Since founding the Sykesville, Maryland-based nonprofit Safe Haven Equine Warriors in 2017, Tina Snyder and her team have rescued and rehabilitated more than 60 horses, ranging from thoroughbred ex-racers to miniatures from petting zoos.
Many are saved from “kill buyers,” who she says resell the animals from auction houses to foreign slaughter plants. Others come from owners who can no longer afford to or want to care for them. Each has its own story.
There’s Pickpocket, the sickly pony who stole Snyder’s phone out of her back pocket at an auction and held it gently in his teeth. Or Opa, another pony who hadn’t left his Appalachian shed for 20 years and was found standing atop 5 feet of compacted manure.
SHEW’s mission is to find new homes for as many horses as possible, after providing the animals with proper medical care, food and rest. At the same time, the organization hopes to educate the public on responsible horse ownership and about the slaughterhouse pipeline they say is still playing out across the country.
“I never realized how much horses were just shuffled from one spot to another,” said Eldersburg resident Janet Ward, a retired nurse and SHEW volunteer.
All horses deserve a chance to feel loved, she says, even if their injuries preclude them from adoption.
After arriving at the farm, Opa was able to bond with the rescue herd and celebrate a birthday before a recurring injury required him to be euthanized.
“It was a sad day,” Snyder said. “But we had given him one year of being able to be a pony and do all the things that ponies should do.”
‘Marylanders have a tradition of loving horses’
With more than 50 licensed rescue stables throughout the state, Maryland is a national leader in horse rescue and aftercare operations.
“Marylanders have a tradition of loving horses and looking after the welfare of horses,” said Ross Peddicord, executive director of the Maryland Horse Industry Board, which promotes equestrian activities and sets standards for care.
A former Baltimore Sun reporter, Peddicord traced the journey of thoroughbred racehorses from Maryland to a slaughterhouse in Connecticut that then shipped the meat to France, where it was turned into sausages sold at soccer matches. His four-part 1989 series was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and helped spark a series of industry reforms, including a federal ban on the use of double-decker trailers for transporting horses bound for slaughter.
Since 2007, the domestic slaughter of horses for human consumption has stopped in the U.S. because funding for inspectors of such facilities has not been included in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s annual budget. Advocacy groups lobby Congress each year to continue defunding inspectors and are working to get federal legislation passed that would officially ban slaughtering or exporting U.S. horses for human consumption.
The pressure has paid off, with the number of U.S. horses exported to Canada and Mexico for slaughter falling from 166,000 in 2012 to just over 23,000 in 2021, according to the Humane Society of the United States, a national nonprofit focused on animal welfare. At the same time, rescue and rehabilitation programs have proliferated.
“You can’t save every horse, unfortunately, but the [number] has tripled or quadrupled from what it used to be,” Peddicord said. “A lot of it is centered here in Maryland.”
After years of riding competitively, Snyder suffered a career-ending injury in 1976 and took a break from horses. When she moved to Maryland in the early 1990s, she began volunteering for Days End Farm Horse Rescue, a nationally recognized horse rehabilitation and welfare center in Lisbon.
Snyder, 64, bought her own farm in 1994 and opened an equine learning center for private horsemanship lessons. As she discovered more about the slaughterhouse pipeline, she found her ultimate calling in horse rescue and decided to start her own operation with a broad focus.
“We do amazing things on this tiny little farm,” said Snyder, who’s in the process of looking for a larger property and recently launched a capital campaign to assist with the expansion.
While her current farm can only rehab about five horses at a time, Snyder wants to eventually open a boarding facility and education program for first-time adopters to ensure they’re capable of providing quality long-term care to their animals.
“Any horse that comes through our door has a safety net for the rest of their life,” Snyder said. “We’re always looking for that great forever home.”
After rescue, horses help humans
As the number of horses SHEW has found new homes for steadily grows, so does the organization’s outreach efforts.
“I have this vision of a rescue that’s all inclusive,” Snyder said. “It’s for the horses to help the people just as much as the people to help the horses.”
The organization conducts a variety of programming with veterans, seniors and student groups and is hoping to expand its equine-assisted therapy offerings.
“Horses are very soulful beings,” said Brittany Robey, a psychologist with Howard County Public Schools, who recently took 10 students from the special education Bridges program on a field trip to SHEW. “They can be very reactive but they can also be very comforting.”
Robey is already planning more trips for Bridges students in addition to spearheading SHEW’s equine therapy efforts as a volunteer. She says horses can offer numerous therapeutic benefits, with activities such as riding, grooming and feeding being used to treat a range of mental and physical illnesses.
“We really want to build this beautiful continuum that cultivates wellbeing and prioritizes mental health, but also promotes horsemanship and equine education,” Robey said. “That’s our ultimate goal.”
