Horses in need of homes

Hungry Horse News

Michelle Sudan admits it. She's a sap.

"If I can save anything, I will," she said.

Now the nonprofit organization she started with friends and family finds itself in a bit of a bind.

Too much kind heartedness. Not enough money.

See, Sudan, her sister Lynnette Longtin and friends Crystal Williams and Christina Panerio rescue horses no one else wants. They take in horses folks can't afford to keep. Blind ponies. Used-up mules. Horses with gimps. Horses with no homes. Horses headed to the cannery.

They call it Angels Among Us. Today they have more than 30 horses.

They started this back in August 2001 with a colt that was cut up and about to die. They loaded him up in a trailer, brought him home, got him care, and today he's a fine thoroughbred gelding, thick and furry with his winter coat.

They decided to begin an effort to save other horses. And the business, so to speak, bloomed. They rescued horses, mules and ponies and found them new homes. To date, more than 80 horses have come in the organization, and more than 50 have been adopted.

But they admit they're not business people. Sudan is a veterinary technician, and Panerio is as well, though she works at Grouse Mountain Lodge. The pay for vet techs isn't great in the valley.

They know their way around horses and animals, that's for sure. But running a nonprofit takes more than just heart-it also takes cash, especially when you have 30 horses to feed.

On top of that, their lease on 20 acres of pasture is about to run out. The horses will have to go by March 1.

"We're in such dire straits that every nickel we have goes to buy grain," Sudan said last week. "This is the first winter where no one is there to help."

It costs about $2,500 a month to feed the animals. They're draining their own paychecks to feed the animals.

In the past, folks have donated hay and grain and feed. But there are fewer folks growing hay in the valley, and pasture that used to be affordable farmland is now worth hundreds of thousands.

Sudan owns six acres of her own land in Evergreen, but she can't see fitting all the horses on it.

While the organization needs hay and feed and cash, it needs something far worse, Sudan said.

"What we need are homes for these horses," she said last week.

Cost to adopt a horse runs from nothing to $500, depending on the potential of the animal. Some, quite frankly, are pleasure animals. They're not going to run like the wind or go on long backcountry excursions, but the grandkids can get on them, ride them in the yard without worrying about being bucked off.

The organization makes sure of one thing however-that the animals never go back to slaughter.

Background checks are done on everyone looking to adopt a horse.

"We want the horse to have a forever home," Panerio said.

To learn more about the organization, or to adopt a horse, contact Angels Among Us, 415 Anderson Lane, Kalispell MT 59901 or on the Web at http://www.geocities.com/angels_among_us_equine_rescue/ or you can call Panerio at 892-9838 or Sudan at 885-4504.