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Rescue founder uses healing touch with abused horses

Our Neighbor: Elle Williams

Thursday, Jan. 11, 2007

Click here to enlarge this photo tom fedor⁄the gazette Elle Williams of Eldersburg, founder of Horse Net, Horse Rescue, refills feed buckets Friday at a farm in Mount Airy, one of two locations that takes in abused and neglected horses.

In a loving but firm voice, Williams, the founder of Horse Net, Horse Rescue, reassured the reddish-brown horse that was eager to join the other horses in the rain soaked and muddy fields.

Faulkner was healing from a punctured rear leg that was wrapped in blue and white bandages, Williams said.

Horse Net, Horse Rescue volunteer Sharon Gottleib smiled at Faulkner as she bustled around the barn still decorated with holiday lights and stockings stuffed with carrots and apples.

‘‘He was complaining this morning and making all kinds of noises,” Gottleib said.

For six years, Williams has run Horse Net, Horse Rescue, a nonprofit organization dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating abused and neglected horses for adoption.

The organization, which is 100 percent volunteer run, survives on donations and adoption fees.

Between the organization’s two farms in Mount Airy and New Windsor, Horse Net, Horse Rescue has nearly 100 horses and 30 volunteers. Last year, 60 horses were adopted into homes, Williams said.

Horses have been Williams’ passion since she ‘‘could say the word” as a young child growing up in Baltimore, she said.

After working around horses for most of her life, Williams said she saw the animals being ‘‘thrown away” for no good reason.

Her job at Horse Net, Horse Rescue is her life’s work, she said.

‘‘I think it’s the reason I’m here,” Williams said. ‘‘[The horses] need a voice; they need someone who can help them and some people don’t understand.”

Many of the horses that come to Horse Net, Horse Rescue were given up by their owners for different reasons, or badly abused.

Before Bonita, a Belgian mare, came to Horse Net, Horse Rescue, she was kept perpetually pregnant for the production of Premarin, Williams said.

A pregnant mare’s urine is used to manufacture Premarin, a drug commonly used to treat the symptoms of menopause in humans.

Some horses are healthier than others when they arrive, Williams noted, but most of the time the horses’ histories are unknown. Williams and her staff piece together the animal’s past by observing its behavior.

‘‘We use what the horse tells us by their actions,” Williams said.

At Horse Net, Horse Rescue, Williams uses a blend of alternative healing practices and therapies mixed with traditional medicine to rehabilitate the horses.

Acupuncture, chiropractic medicine and healing stones are some of the ways Williams and volunteers rehabilitate their horses.

Many of Williams’ remedies are homeopathic and aim to balance a horse’s body and attack the root of the health problem. Instead of tranquilizers, Williams often uses rockrose, an aromatic herb, to calm and treat panic in horses that are afraid to board a trailer.

Since traditional, Western veterinary medicine is often expensive, Horse Net, Horse Rescue reserves it for serious situations and circumstances, Williams said.

For Gottleib, a Finksburg resident, the holistic and homeopathic treatments that Williams’ teaches her volunteers makes the organization a special place to volunteer.

Gottleib has volunteered at Horse Net, Horse Rescue since April 2006 after a friend recommended the organization. As a devoted animal lover with many parrots, cats and dogs at home, Gottleib said Horse Net, Horse Rescue is home to her.

‘‘I can’t imagine being anywhere else,” Gottleib said. ‘‘Here, I really feel like I’m home.”

The way Williams runs the organization and treats her horses as ‘‘living, sacred beings that are valued,” Gottleib said, that makes Horse Net, Horse Rescue different.

That extra spark allows her to connect to the horses, which is something you feel, Gottleib said. ‘‘Your intuition knows it’s right.”