horse rescue

Budd was a standardbred whose original destiny was to become a racehorse. At two years old, he didn’t make the required time and instead became a working horse. He ended up as a driver for an Amish family for the next 18 years.

He click-clacked his way for more than 100,000 miles over those years, and when it became evident that Budd could no longer perform his daily tasks due to old age, his family didn’t really want to send him to auction. Lucky for Budd, his family came across the Cherry Hill Farm Sanctuary business cards that President Pamela Harmon had scattered throughout nearby harness shops and community centers.

“We received a call this spring from a family looking to place a 21-year-old standardbred that had been their daily driver for 18 years. Budd was a part of their daily lives, and they wanted him to have a chance to retire in pasture," Harmon said to The Batavian. "As a tattooed standardbred, we were able to look up Budd’s history and found that he was born and trained here in Corfu, NY, before making his way to be a buggy horse. Budd, along with his original pasture mate at the Amish farm, is now retired at Cherry Hill Farm Sanctuary.”

Obviously, a much less traumatic and far more humane way to — quite literally — put Budd out to pasture to loll about and enjoy his remaining days as reward for many hard years of work, his new caretakers believe. 

There are 60 acres for him to forage and practice “being a horse” with his fellow kind, go for walks with Cherry Hill volunteers, get bathed and groomed and receive the special treatment he deserves.

Cherry Hill officially became a nonprofit in 2022, with the primary purpose of helping senior equines live out their lives in peaceful and healthy comfort after serving their work lives and having no other place to go except to auction, where they are sold for meat.

More than 100,000 horses in the United States are shipped off to Canada and Mexico each year for their meat, and the journey is often “pure agony” for these animals, according to the organization’s mission statement. That’s why Cherry Hill supports horses that are overcoming immense odds such as blindness and starvation by providing a haven for them to live out the rest of their lives in a compassionate, loving and dignified existence. 

Delilah is another such case, only she brings with her a twofer, having been studded before being deemed no longer serving her purpose on an Amish farm. And the Morgan mare, in all of her glistening black-coated glory in the Corfu sunshine, is ready to give birth any day now, Harmon said. 

“She’s over 20, and she’s partially blind. We actually took her in only three months ago. She was already bred sometime in the summer to a Belgian, which is a draft horse, and she’s a lot smaller, so there’s a lot of concerns that she’s not going to be able to deliver appropriately. We’re kind of in this full watch right now,” Harmon said. “We took her on mostly because of the fact that she’s older, and there’s a good chance that she’s gonna have some complications, rightfully so because of her age and because of the size of the stud that she was bred to.”

As with any noble cause, it takes money — a hefty $2,000 per month winter feed bill for the grain necessary to feed senior equines with either poor teeth or no teeth, plus the other costs for shelter and medical care, such as with Delilah, who “our goal was to make sure that she had the proper health care during the end of her pregnancy and that we could see it through to make sure that she stays healthy,” Harmon said.

Cherry Hill has 20 rescue equines, plus several goats and two cows. The nonprofit takes on many draft horses that were once used on Amish farms, and they drive up the feed bills, Harmon said. 

That’s why Cherry Hill is throwing its first big fundraiser, a Cornhole and Basket Raffle, from noon to 4 p.m. Aug. 11 at Lancaster Elks Lodge, 33 Legion Parkway, Lancaster. There will be at least 100 theme baskets and gift certificates for various local businesses, plus a 50/50, food for purchase, cash bar and a DJ. Winners need not be present at time of drawing.

The cost is $25 for participants of the corn hole tournament, and they are asked to arrive at 11:30 a.m. Use the Scoreholio app or call/text 716-901-3445 to register. 
 

It was a very crafty day at the Polish Falcons hall on Swan Street with more than a dozen vendors on hand to sell Christmas gifts.

A portion of the proceeds benefits the HORSE Rescue in Pavilion.

One of the owners or a horse rescue in Pavilion has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and the rescue must shut down immediately.

The owners need to quickly find new homes for 18 horses and are turning to the public for help.

Chris Dodge said she has contacted other rescues, let other stables and vets know about the situation, but "there's no room at the inn."

"We have to turn to the public," Dodge said. "If somebody wanted a horse in the spring, don't wait until the spring, take it now."

Chris' husband Mike has stage 4 cancer, Chris said. He's undergoing intensive chemotherpy and radiation treatment, but has been given seven- to nine-months to live.

The cancer has wrapped around his heart, trachea and is in his liver. It was first discovered in his pelvis after he fell recently while feeding the cats and broke his pelvis.

The rescue is doing well enough financially right now, Chris said, but she simply has no time now to properly care for the horses. She and Mike must make frequent trips to the doctors and he needs care when they are home.

"We have some wonderful volunteers, but they're inexperienced," Chris said. "The horses are getting fed and the stables are getting mucked, but that's about it."

The rescue will still require the same standards for placement of horses that they always have, but the contract is being modified to take out the return policy. There will be no returns on any horses adopted.

To make an appointment at the rescue to view the animals and consider an adoption, call (585) 584-8210.

Previously: Horse rescue in Pavilion carries on in difficult times

Photo: Mike Dodge from September of this year.

After nearly two decades of caring for unwanted equines, Mike and Chris Dodge are finding it a bit harder to carry on. Since they started their efforts, initially in Ventura, Calif., they have so far saved 400 horses.

Now in declining health and grappling with a 40-percent drop in donations, the Dodge's are still doing what they can to keep their horse rescue in Pavilion going.

Sunday, they and a group of supporters and volunteers held an open house at the rescue on Dow Road. While there were many new faces, attendance was down from previous years, Mike Dodge said.

"Donations are down because of the economy, but it's that way with every non-profit," Dodge said. "Without those donations, though, we don't have the money to do what we have to with these guys."

There are 24 horses on the ranch and it costs $125 per month -- $3,000 a month total -- just to feed them. Plus there are medical bills and other expenses associated with operating the rescue.

The pasture out back hasn't been mowed for a while because the lawn mower broke.

Volunteers help, but many of them are students at SUNY Geneseo, so when school is out, there are fewer hands to clean stables and feed and water the horses.

Dodge noted that some of his volunteers have been kids who learned to ride at commercial stables and think they might to own their own horse. What they learn in volunteering, Dodge said, is that "90 percent of the care of a horse is on the ground."

Mike and Chris started horse rescue in Ventura County 18 years ago because they thought the humane society near their home didn't do a very good job.

Mike said they would put down a horse as dangerous if it kicked up its rear legs.

"That's just a horse having fun," Dodge said.

They stayed there for eight years before moving to Pavilion so Chris could be closer to her family.

In an era when many people who thought they could afford horses, now find they can't, as many as a 100,000 horses are sent to slaughter each year -- slaughtered in Mexico or Canada, because environmental regulations make it tough to run a commercial horse slaughter anywhere in the United States.

The Dodges have two horses on their way out for adoption, which is helping to make room for one horse that can no longer be cared for by its owners.

"This little girl has been riding him every day for four years, but they couldn't find a place to board him, so we're bringing him here," Dodge said. "She's a nice little girl."

While some horses do go out for adoption, so many of the animals brought to the rescue are hard to place because they're old (one horse at the rescue is 41 years old, which is like 123 to you or me), feeble (the white horse with spots pictured below is blind, but just about the friendliest horse you'll ever meet) or too ornery for hobby owners.

"Everybody wants a horse that's easy to handle," Dodge said.

Anybody who can care for the animal, handle the $125-per-month feed bill and provide it adequate pasture and shelter, is eligible to adopt a horse.

Every horse saved is another that can be saved, and that's what keeps Chris and Mike going.

"It’s strictly for the horses," Mike said. "They can’t speak for themselves. Just like dogs and cats, they need someone to speak for them, to be their voice."

The next closest rescue in New York is in Lima, where 12 horses are boarded; otherwise, there's no other horse rescue in Western New York.

Mike said he realizes with all of the horses that have been sent to slaughter over the years, 400 rescued is "just a drop in the bucket," but it's still worthwhile.

"It sure means a lot to that one horse."

Here's a video produced by somebody in Buffalo about the rescue:

For more information, visit the rescue's website.

Pavilion's H.O.R.S.E Rescue group hosted an event at Tractor Supply, Batavia, today to help raise money for the organization. There were live horses and demonstrations along with horse rides, face painting and a prize drawing.

Pictured are Victoria Gooch and Deb Nanni with their horses. 

Gooch said the group currently has 25 horses up for adoption.

With the recent economic downturn, Gooch said, a lot of people have been giving up their horses because they can't afford to feed them and keep them in good health.

"You can go onto Craigslist and horses are very cheap or free," Gooch said.

Recently, a ranch in Rochester had 75 horses taken away from it and all of those horses now need homes, Gooch said.