Rescued Wicomico horses prepare for forever homes

"People do weird things."

That's horse trainer Marjorie Smith's almost daily reminder for mare Iris as she introduces her to routine activities like getting a bath or being sprayed with fly repellent, the kinds of things horses aren't used to doing in nature.

It's stuff horse owners might take for granted, but at 18 years old, Iris is learning it all for the first time.

She’s one of more than 100 neglected horses rescued in March from a Wicomico County farm after years of what Smith described as “who knows what experience” or human contact.

This weekend Iris and her foal Blossom are showing off what they’ve learned over the last 90 days while working with Smith for a trainers’ competition that culminates with Appy Fest, a two-day event celebrating the progress of the Wicomico Appaloosas that’s part horse show and part adoption event.

“It’s just going to be a fun challenge, and my ultimate goal is really that these horses find their niche, find who’s going to value them the most,” Smith said.

Appy Fest, which takes place at a Mechanicsville farm in southern Maryland, was organized through collaboration among the Maryland Fund for Horses, Nutrena and Last Chance Animal Rescue, which has cared for more than 30 of the horses seized from the Wicomico farm and their foals.

Authorities descended on the Cherry Walk Road property owned by Clayton and Barbara Pilchard on March 16 after aerial footage aired on a local news station showed several dead horses lying in a field behind the house.

“Heartbreaking” and “shocking” were the words Sheriff Mike Lewis used in a news conference to describe the scene where two dozen dead horses were found in varying states of decomposition and about 100 more were living in “absolutely inhumane” and “despicable” conditions. Barbara Pilchard has since been indicted on 64 animal cruelty-related charges and is currently scheduled for trial beginning Nov. 7.

In the wake of the discovery, rescues from Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey converged on the area to offer their help and resources in relocating the horses, and Last Chance was among those volunteers.

“The folks at Last Chance, well, they have become horse people, but they didn’t start this whole project as horse people,” said Vicki Carson, Maryland Fund for Horses board president.

With support from Nutrena and the Maryland Fund for Horses, Last Chance has made strides in improving the horses’ health care, but getting them to a point behaviorally where they would be ready for their forever homes required some outside help.

In the beginning, Executive Director Cindy Sharpley said people could barely get near some of the horses, but since the trainers’ challenge began in July, participants have had  “amazing success” with the animals.

From going out on trail rides to developing the potential of a competitive dressage prospect, she said she never dreamed that the horses would be able to achieve so much in such a limited amount of time.

“I thought it would take years to get them to that point,” Sharpley said.

Elizabeth Schneider, a Calvert County trainer who is participating in the competition, has been working with gelding Valor over the last 30 days.

She came into the challenge much later than other trainers, but said Valor, who is already well-handled and under saddle, has come a long way.

"I think a lot of people have a preconceived notion that rescued horses are somehow damaged and that they can't go on to be successful, happy horses," Schneider said. "I really like to encourage people to realize that these horses have as much or more to offer as horses that you can go out and purchase."

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Becoming horse people

Not long before officials began seizing horses from the Pilchard farm, Last Chance purchased a property for horses as part of a veterans therapy program it was working on.

"Horse rescue was not really in the program, but we had this beautiful farm and with no horses, I thought, 'Well, gee, maybe we could help,' " Sharpley said.

Having little experience in this area, she jokes that the Waldorf animal rescue, which typically deals with dogs and cats, ended up with the horses no one else wanted.

Last Chance took 29 horses back to its new property, including more than a dozen stallions, though Sharpley explained that typically a farm only has one.

Initially, she said the plan was simply to hold the horses until the courts decided who they belonged to. Two months later, she received an email letting her know the horses now belonged to the rescue and by that time, she'd grown attached.

"I was very invested in them so I was like, 'OK, so we're going to figure out how to get these guys homes and make sure they're never cold, hungry and unloved again,' " Sharpley said.

To learn more about how to care for them and prepare them for adoption, she said she reached out to every organization in Maryland and Virginia that had experience with horses, but received only one response. That's where the Maryland Fund for Horses comes in.

The group has been an "amazing" help, Sharpley said, fundraising for the stallions' gelding by students from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine's New Bolton Center to prevent breeding and reduce aggressive behaviors as well as playing an integral role in organizing Appy Fest.

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‘How do you place this many horses?’

Since the initial seizure in April, Last Chance has welcomed four foals — soon to be five — and three horses from another rescue that could no longer keep them, bringing the grand total to 37.

With the largest herd of horses from the Pilchard farm being held by Last Chance, Sharpley said the rescue faced an important question: "How do you place this many horses?"

In talking about how to find homes for them, the idea of arranging a trainer's challenge came up, something that's common among rescues, but that the Maryland Fund for Horses and Last Chance had never organized before.

Carson explained that when it comes to rescuing horses that have been neglected, the goal in the first couple of months is to get them to a point where they're "baseline healthy."

Nutrena, an animal feed company, took over the horses' refeeding program, she said, and there were plenty of resources to manage their health care, but the actual behavioral work for each individual horse would need to be farmed out.

"At the point where they came to Last Chance, they were pretty much feral. Most of them weren't interested in engaging with humans," Carson said. "There was going to be a lot of work to get a horse that was like that into a situation where your average horse owner could adopt it."

By the time trainers began picking up the horses, most were at least halter broken and would lead, but she said that’s all that was promised to them.

Every two weeks, Carson has been checking in with trainers on their progress and said she’s been “blown away” away by some of the photos and videos of the horses, many of which are now being ridden and look much healthier than they did when they were first taken in by Last Chance.

Not only will Appy Fest showcase the work of the trainers, but any organization or individual who has Appaloosas rescued from the Wicomico farm is welcome to participate at no charge.

There will also be an area set up where those interested in adopting one of the horses can spend some time with those available from Last Chance up close and talk to the trainers.

“We didn’t have very high expectations, and the trainers, most of them have really exceeded our expectations,” Carson said. “We’re so excited for people to see how far these horses have come.”

‘It was effortless’

Smith, who typically works with foals and problem horses, was drawn to the trainers’ challenge by the opportunity to work with Iris and Blossom.

When she first met the pair, she said Blossom was more advanced than expected, but she knew she’d have her work cut out for her with Iris, who was both defensive about people being in her space and protective of her baby.

“Then they tell me other people have tried to take her but she wouldn’t get on the trailer,” Smith said. “I’m like, ‘Well, let’s just see how this goes.’ Literally the mare walked out of the barn and walked right onto the trailer. I said, ‘OK, I guess she wants to go home with us.’ It was effortless.”

As she allowed Iris and Blossom to settle into their new environment during their first two days on the farm, she said it became clear while observing how Iris reacted to being around people that she struggled with what Smith has come to call “stranger danger.”

She quickly enacted lots of barn rules because without them, she said Iris would lose it if too many strangers were around at once.

Next, she started working on handling. Though the mare enjoyed grooming, Smith said putting her hands anywhere near the horse’s mouth or feet was completely off limits in the beginning.

But once she “won her feet” and began to build rapport, leadership and communication with the horse, everything fell into place.

“Then she became my pocket pet. I cannot go out there,” Smith said. “She runs up to the fence. She’s like 'Take me, take me, take me.' She wants to come out. She has a really good work ethic.”

After some pre-ride training, she said she can now pretty much ride Iris anywhere. But she is still working on combating her sense of “stranger danger” by having her ride with one or two other horses and having strangers perform tasks like trying to halter her or pick up her feet.

Both Smith and Schneider have been documenting the progress of the horses they’re working with on Facebook pages created specifically to track their journey to Appy Fest.

Schneider said she entered the challenge with an open mind because she wasn’t quite sure what to expect, especially from a horse that had little previous handling.

Already Valor has met and exceeded the goals she’s set for him. He’s walking and trotting under saddle, she said, and she’s hopeful that he’ll be cantering this week.

“Initially, when he first came, it was really just, ‘OK, can we handle you? Can I touch you?’ Mostly the answer was no,” Schneider said. “Can I help you understand that people are not only not going to hurt you, but they’re somebody to work with and not somebody you have to fight or work against?”

The goal with Valor was to develop a horse that she could work with without him endangering himself or others, she said. That meant teaching basics like how to lead and that touch doesn’t have to be scary.

Those kinds of lessons are important, she explained, in preparing the horse to get his feet done safely and have either routine or emergency medical care.

Once Valor began to adjust to the idea that people weren’t so bad, Schneider began to ask more of him, introducing him to equipment and teaching him to walk, trot and canter around in a circle on a lunge line.

He picked up on things quickly, which she said isn’t unusual if you're able to communicate effectively with the horse. Within the first week, she had Valor wearing a saddle and bridle and by the second, she was able to actually get on him.

“If you can give them the tools for them to be successful, they usually look for those and so he has really picked up a great deal and was very accepting of new equipment,” Schneider said.

In those first weeks, she said they also worked on fundamentals like trailer loading and being caught reliably in the field. More recently, they’ve focused on making riding more routine and building a stronger relationship so that he looks to be people for guidance rather than with fear.

In the long run, Schneider said she hopes to see Valor with an owner who, regardless of their goals, provides him with a good home where he understands and is loved.

Though he has the potential to be a competitive dressage horse, which is the discipline Schneider works in, she said ultimately she just wants to see him do well in life and not end up in the kind of situation he came from.

“Whether it’s with a kid who’s going to love on them for life or whether it’s with an amateur owner who wants to trail ride, as long as the horse is happy and cared for, that’s a win,” she said.

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If you go:

What: Appy Fest

When: Oct. 6 - 7 from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Where: Last Chance Animal Rescue Farm, 29844 Eldorado Farm Lane in Mechanicsville 

For more information: Maryland Fund for Horses or Last Chance Animal Rescue

To buy tickets: eventbrite

Those with horses rescued from the Wicomico County farm on Cherry Walk Road who are interested in participating in Appy Fest should email appys@mdfundforhorses.org.