FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
SIDELINES APRIL 2014 155
Mike Rubin rescued this Jersey steer, Jesse, who lived with his
horses for years. Shown here, he is checking on what he did
to protect his horses from injury - tennis balls duct taped to the
steer’s horns.
Photo courtesy of Mike Rubin
Members of EPIC trail ride through Mike Rubin’s beautiful farm near Boyds last October.
Photo by Traci Donatelli
and I’ve never looked back, only forward.”
His vision and passion for the countryside harks back to that
fateful day all those years ago when a friend doing a real estate
deal said to Mike: “Why don’t you take a break and come out
and ride a horse?” The rest, as they say, is history and a matter
of record in the annals of land conservation and environmental
activism. Mike is responsible for preserving one of the last mead-
ows in Maryland known to support the breeding and perpetua-
tion of the state butterfly, the endangered Baltimore Checkerspot
(Euphydryas phaeton), which thrives on the flowering White Tur-
tlehead, a snapdragon-like plant. He is also actively involved in
propagating the bee population, decimated by the lethal effects of
neonicotinoid pesticides used on crops.
When it comes to preserving and protecting open land and
the rural environment, crops, livestock, bees, butterflies, tree
canopies, clean air and water, horses, equestrian and other rural
sporting activities, Mike Rubin does not horse around.
For more information, visit these websites:
Equestrian Partners In Conservation: epicmontgomery.org
Conservation Montgomery: conservationmontgomery.org
Montgomery Countryside Alliance: mocoalliance.org
