CHICAGO — Maggie Fischer leads her brown miniature horse Eve out of her pasture and begins her training with a walk through her backyard in Sycamore in DeKalb County. The horse, known for her voluminous mane that reminds her owners of Tina Turner, shoves as many fallen leaves in her mouth as she can fit. Moving at a slow walk at first, she eventually speeds up to a trot.

The “loving on her” portion of Eve’s training comes next. Fischer, 16, pets the horse, including on her sensitive areas such as belly and hooves. She also loosely wraps a rope around Eve, who twists around to escape, called an “unraveling trick.”

These seemingly simple tasks are important for Fischer to bond with Eve, and help the horse readily accept new people and new environments. Eve was one of 59 mini horses the Woodstock-based Hooved Animal Humane Society rescued in August from a farm in southern Illinois. In what the nonprofit called a “truly awful” and “gut-wrenching” hoarding situation, the horses didn’t have access to a clean water source or vet care. Most had never been touched by humans.

About two months later, most of the horses have been welcomed into new families who are patiently teaching them that humans aren’t a threat.

“I was so excited,” Fischer said of adopting Eve, who is around 3 feet tall. “I brought it up to my mom and was like, I will pay for it. I have a job, I will pay for it, I’ll do anything.”

12-hour rescue mission

A small animal rescue contacted HAHS to help out with the rescue mission, alongside law enforcement, due to the “sheer magnitude and expenses” required with so many horses, according to Cynthia Glensgard, the executive director. They basically had no idea what they were getting into before what ultimately became one of the group’s largest rescues, she said.

When the team arrived, Glensgard said they saw the horses and wild dogs running around the property, encompassing 30 acres of open pasture. Throughout the property were scattered horse skeletal remains, deep piles of manure and sharp aluminum siding sticking out in the stalls that the horses could cut themselves on, she said. (Glensgard noted that it’s difficult to tell the difference between a miniature horse and pony. Some are technically minis and some are small ponies, she said.)

The horses, which ranged from a few months to 12 years old, were well fed, Glensgard said. However, they drank out of depressions in the dirt filled with water and a water trough covered in mold. Their breeding was also unmanaged, which she said leads to fights and short life spans. They had also never been seen by a vet, so they didn’t have vaccinations, deworming or dental care.

The most “daunting” task of the nearly 12-hour rescue, Glensgard said, was figuring out how to round up all the horses into a trailer, most of which had never been handled by humans. She said volunteers got creative, using snow fencing and panels to build corrals. She said community members stepped up, and took in about 30 horses that day after concerns that they may not have enough trailer space to accommodate all the horses. A trainer flew in from South Dakota to work with the rest at the rescue.

“I’m happy that (the horses) are receiving the care that they need and to see the lives that they have ahead of them,” Glensgard said. “I’m also happy at the same time that the rescue is allowing the person that owns them to move forward in their life and receive some help that they need as well.”

Adapting to new homes

The Fischers adopted Eve as soon as the horse was available, about two months ago. Maggie’s mom, Tanya Fischer, said her daughter had been asking for a mini for a while, and it seemed like a perfect fit.

When the mom saw how difficult it was getting Eve into a trailer at first, she was worried that they had made a mistake. They spent the first week or so visiting her in the stall, and she adapted to humans and to the family’s other three horses surprisingly quickly, she said. Eve, who is about 1 year old, is now a fixture at Future Farmers of America petting zoos.

“She’s funny. She’s a little sassy, which is hilarious because she’s so small,” Tanya Fischer said. “When we first got her, and I was in there, kind of pushing her beyond her limits … she came at me and showed me her teeth, which made me just die out laughing.”

“Now I can go out there, and she greets me at the gate, and she’s happy to see us,” she added.

While many of the rescued horses, including Eve, have biblical names because of the nature of their rescue, Kendall Steinke’s 4-year-old son opted for the name Choco Taco. The 37-year-old Big Rock resident said her son, Everett, had wanted one for nearly a year and instantly connected with this horse during a visit, despite Steinke’s concerns about adopting a rescue.

“Him and my husband were talking about it, and my husband was like, ‘He looks like a little choco taco’ because he’s blackish brown with this tortilla colored vein,” she said.

Steinke said Choco Taco, who is 6 years old, is almost like Everett’s shadow. When he sees her son come out of the house, he trots over to the fence and walks with him around the backyard. He’s the family’s 11th horse, but their first mini. She compared his personality to that of a golden retriever.

“He’s just been so quiet and so sweet. He’s not done one single thing that I would consider mean or dangerous or unfriendly,” she said. “For a pony who’s never had handling up until he went to the rescue, he has really been a phenomenal addition.”

To help desensitize Taco to unexpected movements, in near-daily sessions they wave a flag and stick in front of him to represent items that may pop up, like a bag flying or a rabbit jumping. Eventually, she said they’ll put a saddle on him, and one day small kids might be able to ride him. She added that Taco trusts her son more than any adult.

“It’s only one new scary thing at a time versus throwing everything at him and flooding him,” Steinke, who is also a full-time nurse, said. “We’d rather take a month to introduce things really slow and let him have a good experience.”

Back at HAHS, there’s three “adorable black ponies” that are left — Luke, Peter and Mark. Glensgard said staff members are working with them daily — walking, picking up their feet, putting a halter on and more — so they’re easy to handle and someone will hopefully adopt them. Mark, the littlest and shyest one, reminds her of a Troll doll because of his mane that sticks out everywhere, she said.

Glensgard added that the training, vet care and rescue is quite expensive and that the group relies on donations to operate.

“(Donations) put us in a position to be able to say ‘yes’ to rescuing other animals out there in need, because there are a lot,” she said. “We receive calls daily to take animals in, and oftentimes multiple calls a day. We can’t say yes to all of them, because we don’t have the funds.”

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