Woman rescues draft horses facing slaughter

LIVINGSTON, Mont. – Molly Belle, a 25-year-old Belgian mare, was pregnant when she came to Deborah Derr’s ranch here.

The draft horse and her foal barely escaped slaughter.

Molly Belle was rescued from a farm in Alberta, Canada, where pregnant mares’ urine is used to make Premarin, a female hormone replacement drug used to relieve the symptoms of menopause.

On the farm, Molly Belle lived in a tight stall. She wore a urine collection device and was repeatedly impregnated.

“They’re impregnated year after year after year, giving their foals away to slaughter,” Derr said, leaning over to scratch Molly Belle’s hind leg.

When the mares’ services are no longer needed on the Premarin farms, they’re sent to feedlots to be fattened up and slaughtered, just like their offspring before them.

Molly Belle and her now 2-year-old colt, Promise, are two of nine retired draft horses that live at Derr’s ranch, the nation’s only nonprofit sanctuary for the hefty breed of equines.

Derr, a 43-year-old chiropractor, founded the nonprofit, called United in Light, in 2003 in Arizona. She moved her herd to Livingston in 2007.

“We have nine horses, but we’ve rescued 12 and found homes for hundreds,” she said.

Feeding, shoeing and otherwise caring for draft horses is costly.

Bred for hard labor, like pulling plows and carts, draft horses can weigh more than a ton and stand 16 hands – 64 inches – high.

“They eat four times as much as other horses,” Derr said. “They have big feet. Everything is in excess with these guys.”

Derr spends about $4,000 a year on each horse – and that’s barring any major medical expenses.

“A lot of people just don’t want their old draft horses anymore,” Derr said. “They cost a lot and they can’t ride them.”

There are six draft horses on a waiting list to get into United in Light.

Draft horses can live into their 30s. With the exception of Molly Belle’s colt, all of the horses at United in Light are over age 25.

Knight was the first horse Derr rescued. Some of Derr’s patients found Knight in a forgotten stall with rotten carrots and manure in Central California.

Daisy T, the newest addition to Derr’s herd, came from Washington. Derr discovered the 30-something-year-old horse a few months ago. She’d been listed for sale for $1 on Craigslist.

“With the economy, it’s been pretty difficult, and people are not able to afford their horses right now,” Derr said.

Moonshadow came to Derr from New York. For 10 years, he lived sequestered in an 8-by-8-foot enclosed pen. He was surrounded by manure and never let outside. Dead cows dotted his owners’ farm.

Moonshadow has hairless patches of dark skin on his face, scars from where his halter was left on indefinitely.

Scared of daylight and even butterflies, Moonshadow tried to bite the other horses when he first arrived at United in Light. Derr said he thought they were trying to steal his food.

“Now, when we get a newcomer that comes in, he’s the first one showing them around – herding them to where the hay is, showing them where the food is and showing them where the water is,” Derr said. “It’s amazing all they’ve been through – all the abuse, all the neglect – how loving they are when they come here. That always blows me away.”

All proceeds from Derr’s chiropractic business – she treats horses, dogs and cats in addition to humans – go to the nonprofit. She makes a salary of $12,000 a year, Derr said.

“I do anything that I can, except for dancing on tables – though I’ve been tempted in hard times,” she said.

In the summer, visitors come to brush and feed the horses carrots.

Standing outside in the pasture on a cold morning recently, Derr petted each horse as they sidled up to her for attention.

“Right now, my life is these guys,” she said. “This is my passion. This is my dream.”