Mark Russell (Edgewood, N.M.)
I met Mark 10 years ago when I moved in next-door and he approached us to help our rescue with a very crippled horse named Valiant. Valiant was a horse that had lived for 8 years before we took him in with no coffin bones walking on his back legs. My first reaction when I saw Valiant was to euthanize, but this horse had such a will to live that I went against my instinct. Numerous veterinarians also understood how unusual this horse was and soon Mark came to appreciate how unusual this horse was. He was so talented and so dedicated that he worked as hard as I did to keep Valiant comfortable.
We let Valiant go wherever he wanted and his roam radius was amazing for a horse walking like he did. He didn't like getting his feet done so when Mark and I approached him in the field one day, he ran off and we couldn't catch him! Mark and I laughed at how crazy it was we couldn't catch this two-legged horse and that was the start of a ten-year friendship.
Since then, Mark offered to fly to Arizona to help us with our rescue cases every seven weeks. We are an extreme medical rescue and his talent has saved the lives of hundreds of our cases. I would laugh that Mark could make any foot workable again and I watched these miracles time and time again. He helped us out of pure compassion for the horses because the weekends he flew in would be grueling with over 20 specialty cases in two days, with temperatures of over 100 degrees! He offered to teach local farriers while he was in town. He offered to go around and help write farrier prescriptions for horse owners that would contact us on chronic lameness issues. He would teach all the volunteers along the way. What is really amazing to me is that Mark is a tall guy, but he would put himself in whatever uncomfortable position so that the horse was comfortable! It took tremendous strength and patience to work on horses that we put in slings or couldn't stand long because their feet hurt so badly, but he was so focused on helping the horse that it didn't matter to him.
Mark recently had double knee replacement surgery and swore he wouldn't do any more farrier work for fear of going through knee replacement again. Yet, the moment I called about one of our horses that was beyond the skills of our local farriers and which I was on the verge of euthanizing, Mark jumped into action again. He has been de-rotating and getting this horse back to where she should be. He started doing part of my rescue herd again, much to my delight. Mark keeps my barn sound and makes it look easy, but I have interviewed literally hundreds of farriers that can't do the same. He is professional and works well with my veterinarians. He communicates and shows up ready to work on time. He checks on the horses after he leaves. He listens carefully to what I am seeing and translates it into a sound horse without dismissing me. I wish I could find more like him. So many more horses would be alive if more farriers had his skills.
Our rescue's reputation for exceptional care is due largely to Mark. He provides his services to us at a fraction of the cost other known expert farriers quoted, so he has donated much of his service. His credentials, experience and years of running a farrier school certainly helped his success rate. But what makes Mark so extraordinary is the selfless way he helps our rescue help horses with a level of commitment to excellence I haven't seen in other farriers. He loves farriery and after over 30 years, his passion remains as high as the day he started.
— Soleil Dolce (Scottsdale, Ariz.)
