STALLED—Ranch owner Carol Holmes tends to a horse that was abandoned on her property because of the owner’s inability to pay. WENDY PIERRO/Acorn Newspapers Due to the downturn in the economy and an inability to pay for care and boarding, people are abandoning their horses in the hopes that others will care for them.

Equine rescue centers and other nonprofit groups dedicated to finding homes for unwanted or neglected horses have been inundated with unwanted and severely neglected or abused horses.

In just one year’s time, Carol Holmes, a 75-year-old woman who owns and operates White Cloud Ranch in Malibu, has had 27 horses abandoned on her property, left there by people who used to pay her a monthly boarding fee to house and feed them.

Holmes says she has never experienced such a grave situation in the 40 years she has operated her ranch.

Trying to keep the unwanted horses alive is an expense she cannot afford.

“I’ve filed lawsuits, and (the horse owners) don’t appear in court,” Holmes said. She hasn’t been able to sell the horses and can’t find shelters to take them.

“This isn’t right,” Holmes said.

While the majority of the horses abandoned were left at White Cloud Ranch by former paying customers, one horse was actually dropped off at her property. Holmes says that people mistakenly believe that because she lives in Malibu she has the means to take care of an unlimited number of horses.

Not true. Just to feed the horses costs $2,500 every three weeks, she said.

Then there’s the problem of giving horses away. Holmes fears that people who are willing to take unwanted animals for free will simply ship them for slaughter in Mexico.

The last horse slaughterhouse in the United States was shut down in Illinois in 2007, but horses are now routinely sent to Mexico and other countries, where they’re slaughtered for food. According to some reports, horse meat is consumed by people in several European countries and Japan, and people are paid up to $700 per horse.

At Spirit Dancer Ranch in Moorpark, Carilyn Simmons faces the same problems as Holmes.

“I think this is happening to everybody,” Simmons said. People who once boarded their horses have just walked away, she said. At one time, she had 10 abandoned horses. Today three horses remain.

“I feel badly for the people who have lost their jobs,” Simmons said. “People who have boarded their horses and walked off don’t know what they’ve done. People are desperate.”

Simmons said some horses are being set loose in the desert. “Wild mustangs might have a chance, (but not) domestic horses,” she said.

The loss of jobs and weak economy are to blame for people abandoning their horses, Simmons said. People are being forced to choose between feeding their family or their horse.

Sherry Garberich-Brockus, executive director of the Humane Society of Ventura County, has seen it all. The agency was called last year to respond to a case in Lockwood, Calif., where 37 severely abused horses were found. Eight of the horses were pregnant and had foals under the Humane Society’s watch.

“I know in my quest to find homes for horses I contacted at least 100 different agencies in California and other states,” Garberich-Brockus said. Trying to find good adoptive homes has been a real challenge.”

“These horses that we brought in were wild, abused, in horrible condition, just a bag of bones standing there,” GarberichBrockus said. “It’s frankly amazing that we found them homes.”

The crisis isn’t over. GarberichBrockus said the Hogan Foundation in Thousand Oaks, which in the past always took in unwanted horses “for life,” is full.

Veterinarians, she said, are getting a record number of calls from people asking them to euthanize their horses.

Garberich-Brockus agrees with Holmes that giving horses away for free is a bad idea since so many of the animals are shipped out of the U.S. for slaughter.

“It’s inhumane,” she said.

At the Forever Free Horse Rescue in Bermuda Dunes by Palm Springs, Yvonne Wall has been able to place some horses with a local riding academy. Some people simply turn their horses loose and hope that somebody just takes them, she said.

Such was the case in Riverside and in the Antelope Valley.

“I know there are people out there with money who can help,” Wall said. “It’s a shame, just a shame.”

Cindy Murphree runs the California Coastal Horse Rescue in Oak View and traces the beginning of the horse crisis to 2008, when the economy tanked. She’s currently caring for 24 horses and doesn’t have room for even one more horse.

The only advice she has for people like Holmes is to try to rehabilitate and train the horses so they’re more likely to be adopted into “good homes.”

Murphree says there’s an end in sight.

“The amount of horses in need is leveling out from the last year,” she said. “There are still people out there looking to find a horse.”