(gentle music) - [Anaridis] Tonight, rescuing horses in North Kingstown.

- I've seen horses where they've been beaten, they've been starved.

- So I approached the editors of the Journal, and they said, "You wanna do what?"

(laughs) And I said, "I wanna write a column about hiking."

- [Pamela] A veteran newspaper columnist takes us on the often unseen paths of Rhode Island.

And a visit to Bristol's Linden Place.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Good evening.

Welcome to "Rhode Island PBS Weekly".

I'm Anaridis Rodriguez.

- And I'm Pamela Watts.

We begin tonight with a story about second chances for some vulnerable animals.

- Horses hold a special place in the history of the country, from workhorse to horsepower.

They remain for many an important part of the American story.

But as Michelle San Miguel first reported last fall, there is a dark side.

What happens to these animals that have been discarded and deemed no longer useful?

One Rhode Island sanctuary has been answering that question and saving these iconic creatures for decades.

- I've always been drawn to them.

I've always enjoyed the company of horses.

Every day I say thank you.

I do.

And I love this place.

This is just, this is paradise for me, for the ponies.

It is, it's just, it's a wonderful, wonderful place.

(Deidre whistling) - [Anaridis] For Deidre Sharp, caring for horses is not a job.

It's a passion.

- Let's go.

Quick, quick, quick, quick, get.

- [Anaridis] A passion that gets her out of bed at 3:00 AM.

- I never wake up in the morning and go, "Oh my God."

No, I look forward to getting up.

- [Anaridis] Sharp is the founder and president of Horse Play, an equine rescue and sanctuary in North Kingstown.

- Harry.

(smooching) - [Anaridis] On this quiet farmstead, Sharp and a small but devoted group of volunteers care for abused, neglected, and unwanted horses.

- Harley!

Junior!

Let's go!

(clapping) - [Anaridis] The majority of the horses that are coming here, what circumstances are they coming from when they arrive here?

- Right now, I would say predominantly lack of knowledge on the owner's part and it turning into a much bigger issue to take care of a horse than they thought.

Whether it be behavioral, financial, a lot of financial issues where people can no longer afford their horse.

- [Anaridis] Too often, she says, people part ways with their horses once they're no longer of value to them.

- It's not what can they do for the horse, it's what can the horse do for them?

And when the horse can no longer do for them, then gets unloaded.

- [Anaridis] Mandy Crow has been volunteering at Horse Play for 14 years.

She says many of the horses that have roamed these fields were once viewed as disposable.

- People get tired of them.

Kids grow up, they lose interest.

And horses live for 30 odd years, and it's a big commitment for some people, and they're just not able to follow through.

At least there's some horse rescues out there that help take care of them.

(gentle music) - Step up.

Come on, Tom.

- [Anaridis] Sharp started Horse Play 25 years ago as a therapeutic riding program for people with mental and emotional challenges.

Over time, it evolved into a sanctuary that's helped more than 400 horses.

Many were headed to an auction when Sharp intervened.

- They're bought by a kill buyer or a meat buyer.

They send them up to Canada where they're slaughtered, and the meat is sent overseas.

Places like France, Japan, Italy, I believe, and even Canada itself.

They do eat horse meat there.

And that's unfortunate, but that's where a lot of horses go.

- And a good number of the horses that you've rescued, you would say, were headed down that road?

- Very much so.

Very much so.

- [Anaridis] There are no horse slaughter plants in the United States, but according to the ASPCA, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, many horses in the country are taken to facilities in Mexico and Canada to be killed for their meat.

- I've had people call me, "Oh, we're interested in," you know, and it's my two biggest horses, and I'm thinking, "And who are you?"

And I find out they actually drive for a meat packing person.

So no, you're not adopting my two horses.

But again, it's by the pound, and it's unfortunate, but it is happening every day.

- [Anaridis] It's a reality that's troubling for Steven Viens.

10 years ago, he felt called to volunteer with horses.

He picked up the phone and has been at Horse Play ever since.

- They're incredible animals.

And I tell anybody that if you don't love horses, it's because you don't know any.

There's nothing like 'em.

Once you get used to 'em, they're family.

(gentle music) - [Anaridis] These days, it's a blended family of nine horses from all walks of life, including Buddy, a 21-year-old Tennessee walking horse.

Some have behavioral issues.

Others, like Reno, have medical ones.

The roughly 22-year-old American mustang, named after a city in his home state of Nevada, is going blind, and that's not all.

- His right hind foot was injured when he was rounded up and he was lame, and it became a chronic problem, and he has never been able to heal totally from it.

He's crippled, essentially.

- Running this sanctuary is a full-time commitment, but it's not Sharp's only job.

During the day, she works as a police clerk at the Newport Police Department.

You work at the police department in large part to fund the work here at the sanctuary?

- I sure do.

Yep.

Unfortunately, there is no funding or very little minimal funding for what we do.

The costs are exorbitant.

- [Anaridis] Sharp says about 75% of the organization's expenses come out of her own pocket, and costs have gone up, including the price of hay and trips to the vet.

Volunteers like Mary Cadieux are grateful Sharp contributes so much.

- It takes a lot to take care of a horse, you know?

Big animals require big space.

Lots of times, big dollars.

I do wonder and worry where they would be if not for what Deidre has done for a long time.

And of course, the volunteers, you know?

We love doing this too.

- [Anaridis] Steven Viens admits it can be a lot of work.

Some days, he says, he can barely move when he gets home.

He puts in five hours a day, three days a week.

But he says it's well worth it.

- I don't have to pay for counseling, because I get all the counseling from the horses.

It's something just totally different.

And you don't even know this place exists.

And when you turn up that driveway and you drive up here, this is another world up here.

(horse snorts) - [Anaridis] It's a world that's still amazes Sharp 25 years later, and she's quick to point out she doesn't view these horses as her children, she says they're her brothers and sisters and teachers.

What have you learned from them?

- Family, friends.

Don't need to do it all by yourself, you know?

Seriously, you gotta, you know, the community, pay attention, listen, feel.

Don't be afraid to feel, 'cause they do.

They can feel, sense your heartbeat four or five feet away.

I think that's what I've learned a lot from them.

Sensitivity to others.

- Anyone interested in adopting a horse should call the sanctuary for availability.

Prospective owners are expected to visit six to 10 times before bringing their animal home.

Up next, a story about a recreational activity that takes many twists and turns, literally.

Hiking first gained traction after World War II and spiked here in Rhode Island during the COVID pandemic.

But as we first reported last year, one journalist was ahead of the curve when finding the right path.

- That's the most surprising, interesting part.

Whenever you set out with a new trail I've never been on before, it's intriguing, because you really don't know what you're gonna find and what you're gonna see.

It's eye-opening.

- [Pamela] Taking in the exquisite views and exploring beautiful byways is a new calling for veteran newspaper man, John Kostrzewa.

He is hiking and riding his way along Rhode Island's most breathtaking trails, and discovering a bend in the road is not the end of the road.

- It was not an easy straight path.

When I left the Providence Journal in 2017, I didn't really have a clear idea of what I wanted to do next or whether I'd ever work again.

- Kostrzewa worked more than four decades as a print journalist, and spent the majority at the Providence Journal as a business columnist and editor.

What was it like to go from the world of high finance to forest?

- It was probably the furthest thing from my mind.

I think like a lot of people who retire, they're not quite sure what the next chapter's gonna be, though they know they wanna contribute something.

And so you find your way.

And luckily, I found the path to hiking.

- [Pamela] Kostrzewa says he did a bit of recreational hiking years ago, especially when his sons were Boy Scouts.

He took it up again after retiring as a way to improve his health and sharpen his mind and spirit.

It was during the pandemic quarantine when he noticed an uptick on the trails.

- When I went in the woods, who are all these people?

Some of the Land Trust folks will tell you that three times as many people were hiking during COVID than before COVID.

Don't forget, we had a governor who said, "Take it outside," and we literally did.

- [Pamela] So he did something outside the box.

- I approached the editors of the Journal, and they said, "You wanna do what?"

(laughs) And I said, "I wanna write a column about hiking."

I said, "Look, it's pretty simple.

All I wanna do is take people where they haven't been before.

If they've been there before, show them something different, about the history or the geology or the wildlife."

- [Pamela] And, he says... - There were a lot of readers who were never gonna hike.

They were never gonna go in the woods.

But in the middle of that first COVID winter, they really just wanted something good to read about Rhode Island.

- [Pamela] Instead of telling him to go take a hike, the Journal editors brought Kostrzewa's career full circle.

Three years and 150 columns later, what started out as a trial run is now a regular route.

Kostrzewa's Sunday column is called "Walking Rhode Island".

He's compiled 40 of the featured stories in his new guidebook by the same name.

And while the topic is far from his former beat, he says the essential skills are similar.

- I'm not a trained historian.

I'm not a trained geologist.

I'm not a trained birder.

What I have been trained in in 42 years is to observe, to look to the right, look to the left, and see things, and then try to figure it out.

And then if I can't figure it out myself, then find those experts to talk to that explain it to me.

- [Pamela] In the book, there are nature walks for families, challenging hikes for the experienced, even urban explorations.

- There's a wonderful hike through West Warwick along the bike path, which you walk right through this old industrial area, and as you're walking on a trestle along the bike path, you smell this sweet smell, this fragrance and aroma.

You say, "What could this possibly be?"

Well, that's the Bradford Soap Works.

- [Pamela] Also in his guidebook, Kostrzewa includes coastal climbs along Ocean State shorelines, such as Black Point in Narragansett.

- A lot of historical sites along the trail always fascinate me, 'cause it really shows you how we lived 2, 300 years ago.

And you'll see foundations right along the trail.

You'll see sluice ways built, you know, to speed up the water to run lumber mills or grist mills.

And I'm always interested to find out, well, who built those?

How long ago and why?

And you put that all together and then you decide, "Okay, well, what story do I wanna tell now?"

- [Pamela] The stories start with reading online sources about the area, then stuffing basic supplies in his backpack, first aid kit, rain gear, compass and GPS, insect repellent, water, and energy bar.

And because he says he's old school, he carries a map, where he makes notations and writes questions to research later.

And then he sets off, usually twice a week, following the blaze, these numbered markings that point out the trail.

Kostrzewa says he hasn't run into any dangerous wild animals, but he has encountered some fascinating lore and legends.

For instance, in Cumberland, the locals speak of the supernatural surrounding the newly opened Catamint Brook Preserve off Tower Road.

- They've seen children along the road, they've seen ghosts along the road, and then they've seen a creature they call Monkey Man, which I have never seen and never heard of.

- Like Bigfoot?

- Yeah, I guess some type of monkeylike, apelike creature that somebody had seen at one point, and for some reason, it was then caught into the imagination of the folks there.

- Do you imagine that we'll run into Rhode Island's Bigfoot out here?

- Well, I certainly hope not.

- [Pamela] During a walk through the preserve, we didn't see the Ocean State Sasquatch, but we did observe rambling stone walls, the remains of a one room schoolhouse from the 1800s that burned to the ground.

We also trekked through colonial farmland.

- If you look back to the late 1700s, there was a census done, and two thirds of Rhode Island, 66% of all the land, had been cleared of trees.

250 years after the farmers left, this is what we call Second Growth Forest.

- [Pamela] And amid all the trees, there is a sound of silence.

- You have to be a little bit quiet in the woods.

Certainly nothing wrong with talking to each other and sharing stories, but the louder you are, the less of the wildlife you're gonna see, the less of those great bird tweets you're gonna hear.

You're not gonna hear those waterfalls you walk by.

- [Pamela] With that advice, Kostrzewa is following in the footsteps of his former Providence Journal colleague, the late Ken Weber, a noted columnist and outdoorsman who also wrote about rambles in Rhode Island.

Kostrzewa pays tribute to his mentor in this excerpt from his book.

- "Hiking should not be a race through the woods, but a chance to pause along the way, explore, and think.

I don't consider walking a competitive sport or endurance event," he wrote.

For a guy who was always racing on deadlines at the newspaper, that is wise, sage advice.

- [Pamela] And so Kostrzewa says he takes that to heart on all his journeys, until he reaches the end of the trail.

- When I come out of the woods, if I'm hiking with a friend, we'll each do a check with each other to make sure we're not bringing anything home.

And then when I do get home, I'll go to the backyard, set up a lawn chair, and strip down right there.

- How do the neighbors feel about that?

(both laughing) - I haven't heard.

But no complaints as of yet either.

- Oh, good.

(laughs) But all kidding aside... What do you love the most about wandering?

- Well, wandering is a good term.

I was just reading a book from Thoreau going way back, and he would never call it walking or hiking.

He called it sauntering, because he said the idea, almost like what Ken Weber said, is that you don't go to rush through the woods, you go to explore the woods and experience the woods, which is why I say I hope to continue to hike and to continue to write until somebody tells me to stop.

- Finally tonight, in our continuing series, Window on Rhode Island, we revisit Linden Place, once the home of the DeWolfs.

They were the largest slave trading family in U.S. history.

The historic Rhode Island landmark joins other institutions across the country, taking a hard look at a troubled past.

(gentle music) - Behind me is Linden Place Mansion.

It's a federal style home built in 1810 by George DeWolf.

George and Charlotte DeWolf both came from very prominent, wealthy families here in Bristol.

George was very much a wheeler dealer opportunist here in town in terms of business.

We always like to think of the northern states being sort of the liberators, the ones who sort of worked against slavery, the abolitionist societies, when in reality, the transatlantic slave trade involved every bit of the Rhode Island economy in the 18th and early 19th centuries.

The DeWolf family owned many ships, and they also owned the town banks.

They would take these ships, they would load them up with rum, which was made here in Bristol, and they would sail to Africa, specifically Ghana, what they called the Gold Coast.

And they would take that rum, and they would trade for enslaved peoples to be brought on their ships to plantations in Cuba.

It was a very brutal journey.

Rum was in very high demand.

Rhode Island rum in particular was very sought after.

This was a huge money maker for the DeWolf family.

In 1825, George had a rush of some really bad luck, financially.

He was left basically bankrupt, but because the entire town's fortunes were invested in the DeWolf business ventures, the entire town of Bristol basically went bankrupt.

And so George with his wife, Charlotte, and their children, fled from Linden Place.

They rode to Boston, where they caught the first ship to Cuba, and they went and lived out the rest of their lives at that Cuban sugar plantation.

People woke up the next day, and the banks were closed, and they wanted an explanation of where their money was.

This led the town of Bristol into a financial depression that lasted decades.

Linden Place has been operating as a historic house museum for about 30 years.

So, when COVID took place in late winter last year, it really gave us at Linden Place a chance to step back, look at our story, think about what we're doing well, but more importantly, what are we not doing well?

What are we not talking about?

We are not talking about the contributions of African Americans to Bristol history and to the history of this house.

So we really set off investigating and researching stories that we weren't aware of before.

- My name is Lynn Smith, and I'm a volunteer here at Linden Place, so I do a little historical research.

Through the census, through birth records, through marriage records, we started to build a little bit more robust story.

Daniel Tanner was an entrepreneurial Black man, free Black man, who ran a barbershop.

In some of the southern plantations, it was quite common for the wealthy plantation owners to have what was known as a waiting man.

It was a Black slave, a man servant, who was sort of his personal valet, made sure that his clothes were perfect, his coiffure was perfect.

That tradition sort of migrated north, and barbers became well-known Black barbers for the excellence of their skill.

So we know that Daniel Tanner was probably the great grandson of a local slave, Skippio Tanner, but interestingly, he was much more than just a Black barber.

We found a story in the local Bristol Phoenix, for example, that he started the Excelsior Cornet Band, and was quite proud that he and his band marched in the very famous Bristol 4th of July parade every year.

(gentle music) - This whole adventure of delving into not only Daniel Tanner's history, but that of his family, and their connections to Bristol, their connections to Newport, we feel will open up a whole new side of this mansion's history that no one knew about.

- That's our broadcast this evening.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm I'm Anaridis Rodriguez.

- And I'm Pamela Watts.

We'll be back next week with another edition of "Rhode Island PBS Weekly".

And you can now listen to our entire broadcast every Monday night at 19:00 on The Public's Radio.

And don't forget to follow us on Facebook and YouTube, and you can also visit us online to see all of our stories and past episodes at ripbs.org/weekly, or listen to our podcast on your favorite streaming platform.

Goodnight.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues)