Equine Rescue Kicks Off New Farmer's Market To Help Save Horses

RIVERHEAD, NY — A new farmers market is slated to kick off in Riverhead at the Spirit's Promise Equine Rescue.

The farmers market will set up from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the first Saturday of each month, beginning Saturday, April 3 at the rescue, located at 2746 Sound Avenue in Riverhead.

Not only will guests be able to support local businesses and shop vendors, but they will be able to take tours of the farm, meet the animals, and learn more about the mission of Spirit’s Promise Equine Rescue, a release said.

The farmers market costs $5 per person for entry and the tour for members of Spirit’s Promise Rescue. The fee for non-members is $5 for entry or $15 per person for entry and tour; children two and under are free. To register, click here.

Healing is the focus of the horse rescue: Marisa Striano founded Spirit's Promise Horse Rescue 10 years ago when she moved to the area from Port Washington, where they had two horses and were spending lots of money on a stable.

"We thought, 'Let's move to a farm,'" Striano said.

Striano said equine therapy is practiced at Spirit's Promise. "We have a lot of people that just stop by in tears because they are drawn to horses."

Striano said she worked with the Assisted Growth and Learning Association to become an equine specialist.

"Horses are such great healers and teachers," she said. Her mission, she added, is to help people to understand the value of the horse, and the impact horses can have on human lives.

"We had a woman here whose son committed suicide at 24," she said. "My horse, Pirate, who is very, very quiet and afraid — and who watched his whole family go onto a truck headed to the slaughterhouse — came up to her and put his nose on her shoulder. We were all crying. This horse doesn't make those connections."

She added, "That is what we are giving back to the community. Peace."

The horror of horse slaughter motivated Striano to take a stand. "If people from the pioneer times came back now and saw what we are doing to the horses that helped to create America, they'd be sick," she said.

Her journey began when she sent her horse Spirit, who was sick, to her good friend, Christine Distefano, founder of the Amaryllis Farm Equine Rescue and Sanctuary in Bridgehampton, she said.

While being rehabbed, the horse made friends with another horse at the rescue organization, Promise. "That's where our name came from, Spirit's Promise," she said.

At first, Striano began by rescuing horses and utilized their own funds. Next, she became a 501(c) non-profit organization.

Part of her mission, Striano, said, has been to work with the Stony Brook Cancer Center to bring equine therapy to patients. "Horses that have been rescued are very compassionate," she said. "They're very empathetic creatures."

For breast cancer patients, grooming horses can be healing; the brushing, she said, serves as therapy — and the horses nurture battered souls. "It's very therapeutic. The motion of stoking the horses as part of physical therapy ‚ it's a dual thing."

Striano not only rescues horses, the family's farm is home to roosters, chickens, goats, donkeys and a dog. "I'm the kind of person that saves bugs," she said. "Animals are the true innocents of the world — they depend on us. I became the voice of the voiceless."

Horses, she said, "need so much help." The issue of horse slaughter is one about which many remain unaware, Striano said. Two horses, Tracy and Star Luna, went to the slaughter lot together, she said. "They wouldn't leave each other's side," she said. "They screamed for each other. They had to be rescued together."

For Striano the horse rescue has opened the door to a new life. Having loved horses since childhood, she said, "I was 42 and I thought, 'What am I going to do with my life?' I wanted to make a difference."

And now, in horse rescue, Striano has found her passion. "It's a wonderful, wonderful life."