Shiloh Foundation Horse Rescue

And what's Bruce Warren doing these days? Looking in on people who save horses:

One rescued horse that would not be suitable for riding is the mare Trinity, who has the No. 69 tattooed on her rear. Trinity belonged to a pregnant mare urine ranch in Canada, and was forced to stay in a stall, where they collected urine from her. The urine is later sold and put into menopausal pills for women, Cheryl Rankin said.

“They’re pregnant for about a year and then they are bred again,” Cheryl Rankin said. “The babies are shipped out for auction. Then the mares are put on line again.”

Cheryl Rankin received an invitation from internationally recognized trainer Monty Roberts, the original “Horse Whisperer,” to bring Trinity to his facility at Solvang, Calif., just north of Santa Barbara. In the August 4-8 clinic, the closest Roberts could get to Trinity was putting a long artificial hand in a chute where Trinity was. Roberts, who has written three “New York Times,” best-selling books and trained thousands of abused horses, recommended that Rankin work with Trinity in a gated chute in order to get the horse accustomed to human touch.

“But he said the best thing for her would be to get her to a wild horse range, because she might not ever get better,” Cheryl Rankin said.

Since Roberts has worked with Trinity, the mare has shown some minor improvements.

“She comes closer and is a little more trusting,” Cheryl Rankin said.

Thommy Witt, an instructor who worked with Roberts, commented on Trinity’s experience at the Monty Roberts Learning Center in a telephone interview Monday.

“You weren’t able to catch it or touch it in a pen,” Witt said. “We had the horse in for special clinic where Monty works with the horses. We got her into a chute, which is basically a small hallway where you can get close to them. This horse was very frightened about people in general. Monty said it would be a very, very long process to get her being accepted to be touched by people.”

The Rankins started The Shiloh Foundation entirely from funds raised from the sale of their construction business several years ago. Any money gained from the sale of horses, goes directly to help provide for horses they already shelter.