A heart's desire to
help rescue horses
Millstone resident starts nonprofit
BY JANE MEGGIT Staff Writer
The American saddlebred
gelding now residing in Millstone is just one of the
healthy and sound horses that would have been bound
for a Canadian or Mexican slaughterhouse had a
caring individual not intervened.
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ERIC SUCAR staff Lisa Post cares
for Anderson, one of the horses that
her newly formed nonprofit, Helping
Hearts Equine Rescue, helped save,
at Chestnut Ridge Equestrian Center
in Millstone on Feb. 13.
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Instead of being shipped to a meat
buyer, the 14-year-old horse was rescued from the
New Holland Auction in New Holland, Pa., by township
resident Lisa Post. She calls him Anderson and plans
to train him as a dressage horse before trying to
get him permanently adopted.
Post, who owns Chestnut Ridge Equestrian Center,
is a dressage instructor with many well-bred horses
in her barn and a special place in her heart for
rescues. Post's very first horse, Gabriel, was a
rescue. Her theninstructor Bernardo Vergara had
answered an ad and discovered the emaciated gelding
living in a pen with pigs.
A longtime advocate for horse welfare, Post has
now formed the Helping Hearts Equine Rescue to find
new homes for animals that may otherwise end up at
the slaughterhouse. The board of directors includes
her husband, Chris, Mary Villano of Millstone, and
Denise Dillon-Febles of Tinton Falls.
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Top: Lisa Post takes Anderson out
of his stall at the Chestnut Ridge
Equestrian Center in Millstone on
Feb. 13. Above: Post takes Anderson
out for a stroll. Left: Lucy, a
feline Post rescued from a shelter,
relaxes in one of the stables.
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According to the Helping Hearts
Equine Rescue mission statement, the nonprofit
organization is dedicated to rescuing,
rehabilitating and placing equines in need as well
as assisting equines in situations of neglect, abuse
or threat of slaughter in Monmouth, Middlesex and
Ocean counties and other areas. The group also
educates the public about the standards of care
required to humanely maintain an equine as a riding
partner and/or companion animal.
Horses are not the only animals Post helps. She
often shares her facility with rabbits and cats that
have been pulled from shelters and need new homes.
Some of the rescues have become permanent residents,
such as her Vietnamese potbellied pig named Petunia,
who came from a northern New Jersey shelter,
Dominic, a mini-mule, and Oliver Twist, an older
pony she rescued in October from a local situation
of starvation and neglect.
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PHOTOS BY ERIC SUCAR staff
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Veterinarian Dr. Eli Perris said he
had never seen a living equine as emaciated as
Oliver had been. Although Oliver faced many
setbacks, he pulled through and gained at least 100
pounds during his time with Post.
Perhaps Post is best known for having rescued
Butch and Buddy, the two Belgian draft horses that
the Monmouth County Park System retired in 2005 from
working at Longstreet Farm in Holmdel. Park
officials had said they were going to allow a dealer
to place the horses in a new home with kids, which
the local horse community took as a euphemism for
placing them up for auction and sending them to
slaughter.
After Post and other locals launched a campaign
against the park system's retirement plan for the
horses, park officials released the animals to Post,
who found them a new home.
In her experience, Post said she
has discovered many people who want to help rescue
horses but can't because they don't have adequate
property and/or have to board their own horses.
"Horse rescue is tough," she said. "It's
expensive. You need space and [rescued horses] are
not so easy to adopt out and find homes for."
By creating an official equine rescue, Post wants
to be able to tap into the resources local horse
enthusiasts do have.
"With support, we can save and rehab more horses
than we can do alone," she said. "The goals [are] to
provide safe haven, get them healthy and as whole as
possible, get them a job via evaluation and training
to create worth in them again."
While Chestnut Ridge Equestrian Center
specializes in Friesians for dressage, every breed
has something to offer, according to Post.
"To see them thrown away when they still have
something to offer is terrible, or [what's] worse
[is] finding these aged horses/ponies who are thrown
away or neglected after giving their lives teaching
people and children and keeping them safe," Post
said.
She said often animals show more loyalty than
humans. When horses wind up in a bad situation,
often an owner's laziness or financial situation is
to blame, she said.
"Very few [horses] are really rank or dangerous,"
she said.
Post said she has loved horses for as long as she
can remember.
"I got into horses for the horses, not for
ribbons, prestige or anything like that," she said.
"I want to teach people to enjoy their horses. If
they want to show, that's fine, but if not, we work
on the journey so that the horse is enjoying it as
well as the owner."
Christy Sheidy, founder of the Pennsylvania based
Another Chance for Horses rescue, has worked with
Post for quite some time.
"I am thrilled she is doing this, although she is
basically just making it official [by becoming a
nonprofit], as she has been doing this for a while,"
Sheidy said.
Sheidy said that at one time rescue was
considered a dirty word when it was associated with
a horse. She said people once assumed rescue horses
had something wrong with them.
"In reality, people are starting to realize that
there doesn't have to be something wrong with them
and that most of the horses that go to slaughter are
young, healthy and sound," she said.
Helping Hearts Equine Rescue is currently
conducting several fund drives, including a used
cell-phone collection and an eBay auction of a
saddle pad containing 19 autographs from members of
the 2004 Olympic Equestrian Team.
For more information about Helping Hearts Equine
Rescue, visit www.chestnutridgedressage. com
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