We are excited to announce a new program we have been working on developing, and running a pilot test, since January. This program will massively increase adoptions utilizing equine professionals as adoption partners. Approved Equine Professionals participating in this program will be able to select pre-evaluated horses at our shelter, take them to their facility for additional training, if needed, and adoption to the right homes. Each horse available to the Equine Professionals would have an initial training and temperament evaluation performed by our shelter trainer and a medical exam by the shelter veterinarian. The Equine Professional will give the horse any further training it needs and adopt the horse to the right home for that horse. The Equine Professional Adoption Partners will ultimately be ambassadors helping to educate the horse community that horses in transition are as good as any other horse that can be purchased from a trainer or horse trader. People looking to get a horse often go directly to a trainer to buy their horse, and this would allow trainers and other equine professionals to provide them with quality horses that were in transition at our shelter. This program can be easily replicated across the United States, which would massively increase the number of horses in transition being adopted.
Kristen, our shelter trainer, opened our eyes to the amazing networking ability trainers and other equine professionals have in their community. Equine professionals have resources in their communities that allow them to place horses into great homes that would never go to a shelter to adopt a horse in transition. Kristen has done an absolutely amazing job adopting horses from our shelter, and placed nearly 200 horses from our TN shelter just last year!
We ran a pilot test of this program with actress and equine professional Payton Christian. The test has been very successful, and she has been a wonderful partner to work with.
Payton has already adopted out two horses, Sunny (not pictured) and Fabio, during the pilot part of the program. Fabio wouldn’t have found this perfect family if it wasn’t for Payton’s participation in our Equine Professional Adoption Program.
If you are an equine professional in Tennessee or surrounding states who would like to participate in this exciting new program, we would love to hear from you. Please visit the Equine Professional Adoption Program page and sign up to join – Click Here.