Horses' Haven
Reported by Erik Smith
Web produced by Christiana Ciolac

About 20 to 30 horses are at Horses' Haven at one time.

If these horses could talk, they will tell you they have not died, but they have gone to heaven.

They are the tired, the poor, the wretched, the aged, the used, the unwd, the neglected and abandoned. Here they're safe in a place called horses haven.

Barb Baker had a dream a few years back to provide a place, sanctuary if you will, for the animals that have always been so close to her heart. It wasn't easy but with the help of a few other compassionate and caring horse lovers, Horses' Haven became a reality.

"Ruthie is 25-years-old. The reason she wears the bell is because buddy, her companion is blind," Baker said.

At any given time, there may 20 to 30 horses at Horses' Haven, too much for Barb to handle alone but thanks to a dedicated group of volunteers, the stalls get cleaned, the horses fed, the medications passed out, the fences mended. The chores get done 365 days each year.

What's your routine on any day of the week?

"The volunteers come in around 7 to 7:30 and they have to do all the feeding to all these horses are on their own special diets, whatever it takes to keep that horse up," Barb said. "It's really like a gourmet kitchen for horses. We have sheets on them so everybody knows what they eat. They have to get their medication. They have to get any other medical work done. Then they come outside to spend the day."

It's all very simple, good-hearted people keeping perfect ... lyood animals alive another day, a month, a year. There's no glue ftory or any foreign dinner plate in the fu for haven's horses.

What's a throwaway?

"A throwaway is a throwaway horse, like you would throw garbage away, like you would throw an old coffee cup away, that's what it is."

That is an awful word. The horses are obviously close to her heart, there is something special about her heart, as well. It's new. Well, it was previously owned. Two years ago, Barb underwent a heart transplant operation so it is still new to her. There is even more room in it for her four-legged friends.

How do you keep going? You had major heart surgery.

Barb: "These horses keep me going, I keep healthy for these horses."

Go to the Horses' Haven website for more.

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