for 28 horses. It costs more than $12,000 a month to operate. Hammond does most of the fundraising. A small army  of volunteers works around the clock doing everything from cleaning out stalls, to training the horses to be calm with a rider.

Hammond believes an untrained horse is destined for a troubled life.

“People don’t want a horse who's going to run away when you try to catch them,” she says. “They don’t want a horse who's going to buck you off every time you sit down on them. Or a horse that is badly behaved. The horses that keep homes are the ones that are pleasant to be around. And you can enjoy the good part of horse ownership.”

’I Hope I Never See Anything Like It Again’

Over the years, SAFE has placed 168 rescued horses in new homes. But things don’t always work out so well.

This past Spring, animal control officers in Snohomish County seized three horses; two mares and a gelding-a male horse. They were all starving. The gelding was wearing a blanket that was falling apart, trapping in water close to his skin.

Hammond was not prepared for what she saw when the blanket was finally removed. You see this horse’s rib cage. He also had a severe case of a bacterial infection called rain rot.

“It was the worst rain rot I’ve ever seen in my life,” says Hammond. “I’ve never seen anything like it and I hope I never see anything like it again in my life. It covered every inch of his back and it was probably about an inch thick of scabby, crusty material.”

Rain rot hurts, but it’s a condition that’s easy to treat. Hammond says if the owner had just taken the blanket off the horse and regularly brushed him, the rain rot would have never gotten to such a horrific state.

He was too far gone and they had to put him down.

“After he had passed away the vet literally lifted a huge section of skin, hair and scabs off his back that came off in one piece. Underneath the skin was pusy, and necrotic and smelled horrible. He was literally rotting alive.”

The other two horse were on their way to gaining weight and getting back to a healthy condition. But the owner’s lawyer discovered a technicality - a mistake with how the search warrant was issued. The pictures showing the neglect would not be allowed in court.

The trial has been put on hold. The owner accused of the abuse got to take her two remaining to horses home. Hammond fears for their future.

“And it hurts that they’re just gone, you know?” says Hammond with tears in her eyes.

’Don’t Hold Yourself Back’

Hammond says the experience of the last several years has shown her that if you see things in this world you don’t like, one person can make a difference.

“If you just open yourself up to trying, and don’t hold yourself back by saying, ‘I’ve never done this before,’” she says. “Everything you’ve done you’ve never done before at one point. I encourage everybody to - if there is something you want change in this world - go ahead and try to change it.”

Hammond hopes the case involving the two starving horses that were returned to their owner will be resolved before it’s too late. Meanwhile, SAFE is preparing to take in three new emaciated horses that were confined to filthy stalls on a property in Monroe.

 

This story originally aired on Sound Effect, which airs on 88.5 KPLU,  Saturdays at 10 AM. 

 

 

 

Jennifer Wing is a former KNKX reporter and producer who worked on the show Sound Effect and Transmission podcast.