“After a long and tough journey, we decided to exchange our weapons for the land and livelihood that was taken from us during the civil war. We can now show the world who we really are, how we think, and why we live this model of life. We hope that while you spend time with us in our community, you can gain the understanding, sensitivity, and significance of the thirty-six years of armed resistance we endured and the lessons that we learned from that conflict.” -Coop Nuevos Horizontes.
Coop Nuevos Horizontes is a socialist community created by former guerrilla members. Back in 2008, the Coop requested ESAP to train a man from its community to take care of their equines, this man was Jefry Mencos.
Nowadays Jefry doesn’t live anymore in Nuevos Horizontes, he moved away with his wife and 2 daughters to a farm in Santa Ana, Petén.
He’s in charge of the farm and he has many responsibilities as well as many animals to take care of: goats, water buffalos, 15 horses and a few Australian shepherds.
Some of the animals in the farm
Jefry is a passionate man who loves his job, especially because he has the opportunity to work with horses every day. It’s easy to see how dedicated he is, and how much he cares about the animals.
Jefry Mencos treating a spine wound
Jefry said, “4 new horses came to the farm 2 months ago, their body condition was pretty low, they still have hoof problems, they had wounds and the animals didn’t allow me to touch them, I have got a lot to do, to help them”
Jefry’s boss pays him a regular salary to feed and provide basic care to the animals, but Jefry charges for any extra treatment the animals need (hoof trimming, healing wounds and taming), this allows Jefry to have an extra income.
One of the extra treatments he does is hoof cleaning and trimming, he explained that he got 4 new horses 2 months ago and all of them have hoof problems
Jefry also have rehab cases, he has 4 in the farm where he works; Mencos thinks that the person who “took care” of the animals before used to hit them on the face, as all of them react when Jefry moves his hands near their heads. He explained that he’s been working on the matter and has earned his trust already.
When Jefry left Nuevos Horizontes he trained 2 friends from there, so they could carry on with some of the horses that required taming. Jefry is back in Nuevos Horizontes to check how are the 2 horses he couldn’t finish taming, but his two friends continued with the process and from what he evaluated it seems that they've done a great job.
One of the rehab cases from Nuevos Horizontes
If you're interested in contacting Jefry Mencos, please contact us at (502) 7832-9561 or sent us an email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.