Just One

"When you go to Sugarcreek to rescue, I want to go with you."

I've heard this half a dozen times since I started this rescue with the intention of rescuing slaughter-bound horses from the Sugarcreek livestock auction in Ohio. Mostly from new friends that I have made since taking in those first six horses from the other rescue facility. Women like me who have huge hearts and a tremendous amount of compassion for horses who deserve better than the hand they've been dealt.

I wasn't planning my first trip to Sugarcreek until Spring or Summer next year. I wanted to get some of these horses placed in new homes before adding to the herd. I wanted to replace all this barbed wire fencing and put up new barns and run-ins. I wanted a riding ring and round pen. But this isn't about me.

One friend in particular wants another horse to replace the draft mare that she just sold. Her draft gelding needs another gelding for company. She has the room. She has the knowledge. She has the means to save a thrown away horse destined for slaughter. So the other day she sent me an email: I'm ready. How about next Friday?

CALLING ALL HANDS!!

I sent out an email to everyone letting them know that the time had come and received responses from everyone within hours. Everyone but Anastasia replied with an excited and enthusiastic "YES"!!! Anastasia is worried that she won't be able to handle it emotionally and she's right to worry. There will be horses injured, weak from starvation, blind, unable to stand. They will be beaten into the ring, pushed, shoved, cursed. Tears will be shed. We can't save them all. We will have to leave all but one behind.

But it's saving that one life that we have to focus on. The goal is to make sure one horse gets on our trailer instead of the meat buyer's trailer. One horse out of 100 or more.

Just one.

I think I'm the only one out of the group that has been to this type of auction before. When I was younger and volunteered at the American Horse Protection Association, located in Lucketts at the time, we went to a livestock auction just to check it out and see what kind of horses were going through. Let me tell you about a mare we christened Bitsy. The plain bay 4yo TB mare with curled up hooves that weighed about half what she should have. The mare that couldn't stand up on her deformed feet. The mare with the biggest brown eyes and the softest gaze that just begged you to help. Begged for relief from the pain and hunger. I stayed with her until it was her time to be sold. Rough men came into the pen and drug her by the halter, whipping her until she got up. I was 16. I screamed at the men to stop. Stop hurting her. Please. Please just stop.

I might have well been screaming at a wall. They continued to whip her down the alley way. Poor Bitsy was in agony, stepping as gently as she could on her overgrown hooves. Once in the ring there was one bid. A kill buyer bought poor Bitsy for seven dollars. She was then beaten onto an illegal doubledecker trailer for the long haul to Canada.

I'll stop here because I'm crying just from the memory. But no matter how fresh that memory, I still went back to the auctions with the AHPA. And the next auction was to rescue four horses bound for slaughter. Two were a starved Arabian mare and her foal. It all balances out, the good and the bad. It has to, or else what is there to keep rescuers sane?

It's very possible that another Bitsy will be at Sugarcreek. It's possible we'll see a dozen plain bay mares with overgrown hooves who are slowly dying of starvation. But we can't save them all this time.

Just one.