Urgent Need – Help us save slaughter bound horses in TN! This month our Tennessee shelter is planning an auction rescue to rescue horses from being purchased by kill buyers and shipped to slaughter. Shipping horses to slaughter is legal in TN, and every auction has multiple kill buyers bidding on every horse that slips into their price range. There are huge trailers and semi trucks waiting to load up the unfortunate horses who were not rescued.
With your help, we can save some of the horses from that horrible fate. Kill buyers are paying up to $450 for average size horses. We desperately need your financial help to pull precious horses out of the slaughter pipeline, rescuing, sheltering, caring, and adopting into loving homes. We can only do it with your help, won’t you be a horse’s hero?
To help save precious lives, click here.
The Tennessean Newspaper did a front page story on Tennessee Walking Horses and the truth behind soring. This is huge, many people in Tennessee believe that the Big Lick gait is natural or can be trained without soring or other harsh methods. To read the article, click here.
In the newspaper it had a photo with some of our staff at the Big Lick protest we attended. We are so glad that we could help be a voice for the horses that have no voice.
We had 4 horses surrendered from a lady who could no longer keep them due to her husband’s health. She loves helping horses, but now due to her husband’s health she is no longer able to continue her small rescue operation. Our staff headed out to pick them up.
The first two horses are named Sunny and Sara. Sunny is a 18 year old TB gelding and Sara (the dark horse) is a 25 year old gaited mare. They loaded right up into the trailer without too much trouble.
Before long they were unloaded at the TN shelter, then the trailer headed out to pick up the other two.
The next horse is named Sierra Sage, he is a 15 year old Arabian gelding.
Cloud is a 10 year old TN Walker / Spotted Saddle Horse gelding.
He is really beautiful and we are hopeful he will have his weight back in no time.
Sierra Sage was happy to get out of the trailer.
Their feet all needed to be done so we had the old order Mennonite farriers, Eli and Moses, come out to get their feet done. They do such an excellent job and we are very happy to have them as part of our team.
They are also helping us with some of the horses who are not trained to ride. They are doing a great job getting them trained up. They are old order Mennonite and do not wish their faces to be shown. They live much like Amish and do all their farming with horses. Star has been doing really well with getting trained to ride.
One Eli was confident Star would be OK, he led Lydi around on her.
We are really happy with Eli and Moses’ training techniques and the horses do really well with their gentle methods.
Many of you remember Chance, the skinny starving stallion we rescued from an auction.
Chance has been recovering beautifully and is quite the stunning gelding now.
With Eli and Moses’ help, he is now under saddle and doing so well.
Our TN shelter is definitely in the heart of Amish country. We had heard a lot of bad things about how the Amish treat their horses, but as of yet, we have not seen any abuse. We’re sure it happens, like in any culture, but it is certainly not wide spread in the area we are in. When horses are tied up we see water buckets left for them.
Horse and buggy is a common sight alongside the roads. During cooler weather horses are often trotting down the road, but when it gets hot, the Amish keep them to a walk. On one wagon going down the road, Tawnee noticed that the Amish man had a garden sprayer and was keeping his horses misted with cool water.
We are trying to build relationships with the Amish so they will retire their horses to our shelter instead of sending them to the local auctions when they are no longer able to work. We have been purchasing some of our tack from the Amish. It is cheaper and hand made with very fine quality.
The vet came out to get the new horses current on Coggins.
He also floated teeth and did lameness and health checks. Thankfully they were all given a clean bill of health!
Sunny, who had been with us almost a month and gaining weight nicely, had a potential adopter coming out to look at him.
He is such a good boy and they quickly fell in love with him.
We are so happy for Sunny and his new family. We know he will be very loved and pampered.
Please remember our Slaughter Bound Auction Fundraiser. Know that your support for our rescue efforts is greatly needed. At TN auctions NO horse is safe from shipping to slaughter, we need your help! Click here.