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Riverview Ranch Mourns Senselessly Slain Horse

Tribune photo by JAY NOLAN

Irene Griffith moves cattle into another pasture at her Riverview home Friday.

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 18, 2008

RIVERVIEW - The gray, misty morning along with the winter-brown dog fennel that ringed the back pasture cast a gloom over Little Creek Ranch, the scene Thursday of a senseless horse slaying.

Though in mourning, Irene Griffith still has her jobs to do this morning. She still has to move the dozen or so cattle to other fields, feed the goats and let the horses, the ones that remain, out to pasture.

Though Little Creek Ranch is a working ranch, it's not a typical working ranch. Every animal here from the 2,000-pound steer Buster to the tiniest goat, Kitten, to the gaggle of barnyard gray-and-black cats – has a name. More than that, they have histories, and Griffith lets loose with stories on each and every one.

She wants to talk about her quarter horse Rocky, but it's difficult.

Rocky was her favorite. It was love between them at first sight.

"As soon as I saw Rocky and our eyes met, it was all over," she says. "A horse picks you. You don't pick a horse."

That was in 2000. Since, then, Rocky had spent his days frolicking with the other horses, Lilly, Cody, Sparky. But Rocky was special, Griffith says.

"I would whistle, and he would come running," she says while walking toward the barn, where the bleating goats are demanding her attention.

Irene Griffith, 46, and her husband, Gregg, have lived on this 8-acre spread for about 7 1/2 years and have built the menagerie to what it is today. Some of the cattle business is for profit, in that cows and steers are sold to the market, but mostly the animals are here just for comfort and companionship.

"They pretty much are pasture pets," Griffith says.

The ranch isn't all that easy to find. It's on Simmons Loop Road between Interstate 75 and U.S. 301. Visitors have to drive down a dirt road almost one-half mile to get to the house. The horses, when they are in the front pasture, can't even be seen from the road.

And yet, someone with a gun and cruel intentions found Rocky on Thursday morning.

In the space of about 30 minutes, between the time ranch helpers left to get hay from a nearby feed store and returned, someone shot Rocky right between the eyes. The shooter likely stood at the fence and fired the fatal round from a distance of about 40 feet as the horse looked right down the barrel.

Rocky probably didn't feel a thing, Griffith says. His hoof prints show that he spun and fell right on the spot. Blood shows on the grass a day later. It's difficult for Griffith to stand here and talk about what happened.

"The other horses were standing around him when we found him," she says. "Ranchers and cowboys all say these animals don't have feelings, but that's not true. They are in mourning."

She can't imagine someone doing such a vile act.

"I swear to God, I don't get it," she says. "How can someone shoot an innocent animal? He was just grazing."

She pauses, stifling a sob. "He was very special to me."

Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office deputies were called and are investigating. They took the dead horse on Thursday and turned it over to a veterinarian for an X-ray and extraction of the bullet for evidence.

"We've done neighborhood surveys," said sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter this morning. "And we have talked to people who live out there. There are no updates."

Griffith hopes a witness steps forward. "All I really want is for somebody to tell somebody they saw something," she says. "I just want this person held accountable."

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