Reported by: Danielle Dubetz
DELRAY BEACH, FL -- Every kid of the Fidelis Foundation has a story. Many of them were once abused and neglected.
But the horses of the foundation have stories, too, like Fleet, who was rescued 400 pounds underweight, and Lilly. “Her entire tail had been chewed off. He whole body was sun-bleached and her feet were splitting and falling apart and she had pretty much weeds to eat,” said Stacy Gormley with the Fidelis Foundation in suburban Delray Beach.
 When abused horses are connected with abused children, it turns out, they're not so different.
“They don't want people that don't love them. They want people that do love them,” said Abby Romeo.
Over time, horses like Lilly have been rehabilitated.
“She's actually gone from not being able to trust humans and being very timid around humans to being our most effective therapeutic horse,” said Gormley.
The Fidelis Foundation says as they give abused horses a second chance, the animals give back and do the same for the kids.
“Lilly is my favorite horse,” said 18-year-old Desiree Noce-Turner.
She says riding Lilly gives her an escape.
"When you're up there, you're safe and there's not any problems. Nobody is going to abandon you, nobody is going to hurt you," she said.
She says knowing Lilly once had troubles, too, gives them a special relationship.
“I came from an abusive background and it's a very lonely feeling,” she said, “She's trusting me not to hurt her so it makes it a little bit easier for me to trust somebody else to not do the same thing with me.”
The Fidelis Foundation says, while there is a foster care crisis, abuse with children is more carefully monitored... but they hope more foundations step forward to give both abused kids, and abused horses, a second chance.
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