While in Dade City, Everyday Hero host Bill Murphy met Carrie Young and a beautiful horse named ‘Yoda.’ Young is founder of Ohana Horse Rescue.
So what does ‘ohana’ mean?
“Family. No one’s left behind,” Young said.
For Young, it all began about 10 years ago when she found a starving and abused horse.
‘Yoda’s’ story is a similar one. And although good with Young, he suffered emotionally and has many mental issues.
A few years ago, Young’s own horse died and it caused her great pain.
“I was very depressed. So I thought I’m gonna look for a horse that I can keep forever,” Young said.
And that horse would be Deshna.
These days, ‘Yoda’ and ‘Deshna’ are pals and run with a brown mule named ‘Metro’ and a little white donkey called ‘Crowder.’
All wound up at Ohana with sad stories.
“We work with animal control throughout the state, we’ve had some come in from Collier and Lake county,” Young said. “Or people will contact us and say, 'We cannot take care of the animal anymore. Can you please take it in?'”
Over the years, Young has had as many as three dozen horses at one time and has found good homes for more than 1,000.
A non-profit, Ohana Horse Rescues relies on community support to keep these guys fed and healthy.
And when asked about being a hero, and you get….
“I’m not. I’m not,” Young said. “I’m just, I’m a servant. I’m doing my work here on Earth. That’s how I look at it.”