July 25, 2008

Oregon horse owners face tough decisions
Rising costs make it harder to afford their beloved companions

By ERIN GOLDEN
The Bend Bulletin

     BEND — Tiffany Ostrander made one of the most difficult phone calls of her life to a horse rescue organization, asking if it might have room for her beloved 8-year-old quarter horse, Montana, or her 13-year-old pony, Trudy.
     The 37-year-old Bend woman doesn’t want to give up her animals, but with hay selling for well over $200 per ton, fuel and living expenses on the rise and her husband out of work, she said she’s run out of options.
     And according to local horse organizations and law enforcement officials, she’s not alone.
     Around Central Oregon, where hay is selling for higher and higher prices in an otherwise sluggish economy, more people are trying to sell their horses or give them away to rescue organizations and animal shelters. With so many horses coming in to the few local facilities equipped to handle large animals, some say the situation is reaching a crisis point.
     Diane Davis, the owner of Hooves and Halos Animal Rescue in Redmond, said when she opened five years ago, she’d get a call or two a week from people who could no longer afford to care for their horses. Now, those calls are a daily occurrence.
     “I hear two, three times a day from people saying they can’t afford them, they can’t afford them, they can’t afford them,” she said. “I get calls and e-mails, and there are horses up (for sale) on Craigslist. And they’re not just all broken down, old horses — they’re just horses they really can’t afford because the price of hay is already up to $230 a ton, and it’s really scary.”
     Hay prices began to rise more than a year ago, along with prices for other crops, like corn, soybeans and wheat, said Mylen Bohle, an Oregon State University Extension agronomist. And after a particularly cold, rainy spring, Bohle said, this year’s hay crop is behind schedule and smaller than in years past, which has pushed prices even higher.
     Premium orchard grass hay in Central Oregon sold for about $175 last year, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report.
     For many, the higher cost of the 3 to 6 tons of hay required to feed a horse each year is simply too much, said Joan Steelhammer, the president and founder of Equine Outreach, a Bend nonprofit horse rescue group. Steelhammer said she’s currently caring for more than 70 horses — well over the 35 she initially set as her maximum capacity.
     Like Davis, Steelhammer said she’s been getting more calls from people looking to offload their horses and has to turn most of them away.
     “It’s horrific in that these are just gut-wrenching stories, and with the economy the way it is, it’s not just hay, it’s everything,” she said. “I had a woman show up in tears with a 29-year-old pony that she’d had all of her life, but she was on Social Security, and she and her husband couldn’t afford to feed (the pony.)”
     All of Steelhammer’s horses, however, do not come from people who can’t afford to pay for their care. Equine Outreach and other local nonprofit rescue agencies get some of their animals after they’ve been seized from owners or from owners who voluntarily turn over their horses for other reasons. The groups adopt out the animals after they’ve been rescued.
     Local law enforcement officials said they frequently get calls about possible animal neglect, though many cases turn out to be unfounded.
     “I don’t have exact numbers, but I can tell you that we’ve seen an increase in livestock-related issues like that,” said Crook County Undersheriff Jim Hensley. “We get at least one a week where we go out and check on the animals.”
     Though it’s clear that more people are struggling with the cost of keeping their horses, Ed Bartz, the director and co-founder of Bend’s Blissful Acres Rescue Reserve, said he believes some people are trying to use tough times as an excuse to get rid of unwanted animals. Bartz said many horse owners simply don’t prepare for the major cost of keeping a large animal before they buy one.
     “We know it costs $80 to $85 to keep a horse for a month — that covers the vet, vitamins, wormer, the corral, that kind of stuff,” he said. “It’s a 20-year commitment, and that’s a big deal.”
     Ostrander, the Bend horse owner, said her family has enough hay to make it through September, when they’ll turn over Montana and Trudy to Equine Outreach. She said when she bought the animals, their expenses were more manageable, but now it’s just too much. The family is concerned about making ends meet day by day and cannot afford to plan for hay purchases.
     “We thought, ’Hey, we can afford this,’ but then the prices went up, and up again,” she said.
     Steelhammer said she worries the situation will likely get worse before it gets better, especially as organizations like hers are overwhelmed with animals from around the region.
     “I think the tidal wave hasn’t hit yet,” she said. “I think this winter is going to be ungodly because people get by with (horses) grazing, but come winter it’s going to be a mess, and it scares me. I don’t want to see suffering, and I can’t save every animal.”