Sixteen Hands Horse Sanctuary offers Manatee County equine paradise

Robin Cain reached down and scratched the underbelly of the tall, stately grey gelding. The horse broke his gentlemanly pose for a moment, his lower lip drooping when she hit the right spot.

Patriota is now healthy and well mannered while living at the Sixteen Hands equine rescue in eastern Manatee County, but his former owner was going to have him euthanized because he had Wobbler’s Syndrome, which made his back legs dysfunctional and caused him to fall down frequently.

The Ibero-American horse was the beginning of Cain’s life calling, to rescue horses.

Cain currently is battling to save more horses at her Sixteen Hands rescue, named for how horses’ height is measured and because the organization started with eight people, but she needs the funds to drive that effort. She hopes to earn a grant from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which is offering $100,000 in grant money to organizations that earn points for criteria such as community involvement. From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on April 24, Sixteen Hands will host “Hayday,” a family event to celebrate Help a Horse Day.

It is just one of the many community involvement projects Cain has done over the years.

Patriota was her first rescue horse in 2003, when she started volunteering with an animal sanctuary in Myakka City.

“By 2007, I was collecting horses,” she said with a laugh. She began the Sixteen Hands Horse Sanctuary that year.

Within the first two months, she already had 15 horses, and her herd quickly grew to 30, she said.

“There were horses all over the place, and we couldn’t take them,” she said.

Her sanctuary opened just in time for the recession, during which people were giving up or abandoning their horses because they could not afford to keep them.

Now, on 24 acres on the eastern border of Manatee County, these horses can find a home.

“We get to give them a lifetime of being a horse,” she said. “We try to make it as natural as we can.”

Cain takes in horses that have been given a death sentence, whether they had been scheduled to be euthanized or have been the victims of neglect. Cain gives those horses a lifetime sanctuary.

To cope with the growing number, Cain does have the help of some “forever fosters,” who take in a horse. However if they are unable to continue fostering, the horse goes back to Sixteen Hands. She has a core of eight volunteers who help her, and she drives to the sanctuary every day from her home on Longboat Key.

Krystal Showalter is one such volunteer-turned-foster, who in turn became a horse enthusiast.

She began volunteering at the sanctuary about five years ago. Her youngest child had left home, and her husband told her she needed to find a hobby.

Showalter began volunteering at the sanctuary, a choice that ended up changing her and her husband’s life.

The couple had spent the six years prior traveling the country in an RV. With no obligations and no permanent lifestyle, they were free to pick up and go when they wanted. But that all changed when Showalter fell in love with a mustang at the sanctuary and wanted to foster him.

Fast forward to 2016, and the couple settled down two miles away from the sanctuary and now foster five horses.

“It’s a wonderful thing,” she said. “Every horse is treated with dignity and respect.”

Showalter took a breath and looked across the pasture at the “brown herd,” a group of five horses, all shades of brown, that watched her, hoping for a cookie or hay. Other than the sound of a chainsaw — the barn was getting an addition — the morning was filled only with the sounds of birds and horses.

“It’s peaceful here. The horses know they’re safe and loved,” Showalter said. “We let them teach us.”