Guy (Mr. Guyana) arrived here in late April of 2010, a few months after I’d lost my beloved eventer (and previous MHARF horse), Rabbit, to colic. When Guy came home on my trailer he had a dull, patchy coat, was a few pounds underweight, and was so badly in need of a trim that I made my farrier husband do his feet immediately. Guy had raced for most of his life – he was 14 when I got him – and the main riding cues he knew were go, stop, generally-turn-left, and generally-turn-right. He had no canter cue, didn’t know his leads, and had never really jumped.

By the end of June, Guy and I attended our first show together, jumping around a few low courses and doing our first dressage test together. Through the course of the summer Guy learned to jump cross country and we competed in Beginner Novice horse trials, finishing 3rd out of 15 riders in our last competition in October. Guy now knows how to work through his back and is schooling first level movements like leg-yield and shoulder-in. He can jump up to 3’6″ (and the same width) and ADORES running cross country. He and I turned in a completely faultless XC round at our last competition. Guy and I are working on improving the roundness of our transitions, improving the sitting trot, and practicing a little counter-canter. All of this has been accomplished in less than a year on a horse that arrived here with broken skiis for feet, a dull patchy coat, no topline muscle, and a very crude knowledge of rider aids.

Guy has also turned into a complete love. This, in my opinion, is the biggest testimony to his rehabilitation here. When he arrived, Guy had no interest in interaction and would walk away from me in the pasture. This same horse now whinnies when he sees me, walks over to check me out at the fence, and has turned into such a ham that he grabs the end of my dressage whip and plays with it. His eyes have come alive, and that, to me, is the very best part of helping out a rescue horse. Guy and I have become friends and partners, and I can’t wait to head out on the cross country course with him again this summer.

– Rachael Meinz Walker

My mom and I decided we needed to get a friend for our cat, Poufy, who had been alone since we lost his cat friend, Arnie. Although neither Poufy nor Arnie had come from a rescue, they were both “rescues” as they were strays who adopted us. In November of 2010, I saw on the MHARF website a picture of kitties that had been abandoned at a gas station. The one in the front was a brown tabby that looked right at me and said, “I want to live with you.” I emailed Drew and a few days later I adopted that kitty. After a couple of days Mom (who is 88) decided his name should be “Snoops” since he is such a snoop and is into everything.

Every day when I come home from work Mom tells me everything Snoops did (got into) throughout the day. Mom loves to work jigsaw puzzles and so does Snoops. The problem is that he steals the pieces, so when she finishes the puzzle it may be missing a piece and/or the piece has teeth marks in it! Snoops’ nickname is Little G – he gallops up the stairs, down the stairs, across the room and then up the stairs again! He is a delight and so much fun.

A few months ago I sent an email to Drew with some photos of Snoops and I mentioned I wouldn’t keep bothering her with photos – her response was, “Thank you so much for the update; it’s never a bother to know that an animal is so appreciated, after once being thrown away!”.

Thank you to Drew and all involved for the efforts you all do to help the animals that so need help. Snoops doesn’t have hooves but I’m glad he was on the MHARF website.