Helping Hands is a limited series highlighting local nonprofit organizations and the people behind their efforts to make a difference in our communities. We'd like to thank our Community Partner, McLane Middleton, for supporting this series. The organizations and stories featured are selected independently by our newsroom and are not influenced by our Community Partner.
Nearly six dozen horses stood close to the fence lining their paddocks, craning their necks at the sound of the hay truck’s arrival.
Carol Ritchie hopped out of the truck and greeted each horse, scanning them with well-practiced eyes for anything that might be different.
“We’re the first people that are putting the eyes on the horses for the day,” said Ritchie, who spends each Sunday morning driving an old, donated flatbed pickup truck, stacked with bales of hay, around the winding paths of Live and Let Live Farm’s Rescue and Sanctuary, situated on 60 acres of woodland in Chichester.
On this particular Sunday, the final one in May, Ritchie assessed her charges, determining that Maisey was “sore of foot,” likely due to a weight increase. Kota had a crack in her hoof, which needed a trim. After all, “no hoof, no horse,” Ritchie said, “horses can’t get off their feet. So you can’t have bad feet.”
“I’ve had animals my whole life, but I started [at] about 25 to volunteer at rescues,” she added.
Her ex-husband introduced her to Live and Let Live roughly 15 years ago after she lost her job. She knew she needed something “fulfilling” to do while looking for a new position. Having owned horses almost her whole life, Ritchie felt the rescue was “just the obvious” fit.
In the decade and a half since then, Ritchie has become a pillar of the rescue’s volunteer community. Mainly there on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday, Ritchie does everything from feeding the horses, training volunteers, fixing fences and assessing animal wellbeing to plowing the roads, hosting the rescue’s Sunday Facebook Lives, running their tack shop in Concord and helping place animals in homes.
“If I see a need, I just kind of fill it,” she said.
Her love for the animals has kept her coming back all these years.
“You get attached,” she said. “We’ve had some animals that have been here for a little while get adopted recently, which is fabulous.” Ritchie paused, tearing up. “That’s the goal. That’s what we work for, but it’s a little painful. You miss them.”
Death is not uncommon either. The animals that Live and Let Live rescues are often in rough shape. Some of them don’t make it. This is one of the hard parts for Ritchie.
The physical strain is also very real. While reloading the hay truck, Ritchie talked with another volunteer, Melanie Deshaies, about being “farm strong” due to the physical labor. The horses go through 26 bales of hay every day, each weighing 30 to 50 pounds. The volunteers manually load the bales onto the flatbed, then throw them over fences often taller than the volunteers themselves.
“It’s hard work, you get tired,” she said. “I work full time, [then] come here. And maybe,” she reached for an example, “you’re putting in a fence. And you get tired, but you have to finish because you’re committed to it.”
Ritchie spends weekdays working for Merrimack County Savings Bank from her Deerfield home. She does so accompanied by her two cats, two dogs and two horses. Multiple of her animals have come to her from Live and Let Live.
How much time she spends at the rescue varies, with her philosophy of only doing “things that make me happy” guiding the roles she takes on.
“It isn’t easy,” she emphasized, “but this is what I do. I never second-guess it.”
The way Ritchie sees it, there are always “needs” in a community. Volunteering, she said, is “just what you do” to fill them, to give back to the community. Because, ultimately, doing good makes you feel good, and you will always, in her words, “get more than you give.”
