Chatsworth : Horse Rescuer Faces Eviction From Ranch

Jolene’s Horse Rescue, a charity organization that saves horses from neglect, cruelty and slaughter, is itself in need of rescuing.

After four years of taking in discarded horses at her rented Chatsworth ranch, Sandra Jolene Venables now faces homelessness, as do the 20 horses she is caring for, because the property is in foreclosure.

The property, damaged by last year’s earthquake and the recent rains, will be auctioned off Thursday, and with that Venables will have only days to relocate.

“I am in between a rock and a hard place right now because these horses depend on me,” said Venables, a former manicurist and bail bondswoman. “If it was just me, I would live in a car but they need to be taken care of.”

Venables isn’t just waiting for a miracle to happen either.

In the last two weeks she has looked at 85 parcels from Palmdale to Sunland to Simi Valley, hoping to find a three-acre lot suitable for her horses. But caring for her animals, most of whom are still suffering from the effects of abuse or sickness, takes up most of her time.

On Tuesday, Venables was found washing Sundance, a palomino with skin cancer she bought from a slaughterhouse a year ago for $650.

With her unruly red hair hanging in her face, Venables leaned beside the golden gelding and gently washed the large lesion over his right front leg. Her fingers nimbly massaged the wound caused by the cancer, carefully going over a grape-size lump that still needs to be removed.

“Some people have children, I have horses,” she said. “Who else will take care of them?”

And like a mother with her children, Venables has given up worldly possessions to care for them, including her 1957 Thunderbird and a 1957 Harley Davidson.

But she insists it is all worth it because she has been able to give the horses a second chance at life with the support of volunteers, sponsors and donations.

“There has to be someone out there who wants to help us,” she said. “Because if we don’t take care of horses, one day they will be a part of our history.”