Georgia family helps rescued racehorses lead new lives

Joy Lim Nakrin’s mother realized a lifelong dream by creating a rescue farm for horses and other animals in North Fulton.

Nakrin said her mother was an OBGYN providing rural medicine on horseback in the Philippines before her retirement. She immigrated to the United States and the family lived in the Boston area when they started the search for a place to start their rescue farm.

In 2021, the family moved to Milton to realize that dream, finding a place with a strong equestrian community and weather more favorable than the Northeast. That’s where Nakrin, her 72-year-old parents, and her 74-year-old widowed aunt founded Joyous Acres .

Credit: Joyous Acres

The rescue farm doesn’t adopt out, which limits how many animals it takes.

Part of the mission of Joyous Acres is the seniors program founded by her aunt. They invite a few partner nursing homes to bring residents over to visit the horses for pet therapy. They call the program Seniors for Seniors .

“My aunt’s a senior, and she wanted to share this with other seniors, because she fell into a deep depression when her husband died, and the animals were really therapeutic for her,” Nakrin said.

Local residents may recognize Nakrin for her work with Atlanta News First TV news.

She wanted to share news about their rescue farm efforts for several reasons. May is Asian American Heritage Month, and to her knowledge, theirs is the only major equestrian facility and rescue farm run by Asian immigrants.

As the Triple Crown season gets underway with the Kentucky Derby held earlier this month, she said the family was happy to help push for the creation of a thoroughbred division for show jumping in Georgia.

Nakrin said it’s important because when thoroughbreds are pushed out of the industry due to losing races and being slow, injury or old age, the likelihood they will be slaughtered is very high. She said 7,500 thoroughbred horses are slaughtered every year in the United States.

The creation of that division may appeal to people who otherwise might buy the pedigree warmblood horses that are preferred for show jumping. Instead, they may consider adopting a healthy thoroughbred and training it to turn it into a show jumper. The national movement is called “Recycle a Racehorse,” she said.

Nakrin said they adopted a racehorse, Enduring Honor, from a large thoroughbred shelter for less than the price of a saddle.

“We just bonded, and he’s like my best friend,” she said. “And I retrained him to be a show jumper.”

Now they beat $50,000 imported, well-bred warmbloods in show jumping she said, finishing tops in the state in two categories.

Credit: Joyous Acres

May also is Adopt-A-Horse Month, which Nakrin said has yet to catch on like dog and cat adoptions. Retraining a racehorse takes time and patience to gain their trust, she said, but for her, it’s been the most rewarding thing.

Making equestrian sports more accessible for everyone and ridding them of elitism is also part of Joyous Acres’ purpose. Narkin said the perception, and sometimes the reality, is that many people might love horses, but they feel they can’t afford the sport.

They could have purchased every horse, dog, cat, and pig from breeders that they have at their rescue farm, but Nakrin said her family wanted to do their part, so every animal they’ve taken in was either adopted from a large shelter or were owner surrenders.

One of the rescues, Geronimo, is a former Amish workhorse, which suffered an injury while pulling a plow and cart. It was sent off to slaughter, but a rescue group in North Carolina bought him from the slaughterhouse and Joyous Acres adopted him.

“When we met Geronimo, we thought he was just such a gentle soul,” she said, which makes him perfect for the senior therapy program.

Nakrin’s aunt says the old adage, “you get the love that you give,” which has been proven with both Geronimo and Enduring Honor.

“These are horses that haven’t really experienced love before, human affection, and it’s just amazing to see their personalities blossom and see them just transform,” she said.

Credit: Rough Draft Atlanta

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