WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — Horse rescuers from across the country were in Winter Haven Sunday, attending an all-day national training clinic at Hope Equine Rescue. The clinic was a part of the "Homes for Horses Coalition" conference.

  • Hope Equine Rescue saves about 40 horses a year
  • It takes work to get abused horse to enjoy being around humans again
  • Conference also taught about networking opportunities

"Most of the horses that we have come in are neglect cases. They were severely underweight. They can be anywhere from 2 to 300 pounds underweight," said Dani Horton, president of Hope Equine Rescue.

She said her rescue averages about 40 horses a year and it takes about a year to find the horses a forever home.

"There's a really big need in this area. We get calls weekly for horses who need homes," Horton said.

She and more than 60 others learned how to transform the equines from an abused state to a loving animal who enjoy being around humans again.

"We have to really be on top of our training and get them extremely safe and gentle so that we can adopt them out. Because who wants a 1,200-pound animal running over top of them, you know? Those types of animals you can't adopt out," Horton explained.

Training horses was not the only focus of the conference. Attendees also learned about non-profit management and it afforded networking opportunities.

"When you have horses that are so bad that they can't be rehabilitated and they have to be euthanized. That takes a toll. So compassion fatigue is definitely an issue that we see and that's one area where the conference can really help," explained Cindy Gendron, manager of Homes for Horses Coalition.

"In this atmosphere of likeminded people who are facing the same challenges, they really build each other up," she said.

According to Dani Horton, barring emergencies and injuries, it cost property owners around $2,500 a year to maintain one horse.

She said horses often end up in her rescue because people will get a horse for relatively cheap but then cannot afford to take care of it.