We will be going to an auction this coming week and need your help to save precious lives from slaughter! We are planning on saving 10-15 horses if funds allow. Our adoption program this year is extremely successful with nearly 100 adoptions at our Tennessee shelter this year alone. We have rescued well over 150 horses, donkeys, ponies and mules this year, and of those, only 22 were humanely euthanized for quality of life issues. Often times at auctions we attend there are horses that desperately need the Last Act of Kindness to relieve chronic medical conditions that are causing them to suffer. We believe that every animal deserves love and kindness, even if it is doing the right thing for them in the end, giving them love and compassion and saying “Goodbye.” We are extremely proud of all the hard work Kristen is doing training, evaluating, and finding them adoptive homes. We are implementing a new foster/adopt program for horses that need a bit of weight, but are healthy enough to go to qualified homes to finish their rehabilitation. With your donation, we can save precious lives at this auction and adopt them to loving, forever homes. For horses at this auction, you are their only hope. Please donate now, even $25 will help save a life! To donate, click here.
We have a great group of girls that volunteer weekly at our shelter and help Kristen. At the end of the day, they are often rewarded for their hard work by helping exercise shelter horses on trail rides. It’s a great way to keep the horses trail riding skills up too.
There’s ponds back on the trails, and the horses always enjoy cooling off. It’s a great treat for horses and volunteers alike.
Lucky was adopted in Florida last year, and came back to us with another horse, Diamond, who was also adopted. They said Diamond was a cryptorchid stallion and that we had adopted a stallion after advertising him as a gelding to them and demanded we taken them back immediately. They didn’t want either of them after owning them for over 6 months. We felt horrible that somehow we missed Diamond was a stallion. He came to us as a gelding, and his behavior indicated he was a gelding as he was pastured with mares and never exhibited any stallion like behavior. It cost our organization a lot of money in travel expenses to go get them, but we are always committed to the animals that have come through our shelter. When they both arrived at our shelter, we kept Diamond isolated even though he looked to be a gelding because they said he was a cryptorchid stallion. After a thorough examination, he still appeared to be a gelding, and we introduced him to mares, and he acted like every other gelding out there. Diamond was placed back in the pen with the mares and is most certainly a gelding with no stallion behavior. They are both two exceptionally nice horses, and we are happy to say that Lucky has been adopted and Diamond will be soon. Lucky is a very special horse, we tried to purchase him as a skinny horse at a TN auction, but a kill buyer had purchased him before the sale. He ran through the ring, and the auctioneer said “Send him out, he’s already sold.” When we went back to load up the horses we had rescued, we saw him getting loaded up onto a kill truck. We asked the kill buyer if we could buy him. He said if he could make $100 above his cost we could have him. Lucky was such a sweet horse we couldn’t let $100 be the difference between life and death at a slaughterhouse.
Lucky used to be a big-lick show horse. Even now the scars are still visible on his pasterns from the chemicals that are burned into their legs to get the big lick gait.
Wednesday Kristen was showing horses to potential adopters. One of our previous adopters came out to look for another horse to add to her family. Kristen likes taking potential adopters on trail rides so they can get a good introduction to the horse they are interested in adopting.
When they got back from the trail ride, the adopter knew she had found her right horse. She was all smiles and is arranging transportation.
There was a lot of potential adopters at our shelter on Wednesday, and Angel heard a lot of voices she did not recognize. She kept walking over to the fence to try and figure out who all was at the shelter. She is such a beautiful girl.
Kristen had 3 different sets of adopters all looking at horses. It was quite a busy day, but horses finding homes is always the best kind of day.
This family adopted Hope. Look at those huge smiles! We are so happy for Hope and her new family.
In one of our previous blogs we talked about 3 horses that were surrendered. Charlie was the skinny white horse, and the day he was surrendered a lady came to meet him who wanted to take him through the foster/adopt program. She really fell in love with him that day!
She was so happy to finally be able to take Charlie home after everything was approved.
She also adopted Royal so Charlie would have his friend. We know these two will have a great home together.
We waved goodbye to Charlie and Royal as they headed off on their new adventure.
Tawnee spent the morning coordinating 1-Day Shelters. It’s a huge job getting them all lined up for multiple events stretching through the year. We will be posting a list of upcoming events soon. Near the end of the day she finally got outside to get some ditching done with the tractor. We had a storm last week that dumped 6 inches of rain overnight, and it made it obvious where ditches needed to be made.
The donkeys were very curious about why Tawnee was messing up their pen. The ditch is made with a plow and is only a few inches deep so there is no worries about them hurting themselves. We recently bought the plow for $60 and it works great.
Tricia, who runs our Horse Plus Therapy program, has been taking the minis lots of places. She often takes the minis to a young man who has many disabilities, and who loves walking and spending time with the minis. It brings such joy to his life!
The Ronald McDonald house in Nashville has also been visited by our therapy minis. Look at that giant smile! The joy these minis bring is indescribable and leaves us with such a wonderful feeling.
Please remember the horses at the auction next week that we will be able to rescue with your donation. We cannot save them without you!