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Capital Press Article from March, 2008
Last-Chance Animals Find A Home
Ranchers open their arms to improve horses' quality of life
GRANDVIEW, WA -- Shelly Richardson still remembers her first horse, Ginger,
a chestnut-brown Welsh pony. Richardson would take her out every afternoon,
and when she got tired of riding, she'd turn around backward and lay out
her homework across the animal's strong hips. The pony would graze while
Richardson studied.
"She was my favorite play thing." Richardson said, standing outside one of the
paddocks of Sunny Acres Ranch in Grandview. Richardson's love for Ginger has
turned into a mission to help all horses.
Richardson is the owner of Sunny Acres Ranch, a private rescue facility that has
been in operation for two years. The Grandview ranch currently houses about 18
horses, both rescues and boarders, that graze across 20 acres of gently rolling
pastures along
the Old Inland Empire Highway. She spends several hours every day
attending to the horses' needs - feeding them, cleaning their pens, and
grooming them. Each of the horses knows her and seems to look forward to her daily visits.
The ranch is a far cry from where many of these horses were headed before
Richardson found them. She said for many of them she was their last hope before
being sent to slaughter.
Lyrical, a 10-year-old quarter horse mare, is a perfect example of the animals
found at Sunny Acres Ranch. The chestnut brown horse - the same color as Ginger
- was bought from a feedlot by someone who planned to use her as a working
horse. They didn't realize until it was too late that Lyrical was lame.
Richardson said the horse appears to have navicular disease, an ailment that
affects the bone in one of her hooves and causes her to limp. When Lyrical
arrived at the ranch, Richardson said the animal could barely walk. But after
working with Richardson and a trusted farrier, the horse now regularly trots
around the paddock.
"My goal is to take horses, like Lyrical, who still have a quality of life but
were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and give them a second chance,"
Richardson said. "Sometimes all a horse needs is physical or mental help, or
just training to make them marketable."
Richardson said she finds her horses in the want ads. She looks for last-chance
horses, those animals whose owners are hoping to find someone through the
classified ads to take on the animal before it is sent to slaughter.
There are no slaughter houses in the United States. Richardson said horses are
shipped to Canada and Mexico to be killed.
One of the horses currently living at the ranch is a 17-year-old registered
quarter horse that was relinquished by its owners because they could no longer
afford to keep the animal. Richardson said the horse was spending 23 hours a day
in a stall and had started to lose weight.
Since the horse was brought to Sunny Acres, it has continued to put on weight
and has gotten used to spending all day grazing with some of the other horses on
the ranch.
As much as Richardson would like to, she can't take on every horse that comes
her way. She said she looks for specific qualities in the animals she brings to
the ranch - those that are fairly gentle and are saddle-broke - "so they'll fit
right in with a family," she said.
Richardson adopts out her horses using Petfinder.com and through personal
contacts. She said she typically tries to match the horses with families who
continue to take special care of them. Over the past two years, she said, she
has rescued about 85 horses at her facility. She's taken horses that were headed
for slaughter, rehabilitated them and found them new homes.
By Elena Olmstead
for the Capital Press
Copyright 2007-2008 Sunny Acres Ranch - All rights reserved.