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Rescued horses find a forever homeBEECHER, Ill. (AP)--Sometimes rescuing an animal from a life of misery is the easy part. Finding a safe permanent home for a creature that has been abused or neglected can be a far greater challenge. At last, the story of two mistreated horses finally has a happy ending, thanks to several caring local people who went out of their way to make that happen. In less than two years, Charley and Jose, two chestnut quarter horses, have gone from living in deplorable conditions in Lynwood to emergency veterinarian care in Orland Park to temporary quarters at stables in Mokena and finally to a spacious horse farm in Beecher. Dan Sabia, owner of Hayeburner Farms, has agreed to let the horses live out their days on his property. He's even picking up the $175 monthly tab for their feed. "They've bonded with each other,'' Sabia said. "They get upset when theyre separated.'' The story begins in July 2008, when Cook County Sheriff's police, acting on a tip, entered Bar L Equitation Stables near Lynwood. They found deplorable conditions, with stalls nailed shut and moldy hay and debris scattered about. Manure was piled two feet high inside the stalls, forcing the nine horses housed there to retreat to small corners of their quarters. In one stall, the imprint of a dead horse was pressed like a fossil into the hardened manure, said Linda Estrada, director and president of the Animal Welfare League in Chicago Ridge. The shelter supplied rescue transport for the animals and ended up shouldering much of their $11,000 veterinary bill. Estrada said her organization is still paying off $6,000 of that. Starving, thirsting and miserable, four of the horses were seized. Two were deemed beyond help and put to sleep. The other two, who would come be called Charley and Jose, were taken to veterinarian Raymond Morandi's facility in Orland Park, where they were treated at discounted rates for hunger, dehydration, scratches and overgrown hooves. The case against stables owner Frank Lee, a retired Chicago police officer, and stables manager Donnie Edwards is still pending. Throughout the animals' recovery, one issue loomed large: Neither horse had been gelded and both were now past the age when the procedure could be done relatively safely. Because they had not been gelded, they were prone to wild and unpredictable behavior, something stallions are known for. It would be difficult to find a permanent home for such animals . In January 2009, after they were well enough to leave the vet's quarters, Lorri Ebeling, owner of Nova Quarter Horses Stables in Mokena, offered them temporary shelter. Detective Larry Draus, one of the officers who investigated Bar L Equitation Stables, picked up the tab for their care while at Nova. Draus said he knew the county would eventually pay the fee using funds it receives from the United States Department of Agriculture, but he didn't want Ebeling to have to wait for the money. Others dug deep to help the animals as well. Morandi said one Orland Park woman read about the horses in a February issue of the SouthtownStar and then presented his office with a check for $1,000. While in her care, Ebeling said, the horses had to be separated from other horses because of their unpredictable nature. For months, Ebeling, Draus and Estrada looked for a permanent home for Charley and Jose. Unable to find anything, they decided to take a chance and have the animals castrated, which could make them easier to place. Morandi said stallions should be gelded by age 2 or 3. Charley and Jose are about 12, he said. The risk of the surgery goes up with age, he said, because as horses get older, circulation to the affected area increases. Still, not performing the surgery meant the animals would always have to be separated. And the odds of finding a permanent home for them would be long. "Stallions can be dangerous to humans and to other horses,'' Morandi said. The surgery was performed Sept. 29 and the horses made a remarkable recovery, Morandi said. Charley and Jose were moved to Dan Sabia's Hayeburner Farms in Beecher in early October. Sabia noticed right away that the animals wanted to be near each other, even though they still can't be placed in the same paddock. "They're still too studdy,'' he said, adding the wildness should calm in a few more months. When they're out of each other's sight, they whinny and let their displeasure be known, he said. So Sabia keeps them in facing stalls. Jose sometimes chews on the wood in his stall, something Sabia attributes to nervousness. He's hoping the horse will settle into his new home in the next few months. "These horses have been through a lot,'' he said. These are not the first neglected animals that Sabia has nursed back to health. He's offered housing and care to other horses that were nearly starved to death. "It's sad what people can do to horses,'' he said. He hopes that his assistant, 18-year-old Kaitlyn Hansen, daughter of family friends, will be able to ride Charley in the spring. Jose, still nurturing a foot injury, will likely never be ridden. But that's OK, Sabia said. He understands how injuries can lead to a lifetime on the sidelines. He hasn't ridden in years, since he was thrown a few years ago and suffered a back injury. Sabia also boards race horses and maintains a half-mile training track for them on his 30-acre property. "I've always loved horses. I love to watch them in winter. And in spring, I love how they get their jollies.''
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