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.
