A Haven for Horses

Time was that Barney turned skittish in the presence of man, bolting at the human touch.

Yet in a dirt field surrounded by chaparral-covered hills, the white Arabian lumbers toward Mike Dodge, then wraps his head around Dodge’s neck.

“You such a good boy,” says Dodge, rubbing Barney’s head and cooing as if to a baby.

Dodge and his wife, Christine, spared Barney from a death sentence two years ago.

The 8-year-old horse was once used for now-illegal charro races: He was thrust into a pen, lassoed around a hind leg during a full-speed gallop and slammed against the ground.

After he had outlived his usefulness to the riders, they hauled Barney to a Riverside holding pen to await transportation to a Fort Worth, Texas, slaughterhouse.

That’s when the Dodges rescued him.

The Ventura couple have taken in about 65 horses in the last four years--not sleek, young and healthy horses, but those that were abused, old, sick, about to be slaughtered or abandoned.

Their nonprofit group, H.O.R.S.E Rescue & Sanctuary, has placed 40 horses in new homes so far.

“All anybody has to do is mention ‘horse’ and we say, ‘yes,’ ” said Mike Dodge, his jeans and boots covered in a fine layer of dust as he watched over the horses.

“I would love to close the doors and say we’re not needed anymore,” he added. “I really wish we could be put out of business because that would mean people are caring for their horses.”

Despite the need, the nonprofit group is running out of space and money to care for the horses.

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The Dodges face eviction from their five-acre ranch--seven miles north of the Ventura beaches--after falling three months behind on rent. The electricity for night lights in the corral area has already been cut off.

“They have a unique organization there and that’s fine,” said the ranch’s owner, Fred Orr. “But I’m a landlord, and I set up a contract with my tenant and when the contract is repeatedly broken, there is not much else you can do but ask them to leave.”

In June, the couple filed for personal bankruptcy to deal with their own mounting unpaid bills. Their nonprofit organization now has only $235 in its coffers. And the Dodges live out of a modest one-room bungalow up the road from the ranch, occasionally skipping meals to make sure there is money to feed the horses twice a day.

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The quagmire the Dodges find themselves in today would have been hard for the couple to envision just four years ago. Mike earned $60,000 as a sales manager at a Ventura Dodge dealership. And Christine made $30,000 managing a day program in Ventura for the mentally ill.

They lived a comfortable life with plenty of money for vacations to Mexico and New York.

But it all changed in 1993, after the Dodges began renting a three-bedroom home that came with two acres of land on Nye Road in Casitas Springs. The Dodges were able to rent the home after telling the landlord they would keep horses on the adjacent parcel.

The two found a notice in the newspaper and adopted Rocky, an appaloosa gelding, and Lit’l Bit, a Morgan-Arabian. But what troubled the couple was that both horses appeared to have been abused.

A 1-inch bump on Rocky’s nose seemed to indicate to the Dodges that he had been repeatedly smacked with a 2-by-4. And Lit’l Bit’s 6-inch scar on the right rib area appeared to show that he had been impaled by a sharp object.

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In a couple of months, the Dodges paid $100 for Gabby, a thirtysomething mare that had a blown-out knee, had been shot in the neck at some point in her life and was nearly starved to death.

The two cared for Gabby, feeding her vitamins and fixing her teeth. She became something of a neighborhood mascot that kids flocked to. But a year later, Gabby broke her knee in the stall and had to be put to death.

“We think Gabby is perhaps the real reason that we decided to change our lives and become so heavily involved in saving others,” the couple wrote in a newsletter to supporters. “We saw what could happen to a horse that, even though badly abused in a number of ways, could turn around and show all the love and trust in the world.”

Within half a year, their two-acre parcel, zoned for five horses, held 15.

Word of mouth had spread among stable managers and friends that the two were taking in unwanted horses. But complaints from neighbors about dust drove the couple to a new facility in Cuyama, far north of Ojai.

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The Dodges, with help from 20 volunteers, have nursed the horses back to health. They have retrained them to trust people so the horses can be adopted. If the horses are too sick, wild or have been abused, the couple let the animals live out their days on the ranch.

If not for the Dodges, Barney would have been sent to the slaughterhouse instead of trotting around the ranch with a 12-year-old girl from Ojai who is considering adoption.

Shekara, who would have died from a calcium stone half the size of a soccer ball without surgery, is now healthy enough to perform 50-mile endurance runs in Malibu with a new owner.

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And Lucky, one of two horses the Dodges purchased for $1,000 to save them from a slaughtering plant, has been riding around the block in Ojai with his new owner, Katie Jones.

The Dodges have yet to reject a horse that has come their way. But it’s precisely this refusal to say “no” that has put them in their financial fix.

By the time they received nonprofit status for their organization last year, the two had spent an estimated $27,000 out of their own pockets to take care of the horses. What made the financial situation hard was that Mike two years ago quit his job to care for the horses full time, and they have had to live off Christine’s salary.

The couple have been operating on donations and grants for the past year, plus a $500 adoption fee they charge for the horses.

The fee doesn’t cover the expenses, but it is set high enough to keep the horses from being resold to buyers who would sell them to slaughterhouses.

They moved to their present five-acre site just north of Ventura in the spring. But now the Dodges are on the verge of losing the sanctuary for horses.

There are 26 horses on the ranch, more than allowed in their rent contract. The owner of the ranch had told the couple to move out by Oct. 11, but the couple plan to stay until mid-November, arguing that an eviction requires 30 days’ notice.

“If we had to do it again, we’d do it again,” Mike said. “The horses, that’s what we’re here for.”

For Kathy Jenks, head of Ventura County Department of Animal Regulation, the financial crisis the sanctuary faces is all too common. She has witnessed horse, cat, dog and other animal rescue efforts come and go over the years.

“If there is an animal, there is a rescue for it,” Jenks said. “My concern with some of these things is they perhaps don’t know when to say, ‘no.’ ”

All successful nonprofit organizations, she said, must set limits on what they will and won’t accept.

“I think their hearts are always in the right place,” Jenks said. “Usually they start out with great intentions, but they haven’t planned it out and they have no idea what this is going to cost. They think since they care, other people will too. Well, this is a tough county to get animal welfare.”

For the past three weeks, Mike Dodge has been pleading for donations on local radio stations. So far, only one woman has come forward with a donation: $500 toward feed.

“It is very scary and it’s hard, but you have to have the basic belief that people are going to believe what Mike and Chris are doing and will come through,” said Heather Reeves, a 30-year-old medical assistant who is one of the 20 volunteers at the ranch. “You pray that someone will hear their plight.”

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Despite the financial crisis, the Dodges have no plans to stop accepting horses.

They brought two more horses to the ranch last week. In addition, they are still trying to reach a Moorpark woman who sent them a letter explaining that she needs a new home for her Peruvian mare because she can no longer care for her.

“They have so many horses I don’t know how they do it, because it’s so expensive,” said Lori Feldstein, a 38-year-old homemaker from Malibu Lake who adopted Shekara. “But it’s a good thing they’re out there. Thank God we have those people. I wish I were that good of a person.”