Melissa Clabaugh Caption: Delilah and Jimmy Wagner at the 2020 Horse World Expo
Last summer a Maryland veterinarian recommended euthanizing a 10-year-old quarter horse cross mare named Delilah for aggression. She was unable to be handled, rearing and striking out at anyone who came near her. The toll of a life fighting for food and water, with no medical care or human contact had been too much.
But a rescue that lived up to its name and a talented trainer took a chance on Delilah and in March the pair took home the reserve champion trophy in the Rescued to Stardom competition at the Horse World Expo in Harrisburg.
In 2018, Delilah was one of 107 horses removed in the so-called Quantico rescue, one of the largest horse rescues and animal cruelty cases in Maryland history. She was sent to an equine rescue on the Eastern Shore where she delivered a healthy foal but operators there were unable to care for her because of her behavior.
As a last resort she was sent to Last Chance Animal Rescue’s equine facility in Mechanicsville.
Enter trainer Jimmy Wagner. He had taken another difficult horse from the Quantico seizure, Mr. Natural, to the Rescued to Stardom competition in 2019 where the pair won fifth place.
Last fall, Wagner was traveling 200 miles round trip between Frederick and Mechanicsville to work with other Quantico horses when he was asked to see what he could do with Delilah.
“The vet thought we should euthanize her because she wanted to kill people,” said Cynthia Sharpley, executive director of Last Chance.
Wagner said he viewed Delilah as a challenge but not an insurmountable one.
“There actually was never a thought in my mind that she couldn’t be trained,” he said. “My thought was more like how long will it take for everything to click with her. Consistency was the key.”
The first day of training he spent two hours trying to coax Delilah to allow him to approach her in her pasture.
“The first time I put a lead rope on her she went ballistic and tried to get away,” he said. “Once I showed her that I wasn’t scared and meant no harm, that’s how the bond started.”
He moved from leading to touching her head and neck, and in short order was able to pick up her foot, a critical hurdle to overcome because she hadn’t seen a farrier, nor had a Coggins test or her teeth done.
“They say she was my job interview,” said Wagner, who now works fulltime for Last Chance.
In October Wagner suggested entering Delilah in Rescued to Stardom. “Everyone looked at me like I had two heads,” he recalled.
“I knew she was smart,” Wagner said. “ I just had to know how to harness that.”
Working along with barn manager Matt Kohlberg in a round pen, they moved Delilah from lunging to riding in November.
“She didn’t bat an eye when I put the saddle on her,” said Wagner.
To compete in Rescued to Stardom contestants develop two routines, one in hand and one under saddle. Wagner decided to aim high with his in-hand routine developing a freestyle routine “at liberty” – or using no lead rope.
It would be the first time for such a routine at the Expo, he said.
Wagner not only won the trust of a traumatized horse, but he won over members of the Last Chance staff with his progress with Delilah.
“I trust Jimmy implicitly. I’ve been nothing but impressed,” said Sharpley.
Delilah wasn’t the only one transformed for the competition. Wagner, who hit the scales at 325 pounds when he started working with her, shed 50 pounds in order to ride the 14.1 hand mare.
“She gave me motivation and kept me humble,” he said.
After months of work, Wagner and Delilah almost didn’t compete in the show. On their way to the Expo, the trailer carrying Delilah had to stop sharply to avoid an accident on the Baltimore Beltway. When they arrived at the Farm Show arena Delilah was physically fine but suddenly went off her feed. The show veterinarian determined that she had suffered a bout of colic from stress. But two days later she was healthy enough to compete.
“My idea was to show how durable she was and how soft she was,” he said about his novel in-hand routine. “She stayed with me for the whole five-minute routine.”
For the under-saddle routine the next day, before a packed area, Wagner did a brief at-liberty exercise, dramatically removing her bridle as he began his routine.
“When I took the bridle off the whole place gave us a standing ovation,” he said.
In the end, Delilah and Wagner were edged out of the championship trophy by a New York duo: Willie Nelson, a Morgan-cross, and trainer Hanna Blain of Begin Again Rescue.
The remaining awards all went to Maryland rescue horses and trainers: Bad Pony/Izzy Dempsey, Izzy’s Love Rescue in Union Bridge (3rd place), and Girly Girl/Erin O’Neill, Safe Haven Equine Warriors in Sykesville (4th place) and Dakota and Dixie/Ashley Lauer and Aaryanne Cloutier from Rocky’s Horse Rescue and Rehabilitation in Thurmont (tied for 5th and 6th place).
Before recognizing the winners, the announcer told the crowd Delilah’s harrowing story and then explained how Wagner had taken on a tough physical challenge himself to lose the weight he needed to ride her.
“Win or not you’re a winner to me,” Wagner recalled, thinking to himself at that moment, through his tears, about Delilah and their journey together.
Delilah is now available for adoption along with 11 other Quantico survivors still in various stages of training and getting their second chance at Last Chance Rescue.