DYBERRY TWP. —  A horse walks into a bar and the bartender says, “Why the long face?”   That’s a joke.  What’s not a joke, and isn’t funny, is the condition Laurie Brinkworth of Dyberry Township, owner and operator of Ponytales Rescue, found her five year-old stallion Apache when she rescued him from a farm in Pottsville, PA.

About six weeks ago, Laurie found a distress call on an internet message board for horse rescuers, for “three stallions in urgent need.”  Going down to investigate, Brinkworth found three stallions penned together, having all escaped from their stalls and been trapped in the same fenced-in pen—which is a horse-boarding no-no. 

The owners, at the time, had been planning a move to North Carolina and had left the horses alone for the weekend.  With three stallions in the same pen, the older two mauled Apache.

Brinkworth found Apache with a festering infected puncture wound that needed immediate surgery, most likely from being impaled on a metal fencepost.  The surgery cost $500 that the then-owners didn’t have to spend.  Brinkworth put up the money on the spot, and, 26 stitches later, Apache is alive and well.  “He definitely would have died,” Brinkworth told The Wayne Independent.

The owners had acquired horses trying to rescue them.  “It was just a rescue-gone-bad,” said Brinkworth.

The farm owners were ultimately charged with animal endangerment and Apache was transported to Brinkworth’s farm in Dyberry Township where she takes care of rescued horses, caring for them until a suitable home can be found.

Of the other two horses, one was transported to Willie Nelson’s Sanctuary in Luck, Texas, and the other to a friend of Brinkworth’s in Virginia. 

Anyone with an interested in adopting Apache, now a gelding, or other horses is encouraged to contact Ponytales, located on Route 670, at 253-6727, or check them out on the web at www.ponytalesrescue.com.