As the two saddlebred horses were led out of a trailer into a large circular pen, the beat of their hoofs signaled their presence to another horse that had already arrived.
The off-track thoroughbred was waiting in her pen at the Live and Let Live rescue farm and called out when the first of the two saddlebred horses was led through the barn doors.
“She’s calling for her friends,” said Michelle Clark, a volunteer at the animal sanctuary in Chichester.
The farm took in the three horses – named Chocorua, Briar and Cosmos – on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, from another animal rescue in the state.
State troopers and police in Langdon sent three horses to Chichester, and relocated others more locally to private residents. The horses taken from St. Francis Farm Sanctuary & Rescue showed signs of emaciation and infected mouths, according to Live and Let Live director Teresa Paradis.
St. Francis Farm Sanctuary & Rescue owner Olex Beck, who has operated the organization for 12 years, said the horses that were taken from her farm had come to her shortly before they were removed and were already “very debilitated.” Beck, who works with horses who are old, sickly or have no one to care for them, said she was working to rehabilitate them.
Beck said she has rehabilitated hundreds of horses in her career and financial difficulties in recent months had been a strain on her work.
The Facebook page for St. Francis Farm includes posts in the last few weeks asking for donations both in money and hay. Another post reported damage to one of the farm’s buildings “due to flooding.”
“Honestly, please donate for hay or building,” read one post Nov. 16. “We have had a very hard time.”
Beck said the flooding came with all the rain this fall and she had to rent machines to move the mud out of the horse pens and purchase extra bedding to keep them dry.
“If you have a wet environment, your horse can’t stand in that,” she said. “I had to put more bedding in stalls.”
That bedding and mud removal cost about $1,000, she said.
In addition, a tornado that came through Langdon and six other towns last May with 80 to 100 mph winds ripped up Beck’s fencing and took down one of her buildings, she said.
All of those setbacks, plus rising costs for feed created the perfect storm for the farm.
Beck said this year saw a shortage of second-cut hay, which is high in protein and calories, making it ideal for feeding. With that, and good quality grain, which she said is $20 to $30 a bag, it cost her around $100 a day just to feed all of her animals.
The farm has volunteers and a board of directors, but filling the great need of her animals – she houses around 15 horses and 20 birds – can be a challenge.
“When there isn’t enough, then it comes out of my pocket,” she said. “For an establishment that’s very tight with funds, that starts to eat into quite a bit.”
Beck she said is working with a veterinarian right now to make sure the animals still living on her farm stay healthy. She hopes to be able to get the organization back on its feet soon.
It hasn’t been easy to go through the process of losing animals, she said.
“Rescues are not a dime a dozen and it’s a very hard life. It was very, very painful – it still is,” she said.
The three horses that arrived in Chichester were far below their healthy weight and showed signs of starvation, with their ribs and hip bones showing through their winter coats. A healthy horse, Live and Let Live volunteer Stacey Catucci said, has far more round rear end.
Catucci and Clark were among the 10 people from Live and Let Live that made the trip to Langdon on Wednesday morning with three trailers capable of transporting three horses each. They did not know how many horses they would take when they set out.
When they arrived, the group was held at a staging area set up by police near the farm. A veterinarian examined the horses and decided which ones could stay and which ones should go, Clark said.
A spokesman for the New Hampshire Department of Safety was unable to provide any information on the removal of the animals from the farm and Langdon police referred comment back to State Police.
Live and Let Live workers loaded the horses and began the nearly two-hour trek back to Chichester. The trip was slowed as they faced snow squalls late in the day but reached the farm safely.
The horses were covered in blankets when they arrived in Chichester and will be carefully rehabilitated over the coming months. Paradis said she estimated that it would take around six months to get them to a point where they can evaluate what the plan will be for their care long-term.
Once they have regained some strength, the horses will undergo treatments for “rain rot,” or scabs in their body caused by fungus, cracked hooves and dental care for their infected mouths.
Paradis said the horses seem to be doing well, given the circumstances.
“They’ve endlessly been eating their hay – they love it,” she said. “It doesn’t seem like they stop eating.”