Horse rescue gets permanent home in Lesage

LESAGE, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- West Virginia's non-profit horse rescue has a new 46-acre home. The property in Lesage will be a home for neglected and abused horses from our region.

Heart of Phoenix Equine Rescue has been operating as a foster care system since 2012, relying on "horse lovers" and board members stalls and pastures until the horses were adopted.

"We had kind of reached that crossroads, holding so many horses, so we wanted to solidify that we're here for the long term," Founder Tinia Creamer said. "We needed a property."

Volunteers of all ages, old and new, worked Saturday to clean and repair the new facility-- Mulligan Farms.

Susan Sunday has been volunteering with Heart of Phoenix for years, helping rehabilitate the abused horses.

"They've been pitifully, horribly starved," Sunday said. "But you just watch them begin to come back to life. You begin to watch their emotions blossom and their body fill out."

Heart of Phoenix relies entirely on volunteers. Creamer hopes the permanent location's proximity to Huntington will provide easy access for volunteers and future programs.

"We have a high veteran population, a lot of foster children and our hope is that we can, with community support and funding, create some programs that are really valuable to the people in the community as well as helping the horses," Creamer said.