Around 7:30 PM on Sunday evening, Patti Mandrell and her husband Randy who own the Refuge Services Barn on MLK, said they received an unexpected call from one of their boarders. While feeding her horse at the barn, their boarder said she began to look around and noticed that five horses were missing. The Mandrell’s said they reported to the barn and began making calls.
“We really reached out to our support system, our friends, our staff, our volunteers and just began to have everybody pray,” said Mandrell. “Asking them to pray we find them and that they safely return.”
As the evening went on, and word started to spread, the couple said their prayers were answered with a little help from social media.. One woman posted a photo of teenage boys riding horses across 50th street near whataburger, and used the hashtag: #5horsesoutonastrol.
“We got a facebook post back from a friend who had shared to all of her friends to begin praying with us,” said Mandrell. “They had seen the horses, some people riding horses down 50th street all the way to slide road.”
They discovered it was five teenage boys, and said one was familiar with the barn and knew the combination. The horses are therapy horses and aren’t used to wear saddles, or riding for long periods of time. The family said the horses weren’t wearing shoes and are now recovering from blisters and broken hoofs.”
“They are unable to do therapy and need some rest, they didn’t have their shoes on so to be walking on asphalt for that long,” said Mandrell. “They were ridden very hard.”
Following the event that happened, the barn has already had two people pull their horses in fear of what happened. Refuge Services is a non-profit organization that works to help people in the community with all kinds of therapy. If you would like to help them during this stressful time, you can donate at www.refugeservices.com
