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.