rescuing a hungry stampede in murrieta

main streetcountry review
equestrian
PATTIE
ROBERTS -
RESCUING A
HUNGRY
STAMPEDE IN
MURRIETA
By Doria Voss
22
May 2010 Country Legends Magazine
T
he global economic crisis is resulting in more
than people losing their homes and going
hungry. The ripple effect has also contributed
to a virtual stampede of horses being abandoned.
The older horses are glad to have friendships. Gloria is one
of those special people who give back to the horses.
Te
treats an
ve the horses
ssa loves to gi
joy it too!
d the horses en
Horse rescue projects like Save the Animals Today
in Murrieta, operated by Pattie Roberts, is a typical
small, volunteer operation with limited land and
resources. Many horse owners, having nowhere to
turn, abandon their horses in deserts and plains,
where they often perish - lonely and hungry. Of
the ones who are rescued, most are emaciated and
seriously injured, and when taken in, many of the
mares are pregnant. They have been so traumatized
by their harsh suffering they cannot be handled by
humans for months, if ever.
Pattie Roberts had worked many years towards her
plan of establishing The Dudette Ranch, where she
could share her love for horses with other women.
The Dudette Ranch concept is similar to the vacation destination Dude Ranch for men. “Although
we aren’t wrangling cattle or sleeping under the
stars, this is a working horse ranch and the monthly
membership allows members daily access to hang
out at the barn and work with the horses as we care
for, train and ride them. The program includes riding lessons, buddy passes, field trips and even the
opportunity for those who want to lease a horse.
All the equipment and horses are provided and
we have programs for the beginner through the
advanced rider in both English and Western” says
Pattie.
ir with horses. Now she wo
e affa
Pattie has had a lifetime lov
rks every day to give back.
Country Legends Magazine
23
Test Drive the
Power Today
That day, she rode the stallion into
Devonshire Downs, which was located where Cal State Northridge now
stands, and asked for a job cleaning
stalls in return for boarding her horses. Because she rode in on a stallion,
they assumed she had more knowledge working with horses than she
did, so she got her first job raising
racehorses. It was then she discovered she had some natural equine
abilities. The old cowboys on the race
circuit gave her an eye-opening education, teaching her the behavioral
traits that make each horse unique.
FRITTS
Through time, she was extremely fortunate to acquire some high-dollar
horses whose owners did not want to
publicize the fact that they sold their
horses so cheaply. There’s a lot of ego
and money in the racing world, so
they simply gave their horses to Pattie, who agreed never to say a word.
The truth of the matter … she was
just thrilled to own those amazing
animals. Pattie trained them to be
pleasure-riding horses, which she
sold to make money to buy her first
home in Tarzana. The property had
an Olympic-sized swimming pool, a
pasture, and stalls.
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received Briar Horse
collectible’s for birthdays and Christmas,
but never owned her
own horse. That is,
until the age of sixteen.
When most kids
were thinking about
getting a car, Pattie bought a horse
instead, this time a
real one. The year
Horses line up at the ranch waiting to be washed down.
was 1970 and she
The road leading to Pattie’s rescue bought a stallion with the added
bonus of a free bridle and a mare the
ranch is filled with twists and turns.
owner no longer wanted. She rode
Pattie was born in Columbus, Geor- the stallion bareback, leading the
gia, a self-professed Army Brat with mare ten miles through what was
five other siblings who moved an then a rural San Fernando Valley to
average of every six months. She their new home. Looking back today,
attended school in many places, lived Pattie realizes she could have been
all over Europe and the United States, killed. The owner who sold a sixteenbut eventually settled in California. year-old kid that horse should have
As a child, she had a passion for all known better, but thankfully, the
animals but loved horses, and read stallion was old and well behaved.
nearly every horse book written. She
24
May 2010 Country Legends Magazine
Pattie quickly added a few more
horses to her corral , then gave riding
lessons to the neighboring kids. One
of those horses was Aladdin’s Goal,
a one-time national and international champion she acquired when he
was twelve years old. It was on these
horses that Pattie began competing in
horse shows.
Typical riders will start at student
shows and work their way up into
the Class A category, but Pattie, who
had little formal training and wasn’t
afraid to jump into a project, didn’t
know any better. Her first horse show
was a Class A. Upon arrival; she and
her students realized all of the other
show horses were slick and shiny, and
free of whiskers. She did not know
horses were body-shaved to make
them look beautiful and display their
muscles. So Pattie, being resourceful,
bought some Lady Clairol and baby
oil to make her horses look just as
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beautiful. Despite her horse’s slightly
fuzzy appearance and slippery sides,
one of her students placed in the top
ten that day.
For years, Pattie studied pedigrees
and eventually decided she wanted
to start a breeding program with
Aladdin’s Goal and sell the offspring
to people who wanted to show them.
Aladdin’s Goal produced three beautiful babies: My Goal, Le Goal, and
Aralanna, all of whom Pattie still
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has. Aladdin’s Goal passed away at
the age of 28, but his legacy continues.
Late one night four years ago, the
stars aligned. Pattie had an unlikely
breeding when “Magic,” one of her
stallions, escaped his pen. She didn’t
discover this until morning, when
she found him in the same pen with
two mares, Nikita and Ambitious.
The following spring, two unlikely
babies arrived: Mattie a little palo-
Elsinore
mino filly from old bloodlines, and
a little colt, Magic “Junior.” Unlikely,
because the stallion and the mares
were all older than 25 years old, an
age when most horses are beyond
breeding.
Pattie has always worked at least one
or two jobs to support her love of
horses. In the 70’s, she began working in the high-tech computer industry for Raytheon Data Systems. In the
early 90’s, she began selling modems
Country Legends Magazine
25
cluded loves,
Everyone in
Krickette lo
ve
ing their retirement. Pattie
is finding that it is almost as
beneficial, maybe more so,
for the people who come
out and help care for them.
She has an adult volunteer
day on Wednesdays, where
mainly a group of women
clean stalls, groom horses,
and feed treats of fresh carrots, watermelon, and the
!
, a horse ride
om
fr
occasional gingersnap.
ts
efi
n
and be
being w
rs and enjoys
he
ot
br
e
es
th
s
when few people even knew what
personal computers were. Back then,
computers were stored underground
in cement bunkers where you needed security clearance just to gain
entrance. As the market changed, Pattie got into web design and Internet
technology, and eventually accepted
a job at the local K-FROG radio station selling advertising. After a few
years, she opened her own advertising agency working with nonprofits.
Eventually, she decided it was time
to semi-retire and spend time taking
care of her horses.
Pattie would like to breed Mattie to My Goal, which will produce
new bloodlines so Aladdin’s Goal
will continue to live on. She hopes
to breed two other mares and keep
their babies so that she or other riders
can compete in horse shows, and to
replace the horses sold to support her
ongoing horse rescue efforts.
What visitors find when they visit
the ranch are happy horses enjoy26
May 2010 Country Legends Magazine
ith them.
Feeding treats is
also known at the
ranch as “Carrot
Therapy,” as it
helps socialize
the horses to
humans, and
vice-versa.
She also has a couple
of talented riding instructors who
donate their fee back to the rescue
horses.
About two years ago, a local woman came to Pattie and said she was
going to attempt to rescue five starving horses from New Mexico. Pattie
agreed to provide a home for them
and in exchange, the woman would
pay for the feed and take care of
them. Pattie agreed to put together
a marketing plan to sell them when
they became healthy enough, and the
woman agreed to pay the costs.
Sadly, not five but twenty-three shivering starved, and scared horses
arrived, many of them were babies
just a few weeks old. On a body scale
of one to nine, one being near death
and nine being fat and happy, every
horse showed up as a one or a two.
Pattie did not know if any of them
would survive. In fact, they were so
starved that Pattie could not bring
herself to take pictures of them; it
was just too heartbreaking.
For ten months, feed was delivered
“It was not in my
business plan to
become a Rescue Ranch
. . . after calling 35
organizations from
Arizona to Washington
and finding them all full
. . . I had no choice!”
weekly, although the woman came
by only rarely for visits. Pattie cared
for the horses, handled, and trained
those she could, despite losing one
mare and a two-week old baby. When
Pattie told the woman she would
likely get between $1,500 and $2,500
per horse less the cost for advertising,
the woman, assuming she would get
a much larger amount for each horse,
abandoned them to the State of California.
The feed stopped coming and Pattie
received a call from Animal Friends
of the Valley. Unfortunately, the State
of California does not have an adoption program for horses like they do
for cats and dogs, so the horses would
have to be euthanized. Pattie, having
only a few hours left to save them,
accepted the horses, many with pedigree papers to fantastic bloodlines.
She was able to sell eight of the horses she had been training to people
who had been coming to her ranch
for lessons. The sale of those horses
helped feed the rest of the horses for
almost a full year, but that was just
not enough. Pattie set up an adoption
program designed around 200 people who would donate just $25 per
month. With that, she would be able
to sustain the horses and give each of
them a quality end-of-life retirement,
and be able to afford to put them
down when the time came.
The economy has made it extraordinarily difficult for Pattie to get even
small sponsorships, so marketing the
horses for sale has also been a challenge. Some of the rescue horses are
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This mural was recently painted in a
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suitable for limited riding, so she
also has put together sponsorship
packages, which include a lesson per
week, and the family can come out
and care for their horse - daily if they
like.
Pattie says, “It’s almost
like a family owns
their own horse.”
These horses cannot go on six-hour
trail rides, but they are wonderful,
loving, and safe. Some of the horses
are still phenomenal riding horses
but have an injury or problem that
prevents Pattie from selling them.
Nevertheless, they are great lesson
horses that work hard and will live
out their retirement at the ranch.
Pattie also has lower sponsorships
fees for horses that cannot be ridden but are safe for elderly and
retired people who want a place to
enjoy the outdoors and have a horse
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of their own. Her oldest horse, Dar,
was just sponsored by a retired
woman named Liz. When you first
meet Dar, she presents her side to
you and rocks back and forth while
you scratch her belly. Liz and Dar are
now BFF’s, and although Dar is a bit
long-in-the-tooth, she makes the perfect companion.
Pattie still has six of the original rescues and six of her own, but as soon
as the first story broke, she has been
inundated with numerous calls to
take more. There is only so much
room. In her menagerie, she has also
rescued a pig, cow, several goats, and
feral cats that help keep the mice
away. They sleep mainly in the bird
aviary, where she breeds and sells
baby Cockatiels she hand-feeds. She
also has three Cockatoo’s who have
outlived their owners. Unfortunately, family members seldom want the
birds as they are noisy and can bite.
In addition, a brand new litter of
Standard Poodles was born on Eas-
ter, which will be sold once they are
weaned.
On Saturdays, Pattie holds a program on her property, called “Rescue Horses Will Work For Feed,” and
typically brings in about $75 to $100
per week. She brings a few of her
most calm horses out of their stalls
and for a small donation, kids, led
by volunteers, can ride the horses
around a pen set up for this program.
Although it is not an enormous moneymaker, it does help raise awareness
for her riding lessons. Riders young
and old come out to the ranch and
take lessons. These fees help pay for
the food, veterinary care, and repairs
to the facility. People in Murrieta and
the surrounding cities have opened
their arms and shown what community truly is all about. Hopefully,
from these lessons, a few superstars
will emerge who want to compete at
horse shows and split the cost so Pattie can begin showing again.
Story continued on page 38.
Country Legends Magazine
27
Carol Roquemore continued . . . from page 13.
Pattie Roberts continued from page 27.
Their new program named PAWZ, provides service
dogs to the wounded veterans program.
requires funds to see the dog all the way through the
program.”
Carol is constantly planning something new and is currently working on training programs that would provide
service dogs to people suffering from Autism or seizures.
She works every week, lives near the facility, and continues to explore ways to combine her love and respect for
dogs, into the lives of people who may need a companion.
“Those of us with physical challenges don’t want to be
completely dependent on others. We want to do for ourselves as much as possible. It’s extremely important for
us to have some independence and be accepted no matter
what we look like. No matter how twisted our body, or
our ability to speak and communicate dogs will love us
anyway.”
Well, if you grew up in Downey California, and remember the little girl on the bright blue skateboard in the local
grocery store, we want you to know she has done well.
She is living a full life and has touched and improved
the lives of hundreds of other people. If you think Carol
Roquemore is special, you are right. She is very special.
38
•
May 2010 Country Legends Magazine
Pattie and Mr. Wiggles go to feed the horses.
The ranch has an open barn policy, unlike most rescue ranches. It’s a fantastic venue for riding lessons
for kids, or even mature adults who had lessons when
they were younger and want to relive that sense of
freedom being up high on a horse brings. Her goal is
to give each horse love and attention and provide a
quality end-of-life experience.
For Pattie, the experience has been life changing. Her
breeding and showing programs are on hold, but she
still has her horses. Pattie says,
“For somebody to say ‘I can’t
afford to feed my horse’ . .
. it’s sad and humbling.”
•
“No matter how big and powerful government gets,
and the many services it provides, it can never take
the place of volunteers.”
~Ronald Reagan