Trainers help rescue horses in adoption process

The Oregon Rescue Challenge is an annual event, now in its third year, that teams up equine rescuers and their trainers with at-risk horses for 120 days. Eventually, they will be adopted into a new home.

Equine facilities from all over Oregon participate in the challenge.

Taylor Gordon is one of the trainers, and he is working with a 4-year-old mare named Catalina. They were paired up in February, and just a few months before that, Catalina had little to no human interaction.

“Because she was more wild, a more flighty type of horse, I spent the first week probably going in the pen and asking her to face me and start approaching me,” Gordon said Tuesday.

After weeks and hours of training, Gordon said Catalina became willing and easy to work with. He’s been working with her in various techniques and patterns.

While a trainer spends most of the time with the horse, each horse has a sponsor or a rescue facility that saved it from abuse or a kill pen at some point.

Three Sisters Equine Refuge rescued Catalina from a “kill buyer” in December.

“They don’t deserve to be in the slaughter pipeline, they don’t deserve to be in rescue, and they don’t deserve to be abused,” said Cyndi Davis with the rescue facility. “They deserve a loving home, and they just need a hand up.”

Davis said horses are not in rescue because of something they have done. She said nine times out of 10, they’re there because a human, along the way, has failed them.

Gordon is joined by his wife, Alissa Jensen. She’s training an 18-year-old mustang named Cody. He’s sponsored by the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office.

“For a horse that’s older, having to work late in your life when you haven’t done anything for most of your life, it’s kind of like, ‘Why are we doing this now?'” Jensen said.

Jensen said just because a horse has the label of rescue doesn’t mean it’s bad. The horse just needs a second chance.

“To see him go from not really wanting to work with me, to now, when I go out in the pasture, he comes up to me and he wants to do whatever I ask him to do,” Jensen said.

Cody has been at the sheriff’s office rescue ranch, but the department wants to see him find a good home.

“If we can provide somebody some happiness with these horses, and these horses can get to a better life, that’s awesome for us,” Lt. Joe DeLuca said.

“He’s coming out of his shell,” Jensen said. “He’s learned some tricks, which he thinks are the best things in the world.”

Gordon and Jensen will compete with Catalina and Cody at the challenge on June 29030 in different handling and pattern style events.

“A month ahead of time we are going to send all the competitors a list of obstacles that are going to be in the challenge,” said Oregon Rescue Challenge Showman Manager Kyle Hockett. “They will also get the pattern we are going to do in the compulsories.”

These patterns help showcase the usability of a rescue horse and transfer them from a desperate background to a chance at a new life.

If you are interested in a horse sponsored by the sheriff’s department, you must visit their website before the challenge and fill out an application. The link is listed below:

https://sheriff.deschutes.org/community/animal-control/animals-for-adoption/

And for more information on the Oregon Rescue Challenge: http://www.oregonrescuechallenge.com/