While many students sat at home catching re-runs of "Jersey Shore," members of the equestrian team devoted part of their winter break to training for the spring and volunteering with a horse rescue project in Florida. Eighteen of the team's 35 members headed south for four days to ride in Wellington and volunteer in Loxahatchee with Pure Thoughts, Inc. Horse and Foal Rescue.
After arriving on Jan. 18 and training the following day, the group began their volunteer efforts on Jan. 20 at Victoria McCullough's Triumph Project stables in Wellington. McCullough has been a donor and supporter of the team "for several years," said senior captain Rachel Griffith '10. While the team has trained in Florida over winter break longer than Griffith has been at Brown, last year was the first that they did volunteer work while they were there. McCullough invited the team to get involved with these projects, Griffith said.
While the team was at the Triumph Project, McCullough "explained a lot about her mission" to rehabilitate horses that would otherwise have been slaughtered, Griffith said. She added that the team also "visited the horses" that the organization has rescued. After introducing the team to the horses at the Triumph Project, McCullough took the riders the next day to the Triumph Project's sister rescue, Pure Thoughts.
The Triumph Project rehabilitates abused and injured horses to be used for competition. Pure Thoughts offers horse adoption for a wide range of needs, such as "someone who just wants a companion, a horse to take trail-riding or a family horse," Griffith said.
"Even if horses don't have a future as a riding horse, they have a future as a pasture pet, or living with us," said Brad Gaver, co-founder of Pure Thoughts.
Both organizations find abused and neglected horses "from all different backgrounds," Griffith said.
"A lot of the horses are racehorses," she added. "They're put into training really young, they race very hard. It's very strenuous."
As a result, many of these horses become too injured to race, and "end up at slaughter auctions," said junior captain Allegra Aron '11. Horses other than racehorses are brought to slaughter auctions, too. Many of these are "older horses that people no longer want or horses that have injuries," Aron said.
"With the economy being so bad, many (racehorses) are going to slaughter," Griffith said.
Pure Thoughts attempts to save these horses from being slaughtered by going to the auctions, purchasing the horses and restoring their health so they can be ridden again, Griffith said. Rehabilitation could take "anywhere from a month to years," Gaver said, depending on the severity of the horse's condition.
The equestrian team helped out at Pure Thoughts after their Thursday morning training session Jan. 21.
"They had between 20 and 40 horses" that were fully rehabilitated and ready to be adopted, Griffith said. The team's job was to "prepare them for the Web site" by bathing, grooming and photographing them, she said.
In addition to finding new homes for rehabilitated show horses, McCullough's mission at Triumph Project is about "making it easier for the (rescue) projects to work together, and really helping grassroots projects get more resources," Griffith said.
The most difficult obstacle in rehabilitating horses is not about improving the physical or emotional condition of the horses, Gaver said.
"The biggest challenge, honestly, is financial. We can handle pretty much every case we've had thrown at us, but it's just about paying for some of the procedures that need to be done," he said. Pure Thoughts operates completely on donations and grants.
Typically, those who adopt horses from Pure Thoughts live locally in Florida, Gaver said. However, one of their horses found a home with the equestrian team.
One pony, named Yahzi, had been neglected and was rescued by Pure Thoughts, Griffith said. "Now he's actually one of our really safe beginner horses." Yahzi even competed in the "walk-trot" portion of a competition hosted by Brown this past October, she added.
Horses at Pure Thoughts "look just like any other horses," Griffith said, adding that it is hard to tell that they were once abused or neglected. "Most of them were pretty friendly and pretty resilient," she said.
The horses at Pure Thoughts "are really sweet and well cared for," Aron said, adding, "It's nice to see a horse that was abused in the past now able to be loved."
