DORSET, Vt. (WRGB) — A beautiful stallion with a long tangled mane gazes out a stall window. He gently nuzzles his caretaker’s hand as she approaches to pet him. His name is ‘Courage,’ and rightfully so – he’s one of eleven horses recently saved from a Rensselaer County farm in an animal neglect case rescuers describe as one of the worst they’ve ever seen.
With his beauty and friendly demeanor, you’d never know that Courage has spent the last several years trapped in a box stall with minimal food, water and vet care. When rescuers found him, he and another stallion were standing atop five feet of compacted manure and hay from his stall never being cleaned.
“It was unfathomable.” Says Dorset Equine Rescue Barn Manager, Tiffany Vittum. “Over the years their own waste had just risen the floors so their heads were up by the ceilings. They were up in the rafters.”…