Pay it 4ward: New Mexico couple thanked for taking care of free-roaming horses

PLACITAS, N.M. – A New Mexico couple has been taking care of a group of wild horses you’ll find freely roaming around. 

In Placitas it’s not just the people that enjoy the beautiful landscape, wild horses are known to call this place home.

“They’re just God’s creation, they’re beautiful. Their eyes are just so precious,” said Judy Esparsen, Pay It 4ward nominee. 

“She always had this passion for the horses, she’d always say let’s go feed the horse and we would feed them and it’s always been near and dear to the heart. We’ve always come up to look for them and when we see that they’re lacking we’ve always talked. Let’s step up to the plate and help,” said Kelly Esparsen. 

When Judy and Kelly sold their house in the city and bought this lot about a year ago, they kept that promise.

“They use their hard-earned money to buy the food, and they go out into town in Bernalillo and get water for the horses,” said Maria Christina, Pay It 4ward nominator. 

Nine of the horses, one stallion, and eight mares come by almost every day, looking for fresh water, a good meal, and a little love.

“Once they made this connection and relationship with these wild horses, they have just been so happy and so in love with these horses and they even fostered one of the horses that was injured,” said Vanessa Arias. 

So it was time for Christina and Arias to Pay It 4ward with $400. 

“We nominated you for KOB Pay It 4ward because you do so much for these horses and you’re so giving him loving and you deserve it,” said Arias. 

“Oh, thank you! Oh you guys, thank you. Oh my goodness, this is such a blessing,” said Judy.

When we stopped by to surprise them, the horses happened to visit too. 

“This is something that we’re really striving for to get more proactive in the community. These horses, there’s nothing here for them to survive. It’s let alone the water resources is terrible here in Placitas. We feed them 100 gallons of water every day. And that’s not counting the alfalfa that we give them every day,” said Kelly. 

They hope more people will step up and help take care of the horses that make this community so special. 

“I just love the horses and we’re just so blessed to be here. It was almost like it was meant to be,” said Judy. 

And soon they plan to build a corral right behind their home to keep these horses safe.

“These horses are spoiled. They became very good through the winter. They’ve had a lot of corn and high-grade stuff,” said Kelly.