Issue #32, November 3, 2006

Trick or Treat

Rescued Horses on a Farm in Bridgehampton Join the Party

By Renée Donlon

I returned to the Hamptons after a few days in the city where even the streets of the Village three days before Halloween did not hold a sight as delightfully odd as the one waiting back East: a barn full of horses in costume.

This wonderfully bizarre view of masked, caped, and winged horses was all part of Amaryllis Farm Equine Rescue’s (AFER) Horse Rescue Harvest Festival, which took place last Sunday in Sagaponack. The Festival serves as a benefit for the non-profit organization that saves horses from all across the country, and last weekend, saving horses came in the form of face painting, pony rides, games, snacks, and costumes. All these activities helped raise money for the organization, but the event that raised the most eyebrows, cameras, and corners of smiles was the showcase of horses in their Halloween costumes. There was a scarecrow mare, a four-hoofed court jester, and a hay chewing Indian princess. In the back stall, a small white horse wore purple curlers in her mane to match her purple horse blanket turned housecoat. This mommy horse in her “mommy” costume shared her stall and domestic costume theme with her foal. The horse baby was dressed as a human “baby” ready for its bedtime bath. The foal pulled off the look with a shower cap over its tall ears and a teddy bear that magically stayed balanced on his back as he moved about the stall. Call it innate equine grace, or call it a Halloween miracle.

Or maybe it is something more than that. Maybe the reason the horses, animals which have a reputation for being spooked by everything down to wind, were so calm under stuffed bears and flapping fairy wings was because of the nurturing atmosphere of the AFER’s barn. Providing a safe haven for horses that would otherwise have died in slaughterhouses has become a quest for AFER founder, Christine Barret-Distefano. Barret-Distefano has worked with horses since the age of eight when her equestrian enthusiasm finally pushed her parents to drive her to the barn where she began her education in all things equine. After years of show circuits that Barret-Distefano found too commercial, it was ultimately the loss of a beloved horse that drove her to embark on her current mission to save as many others as she could.

These horses often make it as close to death as the feedlots when Barret-Distefano catches up with them. She arranges for the AFER to pay the horse’s ransom, which is a price higher than the horse’s “kill price.” The kill price is what the horse is worth to the slaughterhouse, and is figured in pounds, as the horse’s meat will be sold as food in foreign markets. Kill prices range between $500 and $600, but can climb as high as $1,000 for a larger animal. Because the ransom must be higher than the kill price, coming up with the money is a never-ending challenge for AFER. That is why the adoption fee for every horse that the AFER finds a home for gets used to pay the ransom on other horses. It is also why the AFER eagerly encourages donations (go to www.forrascal.com for more information) and adoptions.

However, it takes time before a horse is fit to be adopted. Glancing through a binder of photos and histories of all the horses the AFER has taken in, one can see the poor state of health in which many of the horses arrive at the farm. Not all are old. Many are fine horses that have simply suffered from poor nutrition and abuse. The before-and-after pictures show how well these horses can recuperate given the proper care. For example, Ginger the thoroughbred mare is all bones and matted hair in her before photo. The opposite page, however, shows a photo taken only three months later in which Ginger’s coat gleams over a full, healthy form. A few more months later, she stands in her scarecrow costume, contently watching kids eat pumpkin cookies from her stall window.

Despite her tireless efforts, Barret-Distefano refuses to take all the credit for restoring the horses’ calmness and happiness. She believes that the horses at AFER must somehow tell the new arrivals that it is a place where they are finally safe. So safe that they can graze in bunny ears for Halloween without any worries. In fact, the horse Ferdinand seemed so at ease in his rabbit ears that he spent a good ten minutes showing them off before my camera. It takes a horse that is secure in his masculinity- and, thanks to AFER, his environment, to do that.