In August of 2022, I found myself in a situation I had seen coming for years, but could do nothing to slow its approach or prevent it from happening.

At the age of 85, my friend had an accident and was no longer able to care for his farm or the twenty-six horses who lived there. He was a complicated man who could be charming, but also difficult. He ran roughshod over many of the people in his life, but was always kind to me. He loved the horses he had bred and raised for 40 years, but like many in this business, did so as if he would never die, never become disabled, and never run out of money.

Unfortunately, he did.

Overnight, I became the caregiver of 26 horses who were desperate and scared, some malnourished, some deathly ill and in pain, and many who had learned to dislike and mistrust humans over several years’ time. I had trained and cared for horses in my youth, but now on the cusp of 50, I had to dig deep, in both mind and body, to make sure no one got left behind.

There were no bad guys in this story, except those who took advantage after the fact. The truth is that situations like this are fairly common. Animals, whose owners become unable to properly care for them, are helpless. And there is often no one waiting in the wings to save them. In my friend’s case, a combination of physical decline and congenital memory loss, both of which became far worse in the unforgiving heat of North Carolina summers, was mostly to blame. The rest was due to a lack of planning.

In the US, animals are considered property. If they don’t belong to you, there is very little you can do to protect them from neglect or abuse. The standards of care under the law do not guarantee a happy or healthy life over the long term, and unfortunately, animal control has neither the resources nor the manpower to bring about a happy ending for all who desperately need one. Outsiders can only help as much as one is allowed. So, prior to the accident that precipitated the situation I found myself in, I could only stand by and watch.

I am in the process of writing a memoir of this journey though memoir may not be entirely accurate description. I didn’t do this alone and had a lot of help, but ultimately, it was the horses who saved themselves. Though I will begin this project explaining how we got into this mess, I will let the horses tell you how they got themselves out.