Crunching carrots, being pet by visitors and never working another day. This is the life of a resident at Mill Creek Farm’s Retirement Home for Horses in Alachua.
Co-founder Mary Gregory turned 91 in December, but she still goes out on her golf cart four times a day to tend to the horses. She said her secret to staying active at her age is because she loves the outdoors, and because she’s a vegetarian.
Mary and her husband Peter met at the University of London and bonded over their love of animals. They founded the Retirement Home for Horses 40 years ago in 1984, after they retired from the hotel business. When they bought the land in Alachua, there was a lot of work to be done, including razing the land and planting grass and trees.
Mary went out and planted 125 live oak saplings herself.
“And I said, ‘When I'm dead, they'll be as tall as I am.’ I'm not dead yet, and look at the size of them,” she said while looking across the fields. The live oaks now stand tall and provide shade for the farm’s 143 horses and 335 acres.
Nora Denslow is a board member at the Retirement Home for Horses. She said the farm is unique because it provides a permanent retirement for senior horses.
“Horses are never ridden or worked again. It's all about the horses here,” she said.
The farm takes in all kinds of horses, from retired military and police horses to rescues from abuse. Most of the horses at Mill Creek are over 20 years old, and many have medical conditions like glaucoma or injuries that require veterinary care. Some horses are on special wet diets due to dental issues and can't eat carrots. But Mary said that doesn't stop them from enjoying life on the farm.
“Believe it or not, they'll be way at the end of the property, and sometimes I see them galloping around as if they're about 10 years old,” Mary laughs. “But they are so sweet, and they get the best of care.”
The farm is completely sustained by public donations that go toward the horses’ care and medical costs.
In addition to the 46 pastures that house the horses, much of the land on the farm is protected under the Alachua County Conservation Trust as a habitat for native wildlife thanks to Mary’s husband, Peter, who was a founding member of the trust.
When Peter died in 2014, their youngest son Paul came up for two weeks to help with the funeral and transition the farm.
“I kept extending my stay and then the next thing I know, I was sending a pod down to Fort Lauderdale, my friends were packing up my house, and March 18th would be the end of my 10th year here,” Paul said. He’s now the Executive Director of the Retirement Home for Horses.
Paul said that since the COVID-19 pandemic, Mill Creek has seen an almost 20 percent increase in requests and rescues. Despite the increase in horses needing homes, Paul says the farm can only comfortably accommodate up to 150 horses before their resources are strained.
Paul and Mary both know that the retirement home is often the last place a horse will live for the remainder of its life.
“We want to just ensure and let these horses know we love them, we care about them. They're never going to have to worry about anything again. No one's going to be slapping them or hitting them or yelling at them ever again,” Paul said.
Paul estimates that 350 horses have passed away there over the last 40 years. And every horse buried on the property gets a live oak tree planted in its honor.
“Because they are the toughest and they're most beautiful and give, you see them in the fields, give such shade. You wouldn't believe the shade until you look on the ground and see it. Oh my god. It's wonderful,” Mary said.
Despite many of the horses coming to the farm in poor condition, Mary and Paul make sure to give them the most comfortable retirement possible. And that means even now, 40 years after the farm’s founding, 91-year-old Mary still goes out on her golf cart four times a day and feeds the horses carrots.
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