Merry Hill Farm Equine Sanctuary

25/07/2024

Maybe I should join one of those public speaking clubs so my voice will be less annoying on camera 😂🥴

But all jokes aside THANK YOU for another Chewy gift 🙏❤️

This came from my friend Lisa Stone -- if you ever send something from our wish list, please let me know because Chewy doesn't disclose the sender!

22/07/2024

Tell me it rained without telling me it rained 😂🫣

I suppose a muddy horse is a happy horse so I'll take it!

22/07/2024

Unexpected guest this morning 👀🐄
..girls were disappointed when I walked her home to the neighbor's farm 😜

19/07/2024

I've been waiting for this day for WEEKS....Dentist Day for the Arabians!! 🦷🦷🦷

They hadn't had their teeth done in at least 5 years-- I was especially worried about Gabby, who isn't keeping weight on, and Teddy, who foams at the mouth when eating his mash 🥺

This appointment took over a month to get because --knowing their teeth have been neglected for so long-- I wanted to invest in the very best equine dentist in our region (instead of just having a vet do the float) and she has a long wait list.

All of their teeth were in bad shape but sweet Teddy in particular had the worst hooks!

Four hours and over $1,000 later, I'm feeling happy and relieved they got this much needed care today. I hope they're all feeling in tip top shape now 💕

PS: HUGE shout out to Stephanie of ProFloats Equine Dentistry (and Mary Moses, DVM) for all the hard work 💪

17/07/2024

Sooo this happened this morning....

It's farrier day and when it was Elliott's turn, Dolly walked right underneath him so he could rest his head while getting trimmed. She stayed there the whooooole time 👯‍♀️

Dolly has a man and she wants everyone to know it 💘

16/07/2024

My favorite lil Appy reaping the benefits of our overachieving apple trees 🍎

10/07/2024

Want to do a good deed today??

Gifting items from our Chewy Wish List is a super easy way to make a tangible impact and help the horses at our sanctuary.

Every item listed is something we always need to have in stock, so we're grateful for any purchase!

Merry Hill Farm is a family-run equine sanctuary in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. We specialize in senior horses, unrideable horses, and owner surrenders. Our

24/06/2024

Radiographs for Saint Dolly 😇

Dolly is our first family horse. She's a retired Texas prison guard horse-- they're known for heavy "mileage" so it's no surprise she came to us with arthritis in her front legs. She's been getting PIP injections every 6 months, plus daily MSM supplement, H**p + Coconut oil, and Equioxx for as long as i can remember...

But recently, I noticed she had really slowed down and was visibly lame in her hind end.

I asked the vet for radiographs on all 4 legs so we could see what's going on.

Her hinds look okay, but even to my untrained eye, I could see how much damage has happened to the front. There's A LOT of roughening and her joints are collapsing. We think she's compensating for the pain in the front by carrying more weight in her hind, hence the lameness 😔

She's getting back into regular bodywork with a Masterson massage therapist but otherwise, the only option left is fusing her joints-- a procedure and recovery I've already decided I won't put her through.

So we stay the course and keep her as comfortable as we can for as long as we can ✨️

Incidentally, her lameness seems to have disappeared within a couple days of Elliott's arrival. I'm convinced it's the healing power of love and no one can tell me otherwise 🩷🩷🩷🩷

20/06/2024

🩷🎶 Dolly and Elliot, sittin' in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g 🎶🩷

19/06/2024

Meet Elliot!

This 12 -year-old hunk arrived to us from Texas 🇨🇱

He's a great example of how important sanctuary work is to intercepting horses *before* they fall into a bad situation.

Elliott was purchased as a riding horse in July 2023. Within a month he exploded, throwing and injuring his rider.

Thankfully, his mama did right by him and consulted with a vet-- turns out Elliott has an incredibly painful condition called kissing spine. He was sent to Texas A&M --one of the best equine hospitals in the country-- for corrective surgery.

But even after a smooth procedure and recovery, he still made it clear he couldn't tolerate riding.

His owner had a choice: send him off to a "cowboy" trainer to try forcing him to ride (and break his spirit), sell him as a companion horse and hope he would be well cared for, or have Elliott humanely euthanized (so many people would shame this decision but there are fates far worse for horses than being peacefully put down in the comfort of home).

She reached out to me and after a tear-filled conversation for both of us, we agreed that surrendering Elliott to our sanctuary would be the safest option for him.

A lot of people would say that's not really rescue but I disagree. Horses need help at all stages-- yes, we need rescues working with law enforcement for cases of neglect & abuse, we need rescues rehabilitating and adopting out horses, AND we need rescues who can intervene and take in a horse when a loving owner can no longer care for them.

So now our little farm sanctuary is officially Elliott's forever home, where he can thrive as a non-riding horse.

Welcome, sweet boy! 🩵

18/06/2024

The girls are letting Elliott sit at their lunch table and I'm obsessed 👯‍♀️💖

17/06/2024

May not look like a big deal but seeing the Arabians out grazing during my evening check made my heart go pitter patter 💕

Even after their initial nervousness settled down, they still spent most of their time milling around one little spot.

Every day this week, I'd check on them every 2-3 hours and literally lead them down to their water trough and hay, and also the shelter to get out of the midday sun.

But they'd always go right back to their "spot." I told my husband it was like they didn't know how to be horses 🤔
I suspected they hadn't had much turn out.

Thankfully, I was able to connect with a family member over the weekend and she confirmed that they were stalled 18 hours a day, and fed/watered in their stalls as well. So their behavior makes a lot of sense!

This little herd has gone through a huge change-- it'll take time for them to adjust to their new lifestyle of forage and freedom so I'm thrilled to see them feeling comfortable/confident enough to venture this far from their normal spot, grazing happily 🥰

12/06/2024

SURPRISE!!! On Monday we took in not one, not two, not three, but FOUR non-riding horses 😲

Belive me, this was *not* on my bingo card for the month but it felt like the right thing to do.

I heard about them through Bluemont Equine Sanctuary, one of the best of the best. They'd been contacted for an owner surrender but are already beyond capacity and these four needed a safe placement asap.

They all come from the same home. Their owner is in her 80s; her husband dies of a heart attack and lost her farm 😔

These four are a mother-son pair and an auntie-nephew pair. The mares are 24 and 27 and were broodmares their whole life. The geldings are 12 and 18.

We were all worried about what would happen to them if they ended up at auction, not just because of their age and lack of riding ability (non-riding horses are considered useless in a lot of the equestrian world) but because they've been on the same farm their entire lives-- separating them would be devastating 💔

The mamas are what got me. They would be humanely eunathized if they couldn't find a home...in this situation that's not a wrong choice but I slept on it a couple nights and just couldn't stand the thought of two healthy animals being put down because they couldn't find a safe place to land. And we have the space so...

Here they are. It's a lot. But seeing how closely bonded they all are, I'm glad we kept them together here. Who knows where they would have ended up.

Honestly? Their first two days have been hard. They're sad and very confused. They spend most of their time standing at the fence, looking back over the gate I walked them through.

I'll be sharing more about them later but in the meantime, we have a previously scheduled arrival later today -- that brings us to 5 new herd members in one week! We'll be taking a break from intakes for the summer while everyone gets settled 🙃

P.S. watch video to the end to see Dolly & Izzy's reaction to our new arrivals 😄

10/06/2024

Sunsets like these ✨️

07/06/2024

Pedicure day for the ladies! Check out Dolly's before & after 💅

04/06/2024

Oh, haaaaaaay!

Arrived home late last night (just before midnight) from a whirlwind trip visiting family & friends in Texas.
..woke up this morning to this glorious sight 🤩

Though we won't be using this for quite a while, I'm pinching myself knowing our horses already have all the hay they'll need through winter 💛

29/05/2024

This is one of my favorite views on our property - walking up the hill to our house from the creek 🌳

24/05/2024

I should really bathe the horses this weekend but I also know they'll find that one patch of mud to roll in --or even dirt, if we haven't had rain-- that's invisible to the human eye but they somehow manage to find like a heat-seeking missile. These are facts lol.

Seriously though, I don't care about them being shiny and pristine but it'd be nice if they stayed clean for just 24 hours after the effort of bathing 😂

13/05/2024

Can you believe we're the fourth home for this sweet face?? And she only just turned 6 years old 🥺

Izzy came to us last year at the age of 5.

She ended up in a k*ll pen in California at just 3 years old (who knows what her situation was like or how many times she changed hands before that) before being rescued and was in a good home for a little more than a year. Then they could no longer keep her and she came to Texas. After about a year at her new place in Texas Izzy again found herself needing a new home...and the rest is history 💕

It's really no surprise because on average, a horse will have 7 homes in its lifetime 😟

That's why we focus on owner surrenders-- even though auction or pen pulls are more "exciting" rescues, being able to give horses a safe forever home (and their owners peace of mind) *before* they ever end up in a bad situation is just as important 💟

10/05/2024

Dental float for Dolly today 🦷

She was actually a couple months overdue so I was relieved everything looked good in there!

Also, every person who holds Dolly's head while under sedation for the first time always comments on how heavy it is 😆

09/05/2024

I thought we would have more time with Nina.

In January of 2023 I decided to stop boarding Dolly and bring her home, which meant she would need a companion.

Not long before, I saw a post from the Humane Society of North Texas about a senior Peruvian Paso mare who was unrideable, had minimal handling, and was seized by law enforcement in a criminal animal cruelty case (swipe to see the state she was in on the day HSNT saved her).

Her name at that time was Sierra and with a body condition score of 1.5, was (barely) living proof that even the most expensive, pedigreed horses can end up in horrific circumstances. After years as a broodmare at a million dollar facility, she was left alone to starve once she could no longer be used for breeding (just so you know, this wasn't her owners first offense).

I drove 2.5 hours to meet Sierra. In the round pen she flinched when I offered my hand for her to sniff. Clearly the handling she had had in her previous life wasn't kind.

I waited. Eventually I was able to place my hand on her neck. By the time I left, she let me hold her head in my hands while I stroked her cheek. She closed her eyes and dozed.

I learned from the wonderful team at HSNT that she was 27 years old and had advanced DSLD. I knew then that we would be hospice care for her and I was okay with that-- I couldn't imagine not bringing her home.

Sierra arrived to us in February and I gave her the new name, Nina. Which in Quechua, the indigenous language of Peru, means "little fire." I could tell she was bright, curious and in her prime would've been quite spirited (made me all the angrier that her life had been wasted at the end of cruel hands).

I was never able to blanket her but within about a week of short, daily sessions using only positive reinforcement, she went from walking the opposite direction at my approach to coming right up to me at the gate and willingly putting her face in the halter.

She was so, so smart.

Nina and Dolly bonded instantly. Dolly's calm, grounding presence seemed to make Nina feel safe and protected and I loved seeing her lie down next to Dolly and nap on sunny days.

But pretty soon I started noticing Nina lying down more frequently. She was also camping out her back legs, leaning far forward to take the weight off her hind end ligaments which were rapidly deteriorating. Once in a while she would struggle to get up.

With my vet's guidance we increased her pain management plan and that worked really well for a couple weeks. Nina would even sometimes show off her beautiful gaited trot.

But I was in denial about what was happening.

Nina was doing that thing beings do at the end of their life-- like a star exploding right before burning out, her life force was expressing itself for one final glorious moment.

One morning I came out and there was Dolly standing guard over Nina, who was down.

She raised her head as I approached but made no effort to stand. Nina let me come in and sit with her on the ground. She let me hold her head in my hands and stroke her cheek just like the first day we met.

I knew then that our time with her was at its end.

Once she was able to rise I barely made it back to the house myself, I was so racked with sobs.

I told my husband it was time to let Nina go. I called the vet and had to wait a few days until she could come which was honestly excruciating. But we showered Nina in love and gave her jars and jars of apple sauce (she had very few teeth left so this was her special treat).

We freed Nina's spirit on a perfect sunny spring day with Dolly near. In the end she was only with us about 9 weeks.

At the time we were in the beginning stages of planning our move to Virginia. After Nina, I knew without a doubt I wanted our future farm to be a sanctuary for senior horses.

I wish we could've had more time with Nina but to this day I hope she felt safe and loved in her time with us.

And I'm forever grateful to her for the little fire she set in my own heart to build this legacy. I hope it honors her ✨️

25/04/2024

Hi, Phyllis here 👋

Sometime in middle school my mom declared a "one in, one out" policy with my animals. After years of rescuing everything from rabbits and frogs to dogs and cats there was no more room at the inn! Smart lady, because she knew I'd never give up one of my beloved babes so "one in, one out" was a quick way to stem the incoming tide 😅

Since about the age of six I've dreamed of having a proper animal rescue and sanctuary. I was never a girl who fantasized about a fairytale wedding but you bet I had my dream farm planned out including an old house with a porch, barns with hay storage, the whole nine yards.

Now here I am just shy of 40 and bringing this childhood dream to life. That's me here with Nina, who really set this whole thing in motion...more on her story soon. You wouldn't believe where she started and how she ended up 💕

24/04/2024

Merry Hill Farm is an equine rescue and sanctuary specializing in senior horses and unrideable horses 💛

Located on 16 gorgeous acres in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, we're small and family run...we know we can't save them all but we also know we make a difference for the animals in our care.

Thanks for being here 🫶

P.S. Because transparency is super important to us, we've registered as a 501(c)3 (EIN: 99-2195608)