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Freedom Hill advocates for rescued horses
Friday, April 3, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photos by CAROL HARVAT
Sharon Hancock, a member of the board of directors of Freedom Hill Horse Rescue, feeds an apple to Romulus, one of the horses up for adoption on Saturday.
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Freedom Hill Horse Rescue in Owings was created in 2004 to rescue neglected and abused horses and farm animals and find them homes with proper living conditions.
"We've placed 90 horses in five years. I think that's pretty good," said Melody Parrish, co-founder of the nonprofit.
This Saturday, the rescue will be showcasing a few horses that are up for adoption at Dowell Farm on Chaneyville Road.
One of the horses, Romulus, a Belgian draft horse rescued from St. Mary's County, is up for adoption.
"He's just as gentle and kind as he can be," Parrish said.
"He's a good clob-along horse, a good trail ride," said Sharon Hancock, a member of the board of directors of the rescue.
After the horses are rescued they are taken to a trainer who will assess the horses and their riding abilities, Parrish said.
"We don't know how the horses ride. That's the puzzle," she said.
Chrissy, a Belgian quarter horse up for adoption, did a fantastic job with the trainer and is ready to ride, Parrish said.
The rescue boards the horses they rescue in five barns with accompanying fields for the horses to run. They have worked out a free lease agreement with the owners of the property who can claim the lease as a tax deduction because the land is being donated to a nonprofit, she said.
The rescue retains ownership of the horses and the adopters are given a written contract on the horse they choose to adopt, but the horses are essentially in the adopter's care, Parrish explained.
Sometimes the rescue can make some money on the horses, but usually they are put up for adoption for the purpose of improving the care of the horse, she said.
Other sources of income for the nonprofit include a grant from PetSmart, which has helped with costs of a farrier, who trims and shoes the horses.
"It's one of our largest expenses," Parrish said. The rescue also qualified as a nonprofit with the federal employee program that donates to nonprofits on a regular basis, she said.
Along with its local efforts in helping animals, the rescue supports and concerns itself with national animal rights issues.
Members are staunch supporters of the newly introduced federal bill that puts a ban on slaughtering horses.
"It's an extremely inhumane death for a horse," Parrish said.
She would also like to see land set aside for abandoned and loose horses in the West and would like the federal government to make some land available. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management now rounds up mustangs and places them in captivity to get them off the plains and then rents the land to cattlemen, Parrish said. They could have some land for the horses, and use population management tools to help, she said.
"They could manage it in Assateague Island," she said of the island with wild horses that exists near Ocean City. Parrish has seen the wild and abandoned horses in Utah, Wyoming and Colorado and helped some of them find homes, but for now her efforts are focusing on Southern Maryland and finding a place for Freedom Hill's horses to call home.
If you want to go
Freedom Hill Horse Rescue Adoption Day and Barn Sale will take place April 4 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Dowell Farm, located on Chaneyville Road in Owings. For more information, go to www.freedomhillrescue.org.
