Hebron horses well on their way to recovery

Tender love and care and of course a good meal.

Necessities for a fulfilling life, but for the nearly 100 horses rescued from a farm in Hebron in March,
they were necessities the horses never had.

That is until fifteen of them found a home at Changing Fates Equine Rescue in Laurel.

“Some of them you could tell hadn’t had a lot to eat, they were very thin. They were hardly ever touched by anybody at all it takes a lot of coxing, a lot of patience to get them on the trailers,” explains Robin Neary, Vice President of Changing Fates.

Although, getting these horses healthy again and comfortable with humans has been no easy task. It’s been difficult to get them to take advantage of their fresh start.

“When they go without eating a lot of times once you introduce them to food, they will just eat and eat and eat and gorge themselves and make themselves sick so you really have to limit it and control the amount of food that they eat,” explains Neary.

One of the rescued horses, named Nicholas came to Changing Fates unable to get up on his own, but in his four months of staying there, he has regained his strength. He can now stand up, walk, even gallop on his own but there’s still a long ways to go until a full recovery.

“His bone structure is probably never going to be right. In his back legs, due to the malnourishment, his back legs are kind of cockeyed, so they kind of go in. When he first came in they were like touching at his knees and they have grown out some, but we don’t know if he will ever mature to a normal horse height.”

But the good news, he’s stronger than ever before and getting all the love and care he needs to continue improving just like the others who found their way to the rescue.

“It has to be done very slowly. I think if you overwhelm them it’s just too much and it scares them even more. I just think if you’re around them, if you’re always talking they hear your voice and I think they can read your personality types too. They know you’re not going to come in here and manhandle them and we don’t we’re very patient,” adds Neary.