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Clementine Kline's Mitzvah Project
In Loving Memory of Sunny
Sunny was a standardbred who passed away in January of this year at the age of 39. He had an amazing life and was much beloved, the "people greeter" in the first stall you saw when you entered the barn.
He was rescued in September of 2013. Lynn had gotten a call about some horses in Stephentown that looked like they were in rough shape. A trooper answered the complaint and saw that one horse looked especially thin, so he called an animal control officer, who told him not to worry because old horses are thin. The neighbor then sent Lynn a photo, which she showed her vet. The vet said that the horse wouldn’t survive the winter. He would have to be moved somewhere or put down, or he would starve to death. After weeks the trooper was able to get the owner of the horse to let him in and feed the horse named Sunny. The trooper would come after hours and on his days off just to feed him.
There were two other horses there that were in bad shape, too. The trooper finally talked the owner into surrendering Sunny and another horse who were the two most thin ones. Lynn told the trooper to tell the owner that she needed to get a vet to look at the two horses and give them a Coggins test. The vet also needed to check out the other horse and see if he needed to be seized as well. It turned out that the police had been trying to investigate the owner for a long time because they suspected him of criminal activity, but they didn't have probable cause. After the vet said the other horse had to be seized, the police were able to get a warrant to search his property. When they found illegal drugs and guns, the owner was arrested, and then jailed.
Lynn and a sergeant who had been working on the case came up with the idea to start a law enforcement class informing people on how to identify neglect in a horse. The sergeant went to the police academy in Albany to ask about the class and they approved it so that police officers taking the class can count it for continuing education credit. Every year the information for the class gets sent out all across New York State to district attorneys, animal control officers, and police officers and many people attend it! It has led to the rescue of many horses (including Abe and Benny who I talk about in this section.)
Sunny and the other two horses came to Little Brook in September. The following May the first law enforcement class was held. By this time Sunny had his weight back and his coat was shiny and brown again, he looked like a different horse. He was brought out for all of the police officers to look at. When the trooper who had fed him in Stephentown realized it was Sunny, he put his forehead to the horse’s and cried. It was a very emotional experience because these things often don’t end well, but to see Sunny so happy was incredible.
It's a great story, but there is more. A long time before Sunny came to Little Brook, he was a racehorse, a good one who earned a lot of money. Unfortunately, standardbred racehorses are often sent to be carthorses after their racing career is over which is what happened to Sunny. He wasn’t treated well and ended up being tied to a pole and sold for 100 dollars to slaughter. A state trooper bought him, saving him from slaughter, but she became seriously ill and she couldn’t keep him. She placed him in what she thought was a good home, but that owner ended up giving him away. Fast forward to Little Brook’s first law enforcement class. There was that same state trooper, now retired, helping to teach the class. She walked up to Sunny and started inspecting him and realized that it was the same horse she had bought for a hundred dollars. She would visit him and from time to time she would send money to cover expenses for him.
The Stephentown arrest and seizure had been all over the news, on tv and in the paper. A few years later, Lynn got a call from a woman who had been with Sunny’s last owner. She had left before it happened, but it took her a few years to work up the nerve to call Lynn because she didn’t now how she would react. Lynn let her come and see Sunny. When she whistled for him he came running out of the shed and nickered to her. He recognized the call immediately! She started coming in once a week to see Sunny. Every year on Christmas morning she would bring her kids with a stocking and money that they raised for Sunny. One cold January night this year, Sunny was having trouble and Lynn knew they were going to lose him. Lynn called the woman and she dropped everything to go see him and be with him. They waited for the vet and when the vet put Sunny down, the woman was sitting on the ground with his head in her lap. Sunny had a very long life, and he had seven happy healthy years at Little Brook. When he passed he was surrounded by all of the people he loved and who loved him.
He was rescued in September of 2013. Lynn had gotten a call about some horses in Stephentown that looked like they were in rough shape. A trooper answered the complaint and saw that one horse looked especially thin, so he called an animal control officer, who told him not to worry because old horses are thin. The neighbor then sent Lynn a photo, which she showed her vet. The vet said that the horse wouldn’t survive the winter. He would have to be moved somewhere or put down, or he would starve to death. After weeks the trooper was able to get the owner of the horse to let him in and feed the horse named Sunny. The trooper would come after hours and on his days off just to feed him.
There were two other horses there that were in bad shape, too. The trooper finally talked the owner into surrendering Sunny and another horse who were the two most thin ones. Lynn told the trooper to tell the owner that she needed to get a vet to look at the two horses and give them a Coggins test. The vet also needed to check out the other horse and see if he needed to be seized as well. It turned out that the police had been trying to investigate the owner for a long time because they suspected him of criminal activity, but they didn't have probable cause. After the vet said the other horse had to be seized, the police were able to get a warrant to search his property. When they found illegal drugs and guns, the owner was arrested, and then jailed.
Lynn and a sergeant who had been working on the case came up with the idea to start a law enforcement class informing people on how to identify neglect in a horse. The sergeant went to the police academy in Albany to ask about the class and they approved it so that police officers taking the class can count it for continuing education credit. Every year the information for the class gets sent out all across New York State to district attorneys, animal control officers, and police officers and many people attend it! It has led to the rescue of many horses (including Abe and Benny who I talk about in this section.)
Sunny and the other two horses came to Little Brook in September. The following May the first law enforcement class was held. By this time Sunny had his weight back and his coat was shiny and brown again, he looked like a different horse. He was brought out for all of the police officers to look at. When the trooper who had fed him in Stephentown realized it was Sunny, he put his forehead to the horse’s and cried. It was a very emotional experience because these things often don’t end well, but to see Sunny so happy was incredible.
It's a great story, but there is more. A long time before Sunny came to Little Brook, he was a racehorse, a good one who earned a lot of money. Unfortunately, standardbred racehorses are often sent to be carthorses after their racing career is over which is what happened to Sunny. He wasn’t treated well and ended up being tied to a pole and sold for 100 dollars to slaughter. A state trooper bought him, saving him from slaughter, but she became seriously ill and she couldn’t keep him. She placed him in what she thought was a good home, but that owner ended up giving him away. Fast forward to Little Brook’s first law enforcement class. There was that same state trooper, now retired, helping to teach the class. She walked up to Sunny and started inspecting him and realized that it was the same horse she had bought for a hundred dollars. She would visit him and from time to time she would send money to cover expenses for him.
The Stephentown arrest and seizure had been all over the news, on tv and in the paper. A few years later, Lynn got a call from a woman who had been with Sunny’s last owner. She had left before it happened, but it took her a few years to work up the nerve to call Lynn because she didn’t now how she would react. Lynn let her come and see Sunny. When she whistled for him he came running out of the shed and nickered to her. He recognized the call immediately! She started coming in once a week to see Sunny. Every year on Christmas morning she would bring her kids with a stocking and money that they raised for Sunny. One cold January night this year, Sunny was having trouble and Lynn knew they were going to lose him. Lynn called the woman and she dropped everything to go see him and be with him. They waited for the vet and when the vet put Sunny down, the woman was sitting on the ground with his head in her lap. Sunny had a very long life, and he had seven happy healthy years at Little Brook. When he passed he was surrounded by all of the people he loved and who loved him.
In Loving Memory of May
May was a lovely Shetland Pony who passed away in 2019. She was also the first horse I ever rode at Little Brook, when I was five years old. I learned to ride on her and she was an amazingly sweet horse. May’s rescue was an example of “owner surrender”—she was never mistreated or neglected. The story is that a man purchased May and her three month old filly April for his two very young grandchildren. The grandkids' mom didn’t know how to take care of a pony, but the grandpa said that he would, so they built a barn, and everything was great. When her father passed away, the mom was left with little idea what to do. She ended up feeding May too much, and she was feeding her overly rich alfalfa hay. When May developed a chronic founder, the vet suggested May be put down, or possibly be given to Little Brook Farm if they would take her. So the mom called Lynn. When Lynn went into their barn she saw the extremely rich hay and knew it was the worst thing that you could feed an overweight horse who is chronically foundering. They were killing May without realizing it. Lynn helped them in changing May's diet, and also got a farrier to trim May’s feet. Eventually she came around and was sound. The mom then called Lynn and asked her to take May. Lynn was confused because May was doing just fine! The mom said that she was afraid that something might happen to May, that she might again founder which would end up killing her. So that is how May came to Little Brook in 2009. The mom and her daughters stayed very much involved with May until she had to be put down last year, due to cancer which caused her to colic. The mom came over and was with May in her last moments. May was in her late twenties and had lived a happy ten years at Little Brook Farm, years that she might not have had otherwise.
Benny
Benny (full name Bensonhurst’s Best) is a 22-year-old thoroughbred who was rescued by Little Brook Farm in May of 2015. She was originally purchased for $330,000 to be a racehorse but wasn’t fast enough and didn’t earn enough to be a good investment. It was decided to use her as a broodmare, but that didn't work out, either. Eventually, she was passed from owner to owner until she ended up for sale on Craigslist, where she was taken by neglectful owners. Eventually, a concerned neighbor got involved, and complained to a deputy sheriff about two horses that didn’t look healthy. The sheriff, who is a horse person herself, knew that the horses needed to be removed. She called her trooper friend to ask who had helped him before. He had taken Little Brook’s law enforcement class, which teaches how to identify horse neglect, and he told the sheriff to call them. The sheriff sent Lynn a photo of the horses and she immediately saw that they were in terrible shape. Lynn sent the photo to her vet and he said that they needed to get the horses out of there soon. The next day Lynn and the sheriff worked to figure out where to put the horses, and they decided that they would bring them to Little Brook. Lynn brought Benny and her friend Moxie straight to Little Brook and stayed with them until they were acclimated. They weren’t expected to live, but they defied the odds! They were both emaciated and needed to gain a lot of weight to be healthy again. If you don’t refeed a starving horse correctly they will die within five days. Because of that Little Brook had to feed them small amounts of food six times a day. They slowly increased the amounts of food until Benny and Moxie were healthy again!
This summer, Benny and another horse named Falcon contracted Potomac Horse Fever, a serious disease transmitted by mayflies (after 43 years and hundreds of horses, these were the first-ever cases of the fever at Little Brook). She is being watched over day and night and is slowly getting better. For weeks, Lynn has had to get up every four hours to care for Benny. Benny also needs to have an emotional support horse in the stall next to her at all times because she doesn’t like being alone, and when they leave she gets frantic and risks hurting herself even worse. You can get updates about her condition at Little Brook's Facebook and Instagram pages.
This summer, Benny and another horse named Falcon contracted Potomac Horse Fever, a serious disease transmitted by mayflies (after 43 years and hundreds of horses, these were the first-ever cases of the fever at Little Brook). She is being watched over day and night and is slowly getting better. For weeks, Lynn has had to get up every four hours to care for Benny. Benny also needs to have an emotional support horse in the stall next to her at all times because she doesn’t like being alone, and when they leave she gets frantic and risks hurting herself even worse. You can get updates about her condition at Little Brook's Facebook and Instagram pages.
Abe
Abe, a 19-year-old Percheron, is a gentle giant. He absolutely loves people, and they love him back. While the average horse is around 15 hands, Abe is a towering 19 hands, which is extremely tall for a horse! He literally weighs a ton—2,000 lbs. Abe is Little Brook’s only retired police horse. In June 2019, a mounted police unit from another county sent seven of their deputy sheriffs to take one of Little Brook's pioneering law enforcement workshops, which educate police and others about identifying horse neglect. During lunch, they sat with Lynn and were all proudly showing her pictures of their horses, who they obviously loved. One of the sheriffs told Lynn that his horse Abe (who had originally been rescued and trained by this same police department) really disliked having guns and fireworks go off above his head. He said that he was a great and solid horse, but hard to manage when these things happened. So he suggested that Abe retire to Little Brook. Lynn was touched, but said that they didn't have room for another horse. But the sheriff wouldn’t take no for an answer! He called and sent Lynn emails, videos, and photos of Abe until she agreed to take him! When the sheriff brought Abe to the farm, he stayed for hours until Abe got acclimated. It was very emotional, with hugs and tears. Now Abe is living happily at Little Brook and just loves all of the attention he gets!
Opal
Opal, a sweet 26-year-old Arabian, was rescued from a summer camp in August 2001. She was just 7, and a wonderful pony. Most seasonal camps rent their horses from a dealer. Sadly, at the end of the season, the dealers pick up the horses and many of them go to slaughter. Lynn didn’t rescue just Opal that day, she rescued the camp's 22 other horses too! She drove to Connecticut and bought them for what they would have gone for (meat prices). A lot of the horses were in very bad shape. They had been ridden hard all day long, not fed enough, and put out in a pen surrounded by an electric wire fence. The dominant horses beat up the more shy ones, leaving some round and some very thin. Some horses had saddle sores from equipment that didn’t fit, one had a shoe half on and half off because there was no farrier. Many horses were lame and had injuries.
Lynn was so concerned that she went to a cruelty investigator who told her the way to get the most attention was to go to the media, which she did. She was interviewed by the town newspaper’s editor, and it became a pretty big scandal locally. The camp was investigated and found at fault on several counts. They worked with Lynn to come up with changes to improve conditions for the horses. One was that they had to switch dealers, another was that there had to be a vet present when the horses were unloaded. The vet had to check for vaccination records and make sure that the horses were actually safe to ride. They also made the turnout area, which had been a muddy mess, safer so the horses could enjoy their time outdoors. Because of what Lynn did, the camp was made a better place, and 23 horses were saved!
Lynn was so concerned that she went to a cruelty investigator who told her the way to get the most attention was to go to the media, which she did. She was interviewed by the town newspaper’s editor, and it became a pretty big scandal locally. The camp was investigated and found at fault on several counts. They worked with Lynn to come up with changes to improve conditions for the horses. One was that they had to switch dealers, another was that there had to be a vet present when the horses were unloaded. The vet had to check for vaccination records and make sure that the horses were actually safe to ride. They also made the turnout area, which had been a muddy mess, safer so the horses could enjoy their time outdoors. Because of what Lynn did, the camp was made a better place, and 23 horses were saved!
Amado
Amado is a 13-year-old mustang who Little Brook Farm got in 2012. That year, an annual competition called The Extreme Mustang Makeover, where trainers get a wild mustang and have 90 days to tame and train it, took place on the East Coast for the first time. After the competition, all the mustangs are put up for auction. Little Brook had always wanted to raise awareness about what is happening to the mustangs in the U.S., as every year mustangs are captured in government roundups and many end up in slaughterhouses. Lynn’s daughter Summer was selected and assigned a horse named Amado, who was only five at the time. Lynn and Summer don’t believe in selling horses, so the plan was to buy Amado back at the auction. She and Lynn drove to Virginia to pick up Amado, who was totally wild and had never seen a person before. He was a very pretty horse with great coloring. Back in Old Chatham, Amado’s training was completely documented on Little Brook’s Facebook page, and every day another photo went up. Many people became hooked on watching Amado’s progress. By the time the competition came around, he had a huge following. Unfortunately there was someone there who decided they wanted to buy Amado and intended to outbid Little Brook. She said to Lynn, “You can’t outbid me."
Lynn was documenting all of this on Facebook. The night before the auction, she started getting calls from people all over the country, offering to paypal her money so that Little Brook could keep Amado. Lynn said that she would bid as high as she needed to go. Luckily, the bidding didn’t go too high, and they had enough money saved to cover it. They sent back the money they didn’t need. Amado was brought back to Little Brook and is still there, sweet and happy and healthy!
Lynn was documenting all of this on Facebook. The night before the auction, she started getting calls from people all over the country, offering to paypal her money so that Little Brook could keep Amado. Lynn said that she would bid as high as she needed to go. Luckily, the bidding didn’t go too high, and they had enough money saved to cover it. They sent back the money they didn’t need. Amado was brought back to Little Brook and is still there, sweet and happy and healthy!
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