Saving Jim

Who would ever guess that being beautiful, athletic and smart could be a recipe for disaster? Though it may seem unlikely, that's what happened to one flashy Paint horse whose intelligence and sensitivity caused him trouble from the day he was born.

Home number one

When Jim was foaled, his owners were delighted to see that he was "loud," as in loudly colored. That can be a valuable trait in a horse. Jim was sold as a stud colt, likely fetching more money because of his coloring and potential to produce colorful offspring.

Home number two

Jim grew from a spindly, paint-by-number colt, into a horse who fought back when humans pushed him too far. Some horses simply give in to abuse. When Jim's owners tied his head down or choked him to "break" him - rather than using kind and gentle methods that most horse trainers employ - Jim wouldn't give in. He fought so much that eventually his owners no longer wanted to deal with him, so they gave Jim away.

Home number three

Though Jim was a horse who might have been considered valuable, he was also impossible to handle. His third owners put him in a paddock with another stallion, and left him there. What they didn't know (or didn't care) was that stallions fight one another for territory, dominance and, in this case, food.

Home number four

People involved with horse rescue (or any kind of animal rescue) know that you can't judge an animal by the fact that it's unwanted or neglected. "One of the biggest misconceptions about rescue horses is that they are ugly brown or crippled," says Drew Fitzpatrick, director at MHARF. "I've gotten horses that were originally imported from Germany. I had a horse that won the Egyptian championship as a two-year-old and now 13 years later, he's part of a cruelty case - just skin and bones in his stall." Drew calls them "the great unwanted." And that's what Jim was.

By the time Jim made it to MHARF, his body score was 1 out of 10 - extremely emaciated. His skin was falling off with rain rot, his hooves were overgrown and his mane was long and matted. Jim was somewhat better than his paddock mate Dave, whose body score was 1- near dead.

Drew assembled a team to get Jim's state of neglect under control. She says, "We got him sedated and then pounced on him like ants. The vet gelded (castrated) him, we trimmed his feet and his mane and got a halter on him." Then Jim was allowed to settle in, get healthy and relax in a caring environment. That's when he caught trainer Beth Branca's eye.

Home number five

Beth changed her new horse's name to Vittorioso - Vito for short. "For the first month I just stood in a small pen with him and let him approach me. There was a whole bunch of building up trust." Today, two years later, Vito is comfortable being ridden and is handled at least twice a day - a far cry from his early days of bucking and bellowing at a human's touch. He's even comfortable with being brushed and handled by Beth's 16-year-old client, who is in a wheelchair - bicycles and wheelchairs spook most horses.

Vito's first four homes will always be a factor in his life. Beth says, "This horse has a heightened awareness of people's emotional and mental states as they approach him. Nothing makes him flee faster than an angry or frustrated man." Thankfully, Vito is finally in a place where he is appreciated, but more importantly, understood.

For more information about MHARF and their 100-plus available horses, visit www.mnhoovedanimalrescue.org.

Kelli Ohrtman is a freelance writer from Minneapolis who works at Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab, Utah. www.kelliohrtman.com