Tomcat the barn kitty and Jake the donkey greet visitors to New England Equine Rescue North in West Newbury.
The loud kitty and quiet donkey are emissaries, inquisitive overseers with irresistible charm.
They enjoy permanent residence status on the Ash Street farm, but roam its 13 acres on behalf of the other animals living in limbo.
That would be 23 rescued horses, mules and donkeys, many of which arrive here scared and disoriented.
NEER North is a Second Chance Corral; part Misfit Island and part Love Shack.
A little old place for founder Mary Martin, her part-time staff of three dedicated women and 60 volunteers to get the animals in all together good shape.
That means becoming good equine citizens ready for adoption and new homes.
It’s a deliberate process. The NEER team carries it out with assiduous care, selecting animals they can gradually reintegrate and in which they can build, restore or establish trust.
Trust is the life force at the death defying Merrimack Valley spread set in rural West Newbury among fellow farms and inquisitive wildlife.
A NEER equine poster child was a beautiful Haflinger horse named Marvel who in 2018 had been labeled dangerous and slated for euthanasia.
Under diligent care, over two years, Marvel underwent a profound transformation.
Marvel went from a horse that needed help from humans to a horse that gives help to humans on a therapy farm in Norton.
NEER adoption coordinator Andrea Moore-Dickison, of Plaistow, says the team designs and executes programs that allow the animals time to acclimate to their surroundings, bond with other animals and interact with the staff.
Finally, NEER vets prospective owners, finding new homes that meet the rescued animals’ needs, Martin says.
Hilary Lind of Byfield grooms and posts photographs of the animals on NEER’s website when they are ready for adoption.
Like people, the horses, donkeys and mules vary greatly in their personalities. Also like people, an individual animal might occasionally act differently on any given day.
Maybe a horse has a headache or slept poorly, says NEER horse trainer Laura Ciarletta, of Londonderry, New Hampshire.
In the driveway on a crisp late-March morning, Martin sees off the farm’s longtime repair person, Ed Curtis, 87, of Sanbornville, New Hampshire, after he completed a job.
He works on everything, repairing fences, seeding fields and reroofing buildings.
“You name it,” says Curtis, who speaks in as pure a New Hampshire accent as you’ll likely to hear.
We ask him what makes NEER North tick?
“Dedication, longevity“ he says, not one to use three words when two will do.
Curtis has been working with Martin from the outset when she had only three animals.
Martin grew up with horses in Topsfield, and had her own pony at 8 years old.
She reaches down to pet Tomcat, a light gold kitty. He’s an exceptionally talkative cat of 17 years with a pinkish-gray nose and an arthritic waggle.
The farm is filled with stories, Martin says, not the least of which is Tomcat’s.
Martin started rescuing horses in 2008. For years she rented a larger space on River Road.
At one point, it was lousy with vermin and Martin went in search of a barn cat to remedy the situation.
The animal shelter she visited wouldn’t let her adopt just one cat, she had to take two felines; and that wasn’t what she wanted.
Thereafter, she was at her veterinarian’s place and telling of her plight when the vet lifted an eyebrow and offered up a cat in a crate — if she was willing to take a chance.
The cat had a tumor that needed to be removed and he had nipped a few kids. His owner had dropped him off to be put down. His name was Tomcat.
Martin hazarded a chance; Tomcat repaid her nicely.
He cleaned up the mice and other small invaders in short order and took to farm living like he was born into it.
Reasons to rescue
Fast forward to a powerful liking that a local woman, Kathy Bradford, took to Tomcat.
Bradford, who has since passed away, donated $400,000 for Martin to buy the Ash Street farm and have a place for her and Tomcat to rescue horses and other equines.
It has a house where Martin lives, a sweet barn and space that makes the place a glorious grounds to rehabilitate the flow of equines
NEER North runs on donations and grants and proceeds from its tack store stocked with gently used and donated gear, from bridles to saddle pads. It’s run by volunteer Caroline Matterson of Haverhill.
Some 75 yards away at the rear of the farm a pair of hawks cut little arcs, riding air currents like stringed kites.
Closer at hand, forming a great horseshoe around the barn, stand horse fences with gates, breaking the acreage into paddocks, pens, and an arena.
Here, newly arrived horses, donkeys and mules get oriented, get their hooves underneath them.
You hear a whinny here and a nicker there against a regular backdrop of unsettling gunfire somewhere far in the distance.
NEER gets more than 100 requests a year from people or organizations that want to surrender an equine, Martin says.
She has room for 24 or so animals on her property. Acceptance is based on the extent to which an equine is at risk at its original home, its health and history as well as the capacity at NEER.
Some horses and donkeys are seized from situations of dire neglect, but many times the owners reluctantly surrender their beloved animals.
About half the requests NEER received between January 2025 and February 2026 were from owners who either couldn’t afford to keep the animal or could no longer physically care for it, Martin said.
Meanwhile, she gives us a tour of the farm. Jake stands at the periphery at each turn, tagging along, curious to see where this tour will lead.
Martin explains that several NEER animals were surrendered by elderly women who could no longer care for their animals, including Summer, a beautiful palomino pony, with a golden coat and silver mane and tail.
“People think it is abuse and neglect, and it’s really not,” she says. “We really do not see a lot of that around here.”
But it happens, and NEER North has rescued seriously abused animals.
Three of the recent arrivals are American mini-horses who had spent their entire lives together on the same property with no interaction with other animals.
Martin says the MSPCA in Methuen got a call about three miniature horses that needed to be rehomed and the MSPCA couldn’t take them.
“So they called us,” says Martin while visiting Amigo’s paddock. “This guy has horrific hoof issues.”
The 14-year-old chestnut stallion has laminitis, severe inflammation and deterioration of the hoofs. He was being considered for euthanasia, but NEER decided to give him a chance and he’s been coming along nicely.
Horses with laminitis must not be allowed on green grass, which, when eaten, triggers the inflammation.
Amigo’s mother, Silkie, is a relaxed 18-year-old. Her 12-year-old gelding son, Spirit, is timid, but curious and sweet.
Amigo, whose red mane falls over his eyes at a rakish angle, proves his reputation for mischievousness by repeatedly nibbling on Lind’s sweater as she reaches over the paddock fence to pet him.
“So one of the things that they get taught here is what’s referred to as ground manners — and not biting someone’s sweater when they walk by,” Lind says, directly to Amigo.
Diverse residents
The farm has numerous thoroughbred horses, former race horses, among them Classy Cruz, Stella and Joy.
NEER is accredited by the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance, which requires a farm to have five thoroughbred horses for accreditation.
They have a friendly mule named Tommy, who is missing an eye from a disease.
They also have an enormous, sweet-tempered workhorse mix, Christopher, a mini-mule named Henry, a Morgan pony named Chocolatte and several riding horses.
At the moment, Lind is brushing Christopher’s mane. He likes it. Martin pets his head. He likes that too.
Nearby is Eli, an Appaloosa without spots, a former riding horse.
Ciarletta, wearing riding boots, britches and a helmet, works Eli on sand and granite dust in a round pen.
She is getting Eli in shape after the winter and works him through his paces, walking and cantering.
Ciarletta stands ramrod straight in the saddle and communicates to Eli through her voice and subtle body cues including a slight shift in the saddle or tug on the reins or a squeeze of her legs.
Eli is a perfect citizen here, but has run into issues when he’s been around mares off the property.
The right home for Eli, 23, will be where he can remain on a farm as a riding companion for an experienced rider, Ciarletta says.
NEER’s many successes owe to the diligence of Martin and her team.
Ciarletta, who has a bit of the horse whisper in her, says some of the adopted horses arrive with mental trauma and things to work through.
“So working with both their mind and their body are needed to get them to a point where they’re adoptable,” she says.
Recent adoptions include a sight-challenged Shetland pony duo — Azalea Ash and Teddy Rushkin.
They were adopted together and are being cared for in Madison Connecticut.
Mini-horse Almond Joy has a loving home and barn mates in East Kingston, N.H.
Georgia, a quarter-horse pony, has been adopted by an owner in Brentwood, N.H.
As our NEER North tour ends we bid adieu to Martin and her team and Tomcat, curled on a cat bed in the barn’s office at the feet of Moore-Dickison.
Moore-Dickison is fielding calls and reviewing animals’ medical appointments and hoof care visits from the farm’s farrier.
It’s a spring day on the equine farm, and the equines and Tomcat are enjoying the spring air and their NEER home.
Tomcat is resting, but has an ear to Moore-Dickison’s phone conversations, wondering if he and Martin have found another home for their friends on the farm.