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Abused Horses Taken to Hidden Springs Horse Rescue
04/25/09 - 08:24 PM

WMBB News Department

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An investigation into an allegedly malnourished horse in Youngstown leads to four other horses from the property being seized and given into the care of the Hidden Springs Horse Rescue of Jackson County.

News 13 spoke with the owner of the Horse Rescue, Melanie Higdon, about the situation.

“I have actually never had a horse before that has had fleas before so I’m assuming the property they came from was extremely infested with fleas which is not surprising considering the number of dogs and the condition they were in”

Now her job is to get the horses healthy again.

“The horses are underweight, they’re not horribly underweight, i understand there was one other horse that was removed already that was 300 pounds underweight these certainly do need some weight put on them I’m sure that they have parasites they’ve already been wormed they’ve probably never been vaccinated, so we took care of that as well.”

Higdon says to bring the horses back to health, they’ll have to fix many ailments, such as bad hooves and an abscess on one of the horses faces. Then they can begin the slow process of adding weight back onto their frames.

“We start them out on the pasture grass that’s the best weight builder it’s much better than hay.”

She says the living conditions in the Youngstown home were bad, but puts at least part of the blame on the legislature.

“There is no regulation in Florida that says a horse has to have a specific amount of space as far as acreage or square footage none at all and that’s something we’ll be working on in the near future.”

The horse rescue is a 501(c)3 organization, which means that any donations are tax deductible, and donations are needed. It takes almost $100,000 a year to operate the ranch, and they have had great success, having rescued over 80 horses thus far.

You can make a donation in several ways:

By Mail:
Hidden Springs Horse Rescue
4883 Bevon Lane
Marianna, FLA 32448
850-526-2231

By Web:
www.FLORIDAHORSERESCUE.com

If you don’t want to donate to the general funds, the ranch has several horses that are not able to be given new homes and must be cared for at the ranch for the rest of their lives. If you would like to sponsor one of those horses, you can call Melanie Higdon at 850-526-2231.