From the Times-Picayune Metro section on Monday, April 11, 2005

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Rescue Ranch provides horses
a second chance

It finds homes for unwanted, abused animals

By Sandra Barbier
St. Bernard/Plaquemines bureau

Monday, April 11th, 2005

Dancing Night Dreamer had a rough start in life.

His mother died giving birth to him. Several years later, the horse contracted equine uveitis, an insidious infection that caused him to become completely blind in one eye and nearly blind in the other.

His owner died, and the owner's widow was unable to keep him, so she put him up for auction at a sale barn in rural southwest Louisiana, where the representative of an out-of-state slaughter house had dibs on him for $50.

That would have been the end of the story had it not been for some local people who make it their mission to rescue horses and, at the same time, teach youngsters how to ride and care for the animals.

Kelly Savoy, an animal activist from Jennings, routinely visited the auctions in search of horses that needed another chance.

Lori Wilson gets one of her students ready to ride.

In July 2003, her husband, Brandon, went to the auction where Dancing Night Dreamer was on the block. Brandon Savoy said he almost didn't see the white Appaloosa in a back stall. Unlike most horses bound for slaughter and sale for human consumption in Europe, Dancing Night Dreamer wasn't malnourished or crippled.

The slaughterhouse representative bought the horse, but agreed to resell him to Brandon Savoy for a $50 profit.

"We had him a year in July," Kelly Savoy said. "We worked with him. He was just amazing." Dancing Night Dreamer had been ridden in Western pleasure riding competitions by the first owner's daughter and even had some dressage, a high level of training, she said. Renamed Apache, the horse was gentle enough for her 4-year-old son to ride, she said.

Not long after getting the horse, Savoy became pregnant but lost the baby; a short time later, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

"I could not go out and spend the time with him like I had before," she said. Apache went into a depression each time a horse he had grown attached to and learned to follow was adopted by a new family.

"It took a toll," Savoy said, and she decided to find Apache a new home.

She tried for nearly a year, but no one wanted to adopt a partially blind horse.

Finally, she contacted Jeff Dorson of the Humane Society of Louisiana in New Orleans, and Dorson put her in touch with Debra Reid of Hooved Animal Rescue and Placement, a Tangipahoa organization.

HARP told Savoy about Lori Wilson of Belle Chasse, who runs Rescue Ranch.

"Lori, without seeing him, without knowing anything except he was blind, agreed to take him," Savoy said. "That is a very special person."

"I find them a home"

For the past 10 years, Lori Wilson has bought and accepted abused, neglected and abandoned horses.

"I keep rescue horses until I find them a home," Wilson said recently. She has placed at least 15 horses in the past 10 years. She also teaches local youngsters how to ride and care for horses.

She requires people who want to adopt a horse to get to know the animal, to demonstrate they can properly care for the animal and to have a "turnout," or pasture.

Every Sunday, Wilson invites the youth group at her church, The Crossroads, to the ranch. This combines her love of animals and her desire to teach children kindness to and responsibility for animals, Wilson said.

Last month, the state approved nonprofit status for the 13-acre Rescue Ranch.

When asked to take Apache, Wilson said she didn't give it a second thought. She already owned a horse that is blind from uveitis, the most common cause of blindness in horses.

Spanky, a tall, red appaloosa, "never missed a lick" after having his left eye removed, Wilson said. He still can be ridden and is "the best jumper out here."

Apache joined other rescued horses, including an Arabian gelding named Jonn'ie that came to Wilson with a broken tail and a large hernia on his stomach.

Jonn'ie had been abandoned at a boarding stable, Wilson said. He was 25 years old and swaybacked, but the hernia has healed, and he is fit and active, she said.

There's also Cookie, a 15-year-old miniature horse that was one of 41 horses rescued from near-starvation and terrible neglect near Lacombe last year.

It just takes time and money to turn them around. They deserve a second chance."

Home at last

Wilson got Apache in January and in a matter of days placed him with a nearby Belle Chasse family. His new name is Justice.

"I think he's a good horse," owner Angela Gallagher said.

Justice wasn't expected to do more than walk, but when her 13-year-old daughter, Shannon Gallagher, rode him, he trotted, and now he canters, she said.

Gallagher is teaching her 6-year-old son, Garreth Ayres, to ride Justice, with her leading the horse.

"I never thought I'd be a seeing eye dog for a horse, but that's the way it is. He's been very responsive, very loving. . . . He tilts his head when he hears you coming," she said.

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