Local sanctuary helps horses and 4H kids

By Tay­lor Kaser –

Res­cu­ing a half ton ani­mal is hard work, and res­cu­ing over 15 of those ani­mals over the last few years is even harder.

Cathy Shomber has been oper­at­ing Horse Bot­tom Acres 4H Horse Sanc­tu­ary since 2010 and adopt­ing horses on her own since 2003. Her farm is located on St. Rt. 95 about 5 miles east of Mt. Gilead.

Shomber adopts mostly thor­ough­breds, race horses who after a few years stopped win­ning and then were sent to auc­tion, usu­ally to be bought by a horse meat company.

A 4H advi­sor, Shomber allows kids to “earn a horse” by work­ing at the farm. The kids first help with clean­ing then start work­ing with horses and rid­ing. Two of her five 4H kids will be show­ing at the fair this year.

Shomber began rid­ing as kidin Mor­row County, she grew up around Colum­bus. Her grand­fa­ther lived in Mor­row County, and she used to visit and learned to ride. She thanks For­est Porter, a Mt. Gilead local, for first get­ting her involved with horses.

“I want to save them all.” said Shomber. Thor­ough­breds are the most over bred and endan­gered horses, said Shomber, because after they’ve made money for their own­ers, they’re dis­carded and sent to be butchered.

Horse meat is a del­i­cacy in many coun­tries. But Shomber explained that many peo­ple don’t real­ize that horse meat is full of worm med­ica­tion that stays in the body and can cause seri­ous dam­age to the liver and kidneys.

Shomber saved her first horse, Tracy, after see­ing an ad in a Colum­bus news­pa­per. Later her daugh­ter worked at race track where train­ers would let her know what horses were about to be auctioned.

Cathy expressed her dream of hav­ing a sep­a­rate prop­erty that would serve solely as a sanctuary.

“I want them to know that this is their for­ever home.” said Shomber. The love and care for these horses that Shomber has is evi­dent, and they feel the same about her, even giv­ing her “kisses”. All of her horses are very people-friendly and come right up to you to say hi.

Shomber explained that this summer’s drought has hit hay and food prices hard. Right now 13 horses live on her farm with another being fos­tered at another farm. Four of her horses can­not be rid­den, due to injuries they sus­tained while rac­ing. Shomber calls them pas­ture pets.

She says she’d love to have more peo­ple become involved with the sanc­tu­ary. Though not a rid­ing sta­ble, peo­ple are always wel­come to check out the horses and try riding.

Shomber is not a cer­ti­fied instruc­tor, but says she can teach basic horse 101, includ­ing basic rid­ing, care, and safety. Any­one inter­ested in becom­ing involved with the sanc­tu­ary or just wants to come visit the horses can con­tact Cathy at 614–266-2294. There’s no charge or fee, but dona­tions are greatly appreciated.

Posted by Randa Wagner on Aug 15 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.