A volunteer washes a horse’s legs. The horse’s back leg is swollen from a previous injury.[/caption]

Becky gallops fluently across an open pasture, her wavy, chestnut mane flowing as she runs. Now in her 20s, this matriarch is lean and muscular. Becky’s current physique is a far cry from how Sue Chapman found her nearly 20 years ago on the side of a road in Marlin, Texas.

“[Becky] was completely emaciated and covered in open sores that had maggots in her back,” Chapman said. “There was no grass and no water. The man that owned her referred to her as a lawnmower, and that was her official name.”

With no local authority that would take Becky, Chapman convinced the owner to let her remove the horse from the property. Becky underwent several surgeries and a rigorous rehabilitation regimen for months until she eventually made a full recovery.

While working to save Becky, law enforcement told Chapman she should start her own rescue service. Chapman said she never intended to start a horse rescue service. But as the organization dubbed Becky’s Hope got off the ground, she started receiving calls of more horses that needed saving.

“It just seems the more the word got out, the more there was a need for it,” she said.

Becky’s Hope began in Marlin in 1997 and moved to Frisco in 2014. The organization focuses on horse rescue and rehabilitation, but it has also taken in donkeys, pigs and dogs.

Becky still lives at the rescue as a sanctuary horse, meaning she will spend the remainder of her life there. Other horses can be adopted when they are fully rehabilitated.

Lari McConegly, the head trainer for Becky’s Hope, said most of the animals are rescued from owners who just do not know how to take care of them.

Spirit (right) was impaled by a T-post. Her former owner could not afford her veterinary costs.[/caption]

“Sometimes it’s actual cruelty,” she said. “But a lot of times, I don’t know if it’s ignorance; I don’t know if they just don’t care, or if they just don’t want to spend the money that it would cost.”

Despite horses’ seemingly powerful stature, they are actually delicate creatures, McConegly said.

“Horses, if they’re in pain, don’t cry out,” she said. “You don’t hear anything. So you have to watch their body language to see if something is wrong. They can be tricky animals.”

Caring for horses comes at a price. The average cost of horse care is about $300 per month, not including the medical costs for horses undergoing rehabilitation, McConegly said.

Becky’s Hope is completely run by volunteers, and no one takes a salary or wage, including Chapman, who said she lives off of the money from a business she sold.

“Every single penny we collect goes to the animals,” she said.

Chapman said she is constantly looking for volunteers. Volunteers can help with upkeep of the sanctuary or with a new program the organization is starting with Hounds and Heroes, a nonprofit organization that supports currently enlisted military service members or veterans and raises awareness about animal cruelty.

“Our mission, of course, is to rescue, rehabilitate and re-home, but even more than that, we believe it’s our duty to be the voice for the voiceless,” Chapman said.