BIDDEFORD — Lydia Boothby of Biddeford’s Ever After Mustang Rescue believes that the essential joy of being around horses is that the spirited animals link humans with the attributes of grace, beauty, and a love of freedom.

On Saturday afternoon, Boothby shared her passion for horses with the public during an open house at the rescue organization’s Training and Education Center in Biddeford.

“We wanted this open house to be a way to get the word out about what we do here,” Boothby said. “Working with these mustangs is special because they give back so much. It challenges you to adapt. You think you’re training them, but it’s the other way around.”

Biddeford’s Ever After Mustang Rescue is a nonprofit organization that rescues and rehabilitates previously adopted mustangs and either transitions them to new homes and useful lives, or offers lifetime care to unadoptable horses. It provides educational programs and mentoring to prospective horse adopters and other interested people in the care, handling and training of wild horses.

The nonprofit rescue is dedicated to promoting interest and awareness in America’s wild horses through events like Saturday’s open house, Boothby said.

According to Boothby, the goals of the organization are to protect and preserve the health and well-being of the American Mustang after adoption and it also strives to offer assistance to the Bureau of Land Management and to adopters through all means available including mentoring, clinics and workshops.

She said that an average of two to three mustangs are placed with approved homes every year by Ever After Mustang Rescue.

A trio of students, Michaela Ramsey, Eva Belanger and Lisa Murimi, are interning this summer at the rescue and were on hand at the open house to greet guests and discuss their duties there.

Michaela Ramsey is a junior at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts who is studying biology and hopes to become a veterinarian some day.

“Working here I’ve found that each horse has a different personality. They are not all the same,” Ramsey said.

Eva Belanger of Sanford is a student at York County Community College who wants to eventually study veterinary medicine.

She said one new skill she’s been able to work on as an intern at the rescue has been learning how to groom horses properly.

“It’s a lot of work,” Belanger said.

Murimi is a sophomore at Colorado State University and is originally from Kenya. She has a goal of becoming a veterinarian and said she is grateful to obtain practical experience working with the mustangs at the rescue.

“The best part of all of this is that you learn something new every day working with horses,” she said. They really teach you something about yourself. They give you a sense of peace and well-being.”

For Murimi, the internship at Ever After Mustang Rescue also has kept her in shape.

“You definitely gain some muscles working here,” Murimi said.

Also greeting guests at the open house and talking with them about her work with horses at the rescue was reiki practitioner Sharon Soule of Cape Porpoise.

For the past year, Soule has been working with Sterling, a 5-year-old rescued mustang. She uses reiki, a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing on Sterling, who was very fearful, nervous and wary of humans when he first arrived at the rescue farm.

“He’s coming along and is not as fearful as he was,” Soule said. “The reiki relaxes him and reduces his stress. It’s a way to help us to connect with him.”

For more information about the Ever After Mustang Rescue or to learn how you can help, visit mustangrescue.org/index.html.

— Executive Editor Ed Pierce can be reached at 282-1535 ext. 326 or by email at editor@journaltribune.com