Neglected horses in stable hands

Blue Jeans was beaten in the mouth with a club. The 18-year-old horse is missing teeth and part of a lip.

Moonlight was more than 300 pounds underweight and almost too weak to stand. You could look at her and count every bone.

Queenie was plagued by rain rot, an infection that left her covered in scabs.

"You have to scrub the scabs off and treat it with iodine," said Bev Levitt, in whose pasture those horses and eight others were recently left.

"Actually, they all had rain rot," said Levitt, a 54-year-old horse lover who initially took in the animals as a temporary favor. "These horses were in horrible condition."

The horses eventually were abandoned on Levitt's 5-acre property. She said recently that she had not heard from the woman who left the horses with her since receiving a text message that the woman did not have money to feed the animals.

Not only has Levitt grown to love the horses, but she said her granddaughter, Alexis, 8, also has thrived around them. Alexis is autistic, but Levitt said the horses have made an "incredible" difference in her life in just a few weeks.

"In two days, she knew all their names, but she also knew what medication and vitamins each one needed, and they're all different," she said.

Levitt also said the horses seem calmer around Alexis.

For therapeutic use

Besides nursing the horses back to health, Levitt dreams of creating a backyard facility where other special needs children can come and interact with the horses.

"I can't think of another reason I got saddled with 11 horses," she said with a laugh.

The idea is championed by Wendy Rice, a child psychologist in Carrollwood who works with Alexis.

"There's a whole field of research on the effect that being with animals has on people with all sorts of problems," Rice said. "It decreases anxiety and blood pressure. Kids with disabilities can often relate to animals in different ways than with people. Animals are not judgmental and can tune into moods in a different way than people can.

"When a child with a disability can care for a 1,500-pound animal or lead it around, or ride such a big animal, it's tremendously empowering. We also find oftentimes that kids who aren't verbal, but have the capacity to speak, will verbalize more when they're around animals."

Before such a facility can be established, the horses must be nursed back to health.

Among them is Deputy, a miniature pony once kept in a pen with dogs that "chewed on him," Levitt said.

There is Lola, who was seriously underweight a month ago, but is now within about 100 pounds of a healthy weight.

Cracker has had front and back leg injuries, among other problems.

"She'll never be ridden hard or galloped" by an adult, Levitt said of Cracker. "But she could be galloped by an autistic kid."

Donations welcomed

A retired veterinary technician, Levitt welcomes donations to feed the horses. She said she also needs more tack and fencing, and she wants to build a round pen where she and other trainers can work with the horses.

She said neighbors have donated feed and pasture space, and she has upgraded the stalls in her backyard. She said Steve Miller, a Dade City veterinarian, has been to her house several times to treat the horses.

"We're on a schedule to get them all vaccinated," she said. "They didn't have their shots or Coggins tests," an annual exam to diagnose and detect the equine infectious anemia virus, which can lead to death.

"Those horses went through torture. They're not leaving me," she said.

Miller, who runs Blue Skies Equine, said the horses were "generally in very poor condition" when he first saw them. One had serious respiratory problems and several had significant problems with their teeth.

He said he has worked with others who have used horses for therapeutic purposes and has "absolutely" seen it work.

"I get paid, but I try to be pretty kind to (Levitt), because she's trying to do good things," he said.

While the horses have been left on Levitt's property, they will not technically be hers unless she gets liens placed on them, said Kevin Doll, a spokesman with the Pasco County Sheriff's Office.

Levitt said she does not have the liens, but she has spoken extensively with Cpl. Gennis Folsom with the sheriff's agricultural and environmental unit.

The woman who left the horses, she said, "cannot walk on my land and take them" back.

"I haven't heard from her again, anyway," Levitt said. "Cpl. Folsom told me that (if ownership becomes an issue) to show my (veterinarian) receipts to the judge. He said, 'Chain your gate and put up a no-trespassing sign and you're good.'

"

'I'll move mountains'

On a recent morning, Levitt looked out her back window, a cup of coffee in hand.

Two horses were drinking from her backyard pond next to two deer.

"It was a great way to start my day," she said.

In moments, she was talking again about the nonprofit facility she wants to establish. She said she knows lots of other parents and guardians of special-needs children who are frustrated that there aren't more places where their children can interact with animals.

"I need to get the horses taken care of first," she said. "They need some more muscle on them. I know it's going to work, because I'm going to move mountains."

HELPING THE HORSES

For information, call Bev Levitt at (813) 900-6305.