In the lobby of the Washington County humane society, gift baskets for puppies are on sale. "Don't Leave Without Me" reads a handmade sign in the cat suite, which is home to a 14-pound Tabby named Lucky. Boyd the rabbit - "gender unknown" - twiddles in his cage.
But what happens when an animal adoption agency finds itself the sudden recipient of 75 horses in need of a home?
"I knew it was a situation we had to deal with," says Paul Miller, the group's executive director. "Whatever it took, we had to do it."
The horses were seized in December from a Sharpsburg farm in what animal care authorities called the largest horse rescue in Maryland. Five months later, the farmed-out horses from Washington County are alive and kicking. They still need work. And they won't be winning any stakes races or be draped in black-eyed Susans at Pimlico. But the animals are safe.
"They can do what they want now," Miller says. "They are at peace. They can have fun now."
Last month, Barbara Reinken, a 62-year-old registered nurse, was placed on five years of supervised probation for animal cruelty and abuse - four months after authorities were alerted to an overpopulation of horses on her Sharpsburg farm. Many horses had diseased teeth and feet. Some were emaciated. There were also five skeletal remains, three carcasses buried in a field, a dead foal and yearling. One died in the trailer ride from the farm. Four of the animals had to be euthanized.
In a plea agreement, Reinken surrendered her horses. The agreement formally placed the responsibility of adopting out the horses to the Humane Society of Washington County. The case was a particularly egregious example, but groups that respond to such incidents say that hundreds of horses are neglected or abused each year. It's rare for more than a few at a time, perhaps 20 at most, to be seized, however.
"People don't become educated before they become horse owners, and they become overwhelmed very quickly," says Kathy Schwartz of the Maryland Horse Council. "Many are looking for the beauty in the horse, but if they aren't capable of riding or caring for the horse, then it's not going to be a match made in heaven."
With some 200,000 acres of pasture land, Maryland is home to more than 87,000 horses, according to the Maryland Department of Agriculture. Ideally, a horse requires 2 acres, and monthly care can run more than $250. Untrained, horses can bite, rear, charge and kick. Owners become fearful and might not go near their horse again.
"You have people breeding horses because they think they can make money," says Nicky Ratliff, executive director of the Humane Society of Carroll County, an area with an estimated 6,000 horses. "We end up with more horses than there are people who want or need them."
The humane society in the Hagerstown area has spent more than $100,000 to care for the impounded horses it received in December - a financial strain on a small facility designed primarily for cats and dogs. After the five horses that died or were euthanized, the 70 horses that remained were split largely among four farms. To handle 22 horses, the humane society leased a farm a few miles away in Fairplay. Miller and Katherine Cooker, the humane society's development manager, have been regulars at the rental farm along with an indefatigable band of pale-carrying, booted volunteers.
"I get accused of overfeeding the horses, but there's worse things to be accused of," says Miller, grabbing a sack of apple snacks from a stall at Fairplay.
In the rolling farmland, fences separate the adult females and castrated males. Most of the 45 mares from the impounded group were pregnant, so sterilization was one of the first orders of business. Births have been outnumbering adoptions.
Naming the horses has been easier work. Typically, volunteers run through the alphabet, then run through it again. Standing in a field of mares, Miller and Cooker tick off a few of the names: Medicine Hat, Pinkie, Sunny, Chief, nosey Quarter Mare and a gray mare known as the Dragon Lady.
"She just needs someone to work with her," Cooker says. "Most of these horses would make good companion, trail or 4-H Club horses," she says. They are learning to come up to people. They have discovered the joy of carrots.
'Pretty darn cute'
The humane society, which charges $500 per adoption, has found homes for 11 of the impounded horses. Laura and Ron Schlicht in Harford County adopted two miniature horses - a skittish paint named Maggie and an agreeable bay gelding named Stuart Little, who had been named Stud Muffin.
"Why did I buy them ... let me see. They were pretty darn cute, plus I know they needed homes," says Laura Schlicht, who has other horses on the family's 8-acre farm in Fallston. "It was my moment of insanity."
There's no timetable for the rest of the impounded horses, Miller says. He's determined to find homes for all of them. But the humane society can't lease farmland indefinitely.
"If he does not adopt them out, I will find homes for them," says Pat Douglas at Pheasant Hill Farm in Adamstown. Her 32-acre farm includes an equine veterinarian clinic. In December, when she got the call from the humane society, she drove her horse trailer to Sharpsburg and saw the horses, many kept in mud, many in poor condition. "I haven't seen worse," she says.
Initially, Douglas volunteered to take five of the pregnant mares, but she's up to 18 horses now. "Not that I need them," she says, "but I've gotten very attached to them."
The rescue effort has been a communal effort.
In February, a caravan of horse enthusiasts left Baltimore County with 480 bales of hay bound for Washington County. The group has been back a couple of times. "Hay angels," Miller calls them.
Days End Farm in Howard County's Lisbon took 22 of the horses. Normally, the rescue farm cares for about 50 horses - that number now exceeds 70. But they have a full-time staff of five and as many as 170 volunteers. Imagine one person trying to take care for that many horses, says volunteer coordinator DeEtte Gorrie.
Because of its staff and facilities, Days End took the worst of the impounded lot. None of the horses have been adopted yet because they needed the most care and training. By all accounts from the staff, the horses are much better. Some have discovered carrots for the first time and can be hand-fed. But some just aren't safe to be around, much less to put a child on to ride.
"The little redhead here is from the impound," Gorrie says. "She's untouchable. Doesn't like to keep her halter on."
The little redhead is given a wide berth.
Days End charges $500 to $1,200 to adopt a horse. The nonprofit organization does not adopt out a horse if the animal will not have a companion horse, goat or other compatible animal. Also, the group asks that the adopted horse have 2 acres with an additional acre for each additional horse, Gorrie says. Days End offers tours throughout the week.
The Humane Society held an open house a couple of weekends ago in Fairplay for people thinking about adopting one of the impounded horses. Bundles of horse folk fanned out from one end of the farm to the other. Too warm for black snakes to be out. Minimal bugs. The cologne of the day was Eau de Equine. There are far worse smells on a farm.
Dawn Rowe, from nearby Sharpsburg, had her eye on Pinky, a chestnut gelding.
"I want a pleasant trail horse. I don't need a show horse," says Rowe, working a blue halter on Pinky, who has just been renamed Blue. (These horses will go through several name changes.) Blue appeared ambivalent concerning the halter. "They can be like unruly teenagers."
Bob Miles, who drove just over the line from West Virginia, was in the market for a gelding for his wife, Debbie. She had her fill of thoroughbreds - something about getting pitched too many times. So, a good bay would work for her and their 5-acre farm in Falling Waters. Digital camera and apples in hand, her husband surveyed the field. The mares were unsociable, so he also concentrated on the boy side of the farm.
"Dogs are all I needed, but my wife just has to have a horse," Miles says. "I do like the little black one there."
The feeling was apparently mutual. The little black horse accepted apples from Miles' palms-out right hand. The horse even seemed to pose for pictures. Miles headed back to West Virginia with no apples and 20 pictures on his memory card. Clearly, one horse was in the lead.
'They're all projects'
About 50 people had come to the open house. The animals probably saw more people today than in their entire lives, Miller says. In the heat, the horses ducked their heads into the drinking tubs, as the last of the visitors minded the electrified fence and watched where they walked. Skirmishes occasionally broke out, with dominant horses claiming patches of turf for themselves.
"They're all projects," Pat Miller says. She and her husband, Paul, the society director, still have 10 of the impounded horses on their farm. They, too, hope to find homes for them. But they plan to keep the one mini they named Olivia for Olivia Newton-John from Grease. You know, "you're the one that I want," Pat Miller says.
Sounded like a match made in Maryland.
rob.hiaasen@baltsun.com
More information
For photos and information about some of the horses, go to www.defhr.org, the Web site of Days End Farm Horse Rescue in Lisbon. More information is also available from the Humane Society of Washington County at 301-733-2060, ext. 237. N