Clover the mini therapy horse is being evicted after her owner spent six figures making a home for her — why the city said neigh

That owner, Judy Hinchey, says she applied for a license to keep Clover at her home last August and spent $100,000 to build what she understood to be a proper shelter, only to have her license denied two months ago.

“I followed the rules as I interpreted them, fixed my yard to make a nice home for my miniature therapy horse,” she wrote on Facebook. “I quit my job so I could work from home and take Clover to therapy outings in hospitals, nursing homes, centers for kids with autism and any other place where a calm, well trained, very friendly miniature horse could provide comfort, care, joy and happiness to people.”

A matter of definitions

City officials say the request for the license was denied because Clover is considered a large animal. A miniature horse, in the eyes of the city, is the same as any other horse. As a result, manure storage for the animal must be at least 100 feet from property lines, something that’s impossible in the neighborhood. For small animals, as Hinchey assumed Clover would be categorized, manure can be kept just 10 feet from the property line.

“The regulation expressly identifies horses as large animals and does not include any exception or threshold based on the size of the horse,” the city wrote in a hearing determination document. “The fact that a horse may be small does not remove the animal from the category of ‘horse.’ A miniature horse is therefore a horse for purposes of the regulations that expressly identify horses as large animals.”

Hinchey said she plans to appeal the decision and take the city to court. To help pay those legal bills, which she estimates will be between $50,000 and $75,000, she has launched a GoFundMe page. As of mid-morning Friday, it had raised roughly $6,000.

Differing feelings

Hinchey maintains Clover brings comfort, connection, and joy to the people around her. While that might be true for the hospitals, nursing homes and centers for kids with autism she and the miniature horse journey to, some neighbors appear to feel differently.

After Hinchey built Clover’s facilities in her backyard, the city reached out and said it had received complaints about a manure smell. Hinchey said she then moved the manure collection barrel and purchased new products for the area, as well.

While keeping Clover might be an uphill battle, Hinchey says she’s not going to let the city rein her in.

“We clearly have a different interpretation of whether a mini horse is a large animal or not. It’s actually, by definition, a small horse,” she told news outlet WCVB.