Farm owner asks for help finding missing horse

HAYWOOD COUNTY, Tenn. — A farm owner is desperate to find a lost member of the barnyard family.

Mayheim is a Tennessee Walking Horse who cannot find her only filly, Skittles.

“I would love to have it back,” farm owner Charles Humphries said.

Humphries said he returned from vacation only to find the newest addition to the farm gone. “First thing I did, I started putting out hay and water and I noticed the mom up here and the baby was always immediately under her feet.”

“We got about a 60-acre farm here, and we went over all of it,” Humphries said. “I walked it all on the Tuesday I got back, and then my daughter and son-in-law did the same thing.”

Mayheim and Skittles had a special bond.

“She was very close to her mom because the mom can’t see,” Humphries said.

At first he thought Skittles might have been attacked by a coyote.

“The little horse probably weighed about 200 pounds, and that’s a lot for a little dog to drag off without leaving any kind of sign behind,” Humphries said. “We came to the conclusion that someone probably needed her more than we did. We don’t really know.”

His main concern is Skittles’ health.

“It was a 6-week-old filly, and it shouldn’t be weened from its mother until a minimum of four months.”

The farm dates back to the 1800s.

“My grandfather grew up here, my father grew up here and now they’re gone,” Humphries reminisced.

Humphries said being around his animals relaxes him and reminds him of this quote.

“There’s nothing so good for the inside a man than the outside of the horse. I kind of agree with that,” Humphries said.