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Volunteers Help Overhaul Stable Where Baltimore's Famous Arabber Horses Are Kept

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- If you've lived in Baltimore, you've heard their cry. The city's Arabbers, or horse cart vendors, have been selling fruits and vegetables in city neighborhoods for more than 200 years.

And now, one stable is getting much-needed support from the horse community.

"This has been going on since I was a kid... and this is another way of getting your fruits and vegetables if you can't," says Yvonne Telp.

There's a lot of talk of food deserts in Baltimore, and that is the Arabbers territory.

B.J. keeps his horse at Sandtown stable, one of three in the city. It was in need of help a year ago, and the Arabber Preservation Society stepped in.

"There was a lot of garbage and a lot of just junk that had accumulated over the years," says volunteer Deloise Noble-Strong. "Any time horses are involved the community that has or knows anything about horses really wants to help."

And they did. A dozen volunteers came on weekends over the past year.

James Chase, who runs the stable, says "it's a work in progress."

Along with 18 horses, Chase also keeps a goat, a pot bellied pig, an alpaca, chickens, turkeys and rabbits, all so the neighborhood kids can come and pet and groom and learn about animals.

For him, this is personal.

"It kind of hurt a little bit when they talk that way like they going to get rid of the horse and wagons and things like that, because there's still people out here who depend on them," he says.

Which brings us back to B.J., an Arabber who's out for eight hours every day, "as long as it ain't over 92 or below 32," he says.

The stable says it still struggles to get farriers out to the city and with manure removal.

If you want to help the Arabber Preservation Society with its mission, CLICK HERE.

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