Holiday Stories Hallmark Style, continued...


Fast forward to Easter Sunday this past April when Christine and her husband Jamie were on their way to a friend’s for breakfast. “We saw this small sign that said ‘105-acre farm, price reduced’ and I couldn’t fi gure out where in the area that farm could be located,” she said. Turns out it was New Horizon Farm in Woodbine, just down the road from their original facility. “When we came to take a look, Jamie was sold and loved the place. I wasn’t too thrilled and re- ally couldn’t see us living there,” Christine ex- plained. “But then I woke up the next morning thinking we would be kicking ourselves in a year or two if we didn’t at least make an off er.” T eir off er was accepted and the closing was in June. T e fi rst few horses moved in by the end of the summer with three large pastures being us- able. A few weeks later, two more pastures were opened up and now there are 15 horses housed at the sanctuary. “About one third of our current population are considered unadoptable for one reason or another,” Christine explained. “Typi- cally it is because they have some health issue that is not easily taken care of or are not rideable. T is location is for them to live out their days.” Gentle Giants is keeping their Mt. Airy location as the training and adoption center. “Most of the horses we rescue are from the East Coast but our donors are from all over the coun- try,” she said. In fact, Gentle Giants has donors


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from coast to coast with the bulk of their annual funding coming from New York, California and Florida. “With other rescues very popular here in Maryland, we had to look outside the box, out- side the state,” she said. T e strategy has worked considerably as they typically have about 20,000 sponsors annually and well over 60,000 in the organization’s history. “Most of our donors give in the $35-50 range but with so many of them, every dollar makes a diff erence,” she said adding, “We are unique in what we do here… rescuing draft horses specifi cally.”


One such donor that made the sanctuary a possibility was the Gretchen Mobberley estate. Gretchen died in 2016 and her family donated part of her estate to Gentle Giants. “Because Gretchen was such a T oroughbred person, we are using her funds to renovate the track barn and get it ready for our horses. We already have a new roof and water is working again,” Chris- tine reported. “Our horses are better to live out but when the weather is bad, we will be able to bring 20 in to the barn. Our plan to make sure there is some sort of sign or plaque dedicating the barn in Gretchen’s memory.” In addition to Gretchen, one of Gentle Gi-


ant’s California donors set up a matching grant, which helped raise the funds for the down pay- ment on the sanctuary. “Matching funds are great because people feel that their money


g


doubles and we were able to raise much more than just the down payment,” Christine stated. T e next steps for the sanctuary are already in motion, with the cornfi elds replanted with grass. Fencing for three very large pastures should be completed this winter, with run-in sheds in each. Come spring, 40 horses will be housed at the sanctuary. “We are so very thankful to the Mob- berley family and all of those who donate to us. My fi ve year goal is to open another sanctuary in the Mid-West!” Christine said.


A Greater Plan by Elizabeth Kovalak


T ere are no coincidences in life. It was a T ursday in July, and I was having


lunch at the Old Brogue in Virginia when a nice lady came over to my lunch table and asked if I’m Elizabeth. Well, it was my former trainer from Poolesville, Susan Porter! In the course of our conversation, I asked


Susan if she know how my old horse, Phoenix, was doing. I had sold him in 2009. Apparently, she in turn had donated him to a therapeutic riding program, where he had had a wonderful career, and now was permanently retired. Two days later, Susan and I were on our way to see him at the T erapeutic Recreational Riding


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