Searching for positive signs

'Horse whisperers' aid effort to find missing horse

Deb LaPlante, owner of the missing horse, reviews a map of Freetown State Forest with Kenny Harlow, a horse trainer who volunteered to help determine whether Charlz is still in the forest. (Susan Correia)

For the first time in five months, Deb LaPlante could almost breathe easy as a quartet on horseback clopped lazily along Quanapoag Road to the woodsy entrance of the Freetown State Forest.

What few people in this horse-crazy town knew was that the group ambling through their neighborhood on a perfect autumn day included "horse whisperers" Kenny Harlow and Kelli Ann Kinney.

The pair, along with Harlow's top trainer, Tara Jones, had traveled to this woodland in Southeastern Massachusetts last week to see if a spirited, 17-year-old Arabian named Charlz who disappeared into its depths on May 25 is still out there.

Hours later, returning from a labyrinth of trails and rocky terrain, the search party had some good news. Evidence suggested, they said, that LaPlante has reason to hold out hope.

"We can't say if it's him, or not, but we found some positive signs," Kinney said later, in a phone call from Jest-A-Bit Farm in Pepperell. Charlz probably has lost at least three of his horseshoes, and Kinney noted, "There were piles of manure to show an unshod horse is living near a clearing and streams."

Harlow, of Cumberland, Va., has swung by Freetown on his way home from Maine, where he was conducting a training clinic. His huge silver rig filled with horses pulled slowly into a dirt lot that fronts Herb's Auto Repair shop after being led through the network of country roads by horse owner Susan Correia of Rochester, N.H.

Correia is one of scores of volunteers who have spent hundreds of hours helping LaPlante organize searches for Charlz and encouraging the woman she now considers a sister to hang on.

Harlow is in demand internationally for the humane training skills made famous by the popular book and film "The Horse Whisperer." Hopping down from the cab, Harlow stood out in a striped shirt and stark black cowboy hat, boots burnished with the silver gleam of spurs.

Harlow pored over maps that marked where the horse was last seen. He played down the mystique around his profession, swearing there is no magic or secret to healing, or training, troubled horses.

"I just make everything about common sense," he said.

LaPlante described the chain of events that led to the separation with her horse, who has been sighted in June, August, and September while still wearing a heavy, bright red saddle.

She and a friend were riding the trails on May 25 when a dangling branch suddenly came down on her, and she fell to the ground. The branch also hit Charlz - whom she had adopted a year and a half ago and had been abused by a previous owner. The horse panicked and bolted, she said, "as fast as Big Brown."

Since then, pilots have volunteered to cruise over the forest from the air, searching for signs of the brown horse with a black mane and a white blaze on his face. Hikers, bikers, and ATV riders have made trips through the preserve, and feeding stations with hay and water were put in place. The mounted State Police have also been in, she said, and promised to come back when the leaves fall.

Harlow assured LaPlante that Charlz is probably fine and once found, may suffer for about two weeks with saddle sores. But that's about it, he said.

In fact, he estimated that the horse has probably gained about 150 pounds from endless grazing.

Is he catchable? Correia asked.

"If I see him, I'll rope him," Harlow said, gathering his lariat.

LaPlante was fighting tears as the group readied to head out: "I always get so emotional, every time there's a search. I just can't help saying, what if?"

Debbie Bell of North Dartmouth has taken countless dawn rides to search for Charlz, and shares the frustration that he may be close, yet is as elusive as a ghost.

"It's like a needle in a haystack," said Bell, a local guide who volunteered to lead last week's expedition. "And every day the needle moves."

After they returned from the woods, Harlow and Kinney advised LaPlante to set up digital trail cameras, so-called "deer cams," in the areas where the manure piles were seen. And if there is a sighting, or firm evidence Charlz is there, they said they'd come back in November to catch him.

It seems clear that Charlz moved deeper into the forest as his water supply dried up over the summer, Kinney said. But now that the local streams are replenished, he's trying to make his way home.

She said she was glad to be able to offer some hope; many have assumed Charlz is long gone, or dead.

"We went out, not knowing, because it has been so long," Kinney explained. "You feel bad for the horse. And bad for his owner. And you don't want to see anyone wondering about what happened to him."

Anyone with information about Charlz is urged to call LaPlante at 774-634-9272.

Michele Morgan Bolton can be reached at mmbolton1@verizon.net.