Donations, foster homes and wranglers are needed to help care for, train and re-home unwanted, neglected and abandoned horses.
Those items are at the top of the list of ongoing needs for Olympic Peninsula Equine Network’s rescue operation.
Its most recent rescues were in late February when OPEN President Valerie Jackson was contacted by a member of a Belfair family with local ties that experienced four homicides and an apparent suicide by the killer.
The Mason County Sheriff’s Office says David Wayne Campbell shot and killed his wife, Lana J. Carlson; her two adopted sons, Quinn and Tory Carlson; and a neighbor before killing himself in Belfair on Feb. 26. A 12-year-old girl was the lone survivor.
Although typically only involved in horse rescue, Jackson and vice president/ranch manager Diane Royall agreed to take in two horses and three dogs.
Update on rescues
Jackson sent me an update on how the animals are faring.
She said all three dogs have been officially adopted by the family that agreed to foster them.
One, an Aussie mix, arrived with several broken teeth and needed neutering; another looked like he had a broken leg and needed an X-ray.
A local dog-rescue organization and veterinarian clinic helped considerably with the $1,200-plus bill.
Now all are doing well in their new home.
They named the horses Anna and Elsa.
Anna is an older mare who was so weak from starvation that she went down in the trailer on the way to OPEN.
“We almost had her put down at that point,” said Jackson, “but then her almost desperate reaction to grain when it was offered her told us she had the will to live and saved her life that day.”
Anna was 300 pounds underweight, her skin was covered in sores with large patches of hair missing and her coat felt crispy and was full of parasites such as fleas and lice.
“We knew she had a long and expensive rehab road ahead of her — if she was going to make it — and frankly, it is pretty much impossible to find homes for special-needs horses like her even after the hundreds of dollars and months of rehabilitation this was going to take,” Jackson said.
“Most rescues would have just put her down and saved their meager resources on a horse with a future.
“But I had given my word that we would do our best to save her for the surviving 12-year-old girl in case she wanted her back.”
Two days after they got the horse, Jackson was contacted by a former owner of Anna who, as it turns out, had been trying to buy Anna back to get her out of a bad living environment.
When the two were reunited, the love both have for the other was obvious.
Jackson said they found out Anna’s real name was Dancer and she was 31 years old.
The gal wanted to adopt her and give her a permanent retirement home right away, but Anna was too weak to travel.
So the gal drove from Poulsbo to Sequim almost every day for longer than a month to bring her food and the necessary supplies to nurse the old mare until she was deemed strong enough to be moved again.
Now Anna, or Dancer, is happily living with this girl of her youth and thriving.
While Elsa is still available for adoption, she’s also now thriving and doing well.
In the meantime, Jackson and Royall are constantly getting calls from folks asking for help in finding a new home for their horse, or from others telling them of a horse that needs rescuing.
Taking in more horses means they need to continue to build and expand their facilities.
Covering food, vet bills
And the group is always scrambling to earn more money to help pay for feed and veterinarian costs.
Upon arrival at the facility, each new horse is seen by a veterinarian and is quarantined, or kept separate from the others, for a full 30 days in case the horse carries any infectious diseases.
Their veterinarian clinics with Dr. Sean Tuley have turned out to be a win-win situation for all because Tuley offers his services at a discounted price to horse owners, and the traditional farm-call fee he donates to OPEN, which then uses it to pay Tuley for dental or other needed work on their rescues.
Tuley’s next clinic with OPEN is Sunday, April 17, at 10 a.m. at 554 Roupe Road in Sequim.
Teeth floating will cost $100, with hooks costing $150, plus the farm call.
Other veterinarian procedures will be available.
OPEN also could use the help of horse people and those who just plain love horses to help care for and work with the horses.
For those who can help, all donations are tax-deductible.
OPEN uses PayPal for donations using a debit or credit card.
Some choose to donate once a year.
Others choose to help by committing to a recurring gift each month.
Several people donating just $10 a month can do a lot of good for these horses.
Another way to donate is to mail a check to P.O. Box 252, Sequim, WA 98382.
For more information call Jackson at 360-207-1688 or visit www.olypenequinenet.org.
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Karen Griffiths’ column, Peninsula Horseplay, appears the second and fourth Sunday of each month.
If you have a horse event, clinic or seminar you would like listed, please email Griffiths at kbg@olympus.net at least two weeks in advance.
You can also write Griffiths at PDN, P.O. Box 1330, Port Angeles, WA 98362.
