A Letter from MHC’s Presidents THE MARYLAND HORSE COUNCIL
Our Presidents’ letter this month is brought to you
by Crystal Brumme Pickett, the founder and for- mer Publisher of T e Equiery, and longtime MHC member and Secretary, to recognize the many con- tributions to our organization and to the equine in- dustry at large by the late Kathy Schwartz Howe. T e compassion that drives individuals to establish a charity rescue is fairly universal. What set Kathy and Allan Schwartz apart from every other rescue charity at that time was their drive to pursue and elevate their own knowledge, to not only provide the best care possible but to also develop a sustainable organization. T is drive manifested itself in many ways, to the betterment of the organization, and to the betterment of horses in Maryland.
By Crystal Brumme Pickett In 1991, it was not uncommon for well-meaning animal lovers to declare themselves charities, res- cuing whatever might be their animal of choice. T is was pre-internet. Guidestar would not be founded until 1994; Charity Navigator in 2001. It was in the early years of Days End Farm Horse Rescue and of T e Equiery, and our fl edgling audience wanted to know: “which of these so- called charities are legit?” In 1994, T e Equiery published a list of equine non-profi ts that had received the proper non-profi t designations from the Internal Revenue Service. In December 2000, T e Equiery developed more detailed criteria to help our readers suss out which charities were “legit.” T e checklist included making fi nancial statements available to donors and having an advisory board that included well-respected ex- perts in various aspects of equine care. We also urged readers to un- derstand that a non-profi t business is still a business and should be run like one. As a result of that article, Kathy and Allen swiftly established such an advisory board, did everything else on T e Equiery checklist, and became an Equiery client, taking advantage of the generous discount we off ered to non-profi ts. During those same early years, Kathy and I each became active mem- bers of the Maryland Horse Council, for similar reasons: to extend our networks throughout the state, to improve our businesses and to help improve the entire industry, as she and I shared the philosophy that a rising tide lifts all boats. Naturally, Kathy ended up spearheading MHC’s Equine Welfare
Committee which included a handful of rescues and the state’s only stable inspector at the time, Beverly Raymond. T is committee identifi ed a crit- ical stumbling block in the prosecution of criminal neglect cases: the interpretation of Maryland State Law, Title 10, Subtitle 604 that requires that any person having the charge or custody of an animal “must provide nutritious food in suffi cient quantity, necessary veterinary care, proper drink, air, space, shelter or protection from the weather.” But what did this mean? At the time, defense teams could and did bring just about any self-declared so-called expert to testify as to what this meant. So many defendants that should have been convicted were not because there was no “industry accepted in- terpretation” of Title 10 Subtitle 604. Enter Kathy Schwartz Howe and the Maryland Horse Council. T e MHC Board of Directors tasked Kathy’s Equine Welfare Committee to draft an initial in-
terpretation, which they did. As Secretary, it was my job to gather the Board of Directors for the meeting to review and ratify that interpreta- tion. At that time, MHC was organized such that every member as- sociation had a seat on the Board - with over 30 directors representing every breed and sport in Maryland. It was a full house for that meeting! A lively debate ensued; the Board parsed the Committee’s recommenda- tions, and honed and refi ned them. For example, the Board did not agree with the Committee that only a man-made three-sided shelter met the requirement for “shelter or protection from the weather;” the communi- ty/Board agreed that, depending upon the terrain, a stand of trees might suffi ce or the crevice in an outcropping of rocks. T e fi nal product was indeed an industry-approved interpretation of the law, something that could - and has been - used successfully in court for the last 25 years. MHC’s Minimum Standards of Care brochure (remember, this was
before the internet, and ink on paper still ruled) has since been the inspi- ration for numerous other states to fi rst adopt in law minimum standards of care and then to likewise provide an industry interpretation, helping to increase conviction rates of criminal neglect throughout the country. MHC’s Minimum Standards of Care brochure (
http://www.md-
horsecouncil.org/files/2011-MinimumStandardsofCareforEquines- 1page.pdf) is just one of the many legacies of Kathy Schwartz Howe.
Thank You To Our Maryland Horse Council Sponsors!
join.mdhorsecouncil.org www.equiery.com | 800-244-9580 THE EQUIERY YOUR MARYLAND HORSE COUNCIL PUBLICATION | APRIL 2023 | 7
Courtesy of Days End Farm Horse Rescue
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