James and Eva are a couple who joined us in 2007. They opened there hearts and pastures to rescued horses when they purchased a miniature horse / Shetland pony cross named Willow. Willow was a second hand rescue. She had in her 6 years of life been beaten, locked in a stall with a goat that climbed all over her and bit her ears, and finally abandoned. After being rescued, she changed owners twice. Each time, her new owners tried to figure out how to make this terrified little mare be less afraid of people, each finally gave up and sold Willow to someone else. In the 2 years James & Eva had Willow, she was introduced to other horses and became a well valued member of a herd. Willow also became the unofficial seeing eye pony for James and Eva's blind quarter horse Angel. She learned that all people are not bad. They decided that Willow needed to be placed with a family with children, so they donated Willow into the program.
UPDATE: Willow, 08/2009: Willow was mistakenly placed with a family that had good intentions, but little experience in dealing with special needs horses. She was returned to James and Eva in April of 2009, even more afraid of humans than before. James has honed his skills as an animal whisperer on Willow, and started working with her. Now for the first time since 2006 when they first acquired Willow, she can be handled much easier. James and Eva have also volunteered to handle placement inspections for Horse North.
James & Eva are leasing Sea Jade. They also have 2 horses of their own, Angel and Ayashi, both rescues. Angel is a totally blind quarter horse. Ayashi is a yearling mustang paint they bought as a scrawny little, undernourished, leggy foal that didn't look like it would survive the winter (December 2007). Today she is a feisty growing two year old that loves to run laps around the pastures. Ayashi is now approaching Angle's size.
James has volunteered to handle the website, building new pages, keeping the pages updated and things like that.
Eva helps by proofreading pages, checking links, and pictures.
James is relatively new to horses but is learning fast. Eva has had horses on and off since having a pony as a teenager, and has had experience in training horses and ponies. Her training methods closely resemble Pirelli, but are more deeply rooted in the native American methods of Natural Horsemanship.