(NOTE: Appeared in Winston-Salem Monthly magazine in Sept. 2020.)
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| GRACE HARDY AND HAMLET |
By TOM GILLISPIE
Grace Hardy recalls seeing pastures near her Winston-Salem home when she was little, and she watched the horses frolicking or grazing peacefully. And she longed to meet and get to know them.
“We’d give treats to the horses, and I started riding when I was 8,” the now-16-year-old recalls.
When Grace was 12, she joined HERO, the Horse Education and Rescue Organization based in Winston-Salem, to help give the equines a better life. Volunteers like Grace help the horses. Some foster or own horses.
Grace’s current horses are the father-daughter pair Hamlet and Cressida, which are Shakespearean names.
Her favorite? She couldn't choose one.
“The two of mine are tied,” Grace said. “Their quirks make them unique.”
When they brought Hamlet into rescue, the question was whether he’d recover his health. His ribs stuck out, and he looked pitiful. With the help of a vet, good food and loving care, Hamlet is now in the pink.
Samantha Hardy, Grace’s mother and HERO’s foster/adoption coordinator, has been with the organization nearly 12 years.
“I’m a volunteer with HERO and a member of the (seven-person) board of directors,” she said.
She explained that “I am not a horse person; HERO got me into it.”
Since 2007, HERO has worked with neighbors, law enforcement and animal control to find and rescue horses from abusive homes all across the state. The HERO horses are spread among barns and stables in the Winston-Salem area.
At any given time, HERO houses a handful to a dozen horses in the quarantine barn and foster barns. Samantha Hardy says there are six horses up for adoption, six on permanent foster and two not ready for adoption. The youngest is five; the oldest is 30.
HERO president Michelle Bednar says the food, lodging, medications, vet bills, etc., are funded through fundraisers, donations, wills, charities, HERO’s Facebook page or horse shows. HERO had a show scheduled for April 25, but it was cancelled because of the pandemic.
Kelly Emerson, the barn manager/trainer, was one of HERO’s founders in 2007.
Emerson says that HERO often gets horses that have been malnourished or mistreated, but she adds that educating humans on the treatment of equines needs to be the organization’s focus.
She points to three horses -- sister-brother pair Scarlett and Rhett, and their mother, Ruby -- who were running loose in Stokes County. The sickly-looking horses had broken out of a fence and were looking for grass. HERO took them in and rehabilitated them. They’re in better shape now, she says, and Ruby has been renamed Merida.
Bednar, who has worked with HERO for seven years, says she was put on her cousin’s horse when she was five. “And we went from there,” she said. “He was a black pony named Blackie, and I knew from that moment that horses were for me.”
She says that most of the horses they rescue are facing their last chance; if HERO doesn’t help them, they often end up in kill pens and are shipped out of the country to slaughterhouses.
Bednar says that HERO is always looking for more volunteers to groom, walk, feed and socialize the horses. They’re especially looking for volunteers Grace’s age.“She’s a beautiful young lady with a lot of potential,” Bednar said. “(Grace) has a natural gift with horses.”
Grace has thought about her future with horses.
“I don't think I’ll keep at it as job," she said, "but I’ll keep it as a hobby for the rest of my life.”
Emerson said that HERO board members can’t do this work by themselves, adding, “It takes a village to help the animals.”
She was asked what horse rescue means to her.
“It means something to see the transformation of a horse,” she said. “I consider myself successful when that takes place.”
Emerson says she tries to look at horses clinically, but she admits that she sometimes gets a bit attached. She looks at Scarlett, Rhett and Ruby (Merida) as a major win.
“We can debate all day whether animals have souls,” she said, “but they’re God's creatures. So I try to help them.”
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