Today’s November Giving Nomination is Victoria Carson – submitted by Cynthia Sharpley
I would like to nominate Victoria Carson for special recognition for all of the great work that she and her organization, The Maryland Fund for Horses, does for the equine community in Maryland and more!
In March 2018 there was a horrific cruelty case discovered in Quantico, Maryland. Through our (Last Chance Animal Rescue) long standing relationship with the Wicomico County Humane Society and our recent acquisition of a farm, we offered to “hold” some of the 107 feral and emaciated horses found on the Quantico farm. A few months later the Humane Society changed directors and we received an e-mail saying we were the proud new owners of these horses.
While we ended up with 44 of these horses in poor condition, we are not a horse rescue, so my first step was to reach out to other horse organizations. I had a list from PetSmart Charities and the ASPCA and I called both local and national organizations for help to no avail. No one was able to help in any way except for The Maryland Fund for Horses. While I had been a little over confident that I could source help from some other organizations, The Maryland Fund for Horses stepped up in a very big way!
Vicki Carson offered both help and advice. Her group not only paid for, but arranged the New Bolton Veterinary School to come and geld the 17 stallions that we had ended up with. She was our source of knowledge on feeding and acclimating the horses to human interaction!
Her help – well actually she just did it for us – was pivotal in helping to train and re-home 30 some of these feral horses. She and her group basically ran our very successful Appy’ Fest 2018 and 2019 adoption and trainers challenge. Trust me when I say we never could have done that without her input and sheer force of will to save these horses.
Now this is in addition to her regular mission of counseling horse owners who have come upon hard times, organizing a hay bank and contributing funds to afford hay, needed medical care and castrations for the income disadvantaged horse owners.
She is pretty much a miracle worker and we are forever grateful for her and her group’s help in helping these amazing Appaloosa and Quarter horses.
