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SUMMERFIELD - With his chocolate-colored coat, shaggy black mane and a white stripe running from his forehead to his nose, Marley looks like a normal horse. He allows his trainer, James Cooler, to lead him with a halter and remains calm as Cooler stomps on the ground around him, trying to desensitize him to sudden sounds and movements. A few short months ago, Marley would have been cowering in the corner of the fence.

Marley and his mother were abandoned in a field in Danville, Va., when their owners moved away. Danville Animal Control asked Red Dog Farm Animal Rescue Network of Summerfield if it could help.

"He was basically a wild animal," said Garland Graham, who founded Red Dog Farm Animal Rescue Network with her husband, Gary. "He was just terrified. He didn't have any abuse history, thankfully, but complete neglect."

Because they are so expensive to maintain, horses such as Marley are suddenly finding themselves without a home as the economy has worsened. In the past year, Red Dog Farm has received an influx of horses because people can't afford to keep them anymore.

"We used to get the typical abandonment, neglect and abuse calls," Graham said. "What we're seeing now are people who are surrendering high-quality, well-bred horses because they just can't afford to board them."

Red Dog Farm brought Marley back to Summerfield last July and placed him in a foster home for eight months. He got used to seeing humans every day, but he didn't have any formal training. Graham found the perfect solution when she met James and Kate Cooler of Cooler Horsemanship, an organization that trains horses with a focus on developing a relationship with the horse.

"We're very good at taking sick and injured animals and getting them healthy, but none of us are horse trainers," Graham said.

Graham moved Marley back to Red Dog Farm for his training with the Coolers. James Cooler has been working with him since early March, teaching him to handle his emotions and fear. When he and Marley complete enough training, Marley will be ready for adoption.

"I think he's going to turn into a great horse," James Cooler said. "He's really starting to show some more curiosity, realizing that there's fun in exploring and not always just being scared."

Marley will make his public debut at the Oak Ridge Horse Show this weekend. James Cooler will work live with Marley and describe what Marley's body language means.

Graham said the Oak Ridge show will be a big deal for Marley because he has never been anywhere other than the field in Danville, his foster home and Red Dog Farm.

Kate Cooler said they don't want to place any expectations on Marley. The purpose of bringing him to the show is to demonstrate the progress he's made and emphasize to the attendees the importance of establishing a good relationship with a horse.

"We're just going to get him out there and see how he adjusts to all the action there," Kate Cooler said. "James will just kind of explain some of the processes he's going through that day and what he's gone through the last few weeks."

Red Dog Farm will also have a tent with adoptable dogs, cats and goats at the show.

The nonprofit animal rescue network was formed by Graham and her husband in 2006. They had been fostering golden retrievers through Triad Golden Retriever Rescue, and soon they began taking in any animal that needed a place to stay. Now, they find homes for dogs, cats, rabbits, goats, horses, pigs and other farm animals with the help of foster families.

Red Dog Farm has adopted out 900 animals and expects to hit the 1,000 mark this spring.

The increase in horses at Red Dog Farm led to the partnership with Cooler Horsemanship. The horsemanship program was founded in the early 1990s by James Cooler's father, who died of cancer in 2004. James and Kate Cooler continued spreading the philosophies of Cooler Horsemanship and have lived in Summerfield about a year.

"It's a natural horsemanship training philosophy, which means it's (about) the horse psychology," Kate Cooler said. "You study how horses think, communicate and learn to get the best method to develop a relationship of willing cooperation with your horse."

Cooler Horsemanship will continue its partnership with Red Dog Farm after Marley is adopted and train the other horses at the farm waiting to be adopted.

"To give back and help horses that have been in some tough situations is a very gratifying thing, so we're looking forward to sticking around as long as Garland will keep us," James Cooler said.

Graham hopes people at the Oak Ridge show will see the benefit of working with someone like James Cooler and taking the time to train their horses and develop strong relationships with them.

"If we can try to prevent the problem or correct the problem, every time that interaction happens between a good trainer and an owner, that's one less call I get," Graham said.

Graham also hopes someone at the Oak Ridge show will want to adopt Marley. Once one horse is adopted, it frees up a spot at the farm for the next horse.

"And there's a next one," Graham said. "There's always a next one."

Contact Alexa Milan at 373-7120 or alexandra.milan@news-record.com