Line Dancing Fundraisers At LI's Spirit's Promise Rescue A 'Win-Win'

RIVERHEAD, NY — An organization focused on rescuing graceful horses and helping people to find healing through the gift of equine therapy is now hosting some fundraisers that will also provide a kick-up-your-heals good time to participants.

Spirit's Promise Equine Rescue has long had a mission of giving new life to majestic horses. Now, the facility offers Beginner County Line Dancing at the rescue, located at 2746 Sound Avenue in Riverhead, with lead instructor Jenn Demeo and Sherry Turpin. Beginning on Monday, January 23 through March 6, the six-week class runs from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. — no class on Feb. 20 — and costs $15 per class ($12 for members). Registration is required. To register, click here or call 631-875-0433.

And that's not all: Spirit's Rescue and "Dancing with Deanna" are also teaming up to present a "North Fork Country Barn Dance" on Saturday, January 28, with music and lessons; BYO snacks and drinks. Tickets cost $15; advance sale only. Tickets can be purchased here or by calling 631-875-0433.

All proceeds from the events benefit the rescue.

Line dancing is the perfect event for the barn, Turpin said. "Line dancing is so popular on Long Island right now. It's exploded!"

For East End residents, one of the next-closest options is in Mt. Sinai, where Deanna Nemes teaches at The Heritage Center, Turpin said.

"It's huge on Long Island right now, so at this event, people get to dance at the barn, and they're not only having fun but their also helping our programs and the animals. So it's win-win."

Healing is the focus of the horse rescue: Marisa Striano founded Spirit's Promise Horse Rescue in 2012 when she moved to the area from Port Washington, where she'd had two horses and was spending lots of money on a stable.

Striano said equine therapy is practiced at Spirit's Promise. "We have a lot of people that just stop by in tears because they are drawn to horses."

Striano said she worked with the Assisted Growth and Learning Association to become an equine specialist.

"Horses are such great healers and teachers," she said. Her mission, she added, is to help people to understand the value of the horse, and the impact horses can have on human lives.

"We had a woman here whose son committed suicide at 24," she said. "My horse, Pirate, who is very, very quiet and afraid — and who watched his whole family go onto a truck headed to the slaughterhouse — came up to her and put his nose on her shoulder. We were all crying. This horse doesn't make those connections."

She added, "That is what we are giving back to the community. Peace."

The horror of horse slaughter motivated Striano to take a stand. "If people from the pioneer times came back now and saw what we are doing to the horses that helped to create America, they'd be sick," she said.

Her journey began when she sent her horse Spirit, who was sick, to her good friend, Christine Distefano, founder of the Amaryllis Farm Equine Rescue and Sanctuary in Bridgehampton, she said.

While being rehabbed, the horse made friends with another horse at the rescue organization, Promise. "That's where our name came from, Spirit's Promise," she said.

At first, Striano began by rescuing horses and utilized their own funds. Next, she became a 501(c) non-profit organization.

Part of her mission, Striano, said, has been to work with the Stony Brook Cancer Center to bring equine therapy to patients. "Horses that have been rescued are very compassionate," she said. "They're very empathetic creatures."

For breast cancer patients, grooming horses can be healing; the brushing, she said, serves as therapy — and the horses nurture battered souls. "It's very therapeutic. The motion of stroking the horses as part of physical therapy ‚ it's a dual thing."

Striano not only rescues horses, the family's farm is home to roosters, chickens, goats, donkeys and a dog. "I'm the kind of person that saves bugs," she said. "Animals are the true innocents of the world — they depend on us. I became the voice of the voiceless."

Horses, she said, "need so much help." The issue of horse slaughter is one about which many remain unaware, Striano said. Two horses, Tracy and Star Luna, went to the slaughter lot together, she said. "They wouldn't leave each other's side," she said. "They screamed for each other. They had to be rescued together."

For Striano the horse rescue has opened the door to a new life. Having loved horses since childhood, she said, "I was 42 and I thought, 'What am I going to do with my life?' I wanted to make a difference."

And now, in horse rescue, Striano has found her passion. "It's a wonderful, wonderful life."