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Jakar is today a valued member of the mounted police division in Cleveland, Ohio. His fate could easily have been a trip to slaughter. Hali Berger, of Huron, Ohio, recalls the day she went to an auction in the hopes of finding a project horse. It was the day she saved the big Tennessee Walking Horse’s life.

The day began with plans to attend the Mt Hope Horse Sale in anticipation of getting a barrel-horse project, but I came home with something completely different.

My friends and I hooked up the trailer and started the two-hour drive across Ohio to the Mt Hope Auction House around 7am on July 14, 2012.

I had been doing a lot of reading and researching about horse slaughter and kill buyers. I had wondered if the horror accounts were actually true … the stories of the big commercial trailers hauling away the horses, and the pulling off of their shoes before loading.

As we pulled into the auction house parking lot, I was pleasantly surprised.

The grounds were fairly clean and the horses weren’t lying on the ground looking half dead like a lot of the stories and pictures I had read and seen online, except that none had food or water.

We walked around and checked out all the horses, checking feet, teeth, eyes and so on.

We registered and sat in the seats and waited for the Amish buggy horses to go through the sale.

Finally, at 4.30 in the afternoon, the buggy horses were finished and the riding horses were starting to come through.

I had my sale numbers written down so I could listen for the details on the horses I liked. When I saw one I liked my boyfriend was ready to bid for me.

I noticed there were a few gentlemen in the sale ring who were wearing dress pants and button-up dress shirts. I figured they were just helping get the horses through the sale, so I just continued to watch for the horses I picked out.

The horses I had picked out were around 15-20 years old and I had really wanted something younger.

I remembered watching a big chestnut gelding go through the sale, although he wasn’t one that I was looking at or even interested in at the time.

I grew up with Tennessee Walking Horses so I knew he had the features of one. Maybe that’s why he caught my eye.

The sale ended and I hadn’t bought a horse. My friends and I headed out to the truck to get ready to leave. Walking out, I decided I wasn’t going home without a horse.

I was pretty sure that a couple in front of me had bought that big chestnut gelding that I couldn’t stop thinking about. I went up to them and asked if they would be willing to sell.

They told me they hadn’t bought the horse, but they knew the guy who did. They gave me his name. He was the man who had been standing inside the sale ring in dress clothes.

I nervously walked down to the sale ring and asked him if he bought the big chestnut horse.

He replied, “that big blonde thing?” I said ‘yes’ and continued to ask if he would sell him.

He told me I could pay $US100 over what he bought the horse for, but I didn’t have that much money.

I told him thank-you anyway. He asked if I was able to do $50 over sale price. That I was able to do!

I was excited. I thought to myself, what a nice guy; I shouldn’t have been nervous to talk to him.

I ran out to the truck to get my wallet and then met him in the sale office to complete the paperwork.

Once everything was signed, he shook my hand and told me his assistant would get the horse for me.

I walked down the stairs and into the hall where the sold horses were and it hit me.

I walked to the pen where my new horse was located and gave the assistant his number.

I couldn’t believe my eyes. There were two boxes that I now understood was the “kill pen”. A bucket was sitting nearby. It held all the horses’ halters. Another had all the horses’ shoes.

There was even a man pulling horse shoes off right in front of where we were trying to get my horse out. He was in the back of the pen with more than 20 horses crammed in a tiny area. They were all owned by the buyer who had just sold me the horse.

The assistant pulled a small halter out of the box and squeezed it on my horse. I was just sick. The horses that I had checked out during the sale were also bought by him and were in the kill pen. I wanted to take them all home.

I took my horse and started to walk out of the back barn. As I came along the back of the auction house I saw a commercial hauler backing into the loading dock right by the pen my horse had just exited.

We walked to the trailer and he loaded right up. I’m glad we brought my friend’s trailer and not mine because he would not have fitted.

He was an 18-hand Tennessee Walker who wanted out of that place. My friends and I stopped about 5 miles down the road at a small restaurant to get something to eat before heading home.

I opened the escape door to check on him and he the full bag of hay I had given him was gone.

When we got back to my barn we put him in the stall and he drank three buckets of water. He had hay in front of him 24/7 when he was home.

I posted pictures of him on my Facebook page and a woman from another barn where I rode fell in love with him. I decided to sell him to her. She kept him over the winter and got him looking good.

In May she donated him to the Cleveland Mounted Police Unit, where he continues to serve after passing his three-month probationary period.

She named him Jakar, which means “compelling love”.

He is now among the eight horses serving the City of Cleveland.

Jakar can be seen at many events in downtown Cleveland. He is the only rescue horse on the unit.

I know most of the endings for horses at auction aren’t happy and I would love to help make this happen for other horses as well.

There is a non-profit in the making called “Hero’s with Hooves” to help fund mounted units and rescue horses around the country. I highly recommend getting rescue horses if you have the knowledge to help one. Do your research, check them out and save a life!