I’ve received many emails asking if the Castiac horses would be saved or if we were waiting for enough money to be collected before saving them…
Good Question…
Easy Answer: I went ahead and guaranteed their rescue – trusting that enough money will come in throughout the month via the Bucket Fund – and if not, so be it…
Why?
I knew that I didn’t want to put you all in a predicament of needing to give or else… – nor did I want The Golden Carrot to have 3 ‘special needs’ horses dropped on them without any help, nor did I want the horses to be euthanized.
So, I guaranteed it.
(Gulp.)
I’ve told the Castiac Shelter that we were rescuing at least three of these horses. I told the Shelter manager (a very kind woman) to please not do anything with these 4 horses, please.
The Shelter manager was delighted (understatement) and sent over all the adoption applications. We are now working out the details together.
Then, in a stroke of luck/good fortune, a private party stepped up to take the TWH mare! More on this below…
All the horses will be safe!
Lester, the sweet poster boy of the group! The shelter loves him and he was the one who inspired everyone to rally and save this group. Lester is down in his fetlocks and is no longer much of a riding horse. But he is only 12 and now, luckily, earmarked to live out his life at The Golden Carrot!
MISCONCEPTION
I received several emails which contained words like: extortion, high priced, fake, stealing…
I was blown away – then again, these words made me realize that many of you might not know the process here.
So, basically…
There are two reasons why we all don’t have 20 horses in our backyard.
1) space
2) money to support them
If I asked most of you to take three special needs horses who were condemned to death, many of you would say, “I wish I could, but with hay prices…” or, “I wish I could but I don’t have the space… or the money…”
Asking most anyone to take 3 horses is a very big deal.
Needless to say, no private parties were coming forward to help these horses.
Special needs horses and older horses are very difficult to place…
This 14 year-old Palomino QH was run through an auction last week, bought and then brought into the Shelter the very next day because the new owner noticed his arthritis… He is also headed to The Golden Carrot for his forever home!
THE NEGOTIATION
What happened to turn things around for these 4 horses was:
THE GOLDEN CARROT emailed me and said that she had room for three horses but could not support them without sponsors.
I grabbed the opportunity and negotiated with her… If she could provide a forever home (which means food and medicine for the lives of all three horses), I would provide 6 months of support for them via the Bucket Fund.
She offered a very inexpensive support rate of $150/month per horse.
I could not resist saving three lives so…
I told her that if the BF didn’t make enough money, I’d support them myself.
The Golden Carrot owner took a deep breath and agreed.
…
That isn’t exploitation. That isn’t greed. That isn’t high price.
What we did was negotiate a way to save these horses where one person had the space and the other person had the means.
The Golden Carrot is going to take three horses for the rest of their lives, and The Horse and Man Group by way of the Bucket Fund will (hopefully) help her with the first 6 months of their care.
That was the only way I could figure out how to do this…
Now named, Red, this 24 year-old special needs horse is earmarked for safety at the Golden Carrot. If all goes well, he will be picked up this week!
THE TWH MARE
Then, by a stroke of extreme luck and good fortune, a reader stepped up to take the TWH mare.
You might remember her, Debra Hawk. Back in February, she organized the rescue and placement of 71 mares and babies who were on the Fallon Feedlot.
She worked like a crazy person to save all of those horses.
And, yesterday, she opened her personal home to the TWH mare.
Wonderful.
The wonderful Debra Hawk (who saved 71 mares/babies from the Fallon feedlot) opened her private home to this special needs mare!
THE 18 YEAR-OLD QH
It ends up that the 18 year old QH was an ex-police horse and he was adopted out almost immediately!
This ex-police horse was adopted privately!
WORKING OUT THE DETAILS
So, right now, we are working out the details of applications, medical needs and transportation.
If all goes as planned, the three headed for The Golden Carrot will be picked up Thursday, Oct 11.
Debra is hoping to pick up the TWH mare on Oct 13.
EXTORTION? – nope. But help would be GREAT!
So, now that you know the whole story… if any of you would like to support these (finally) lucky equines in their new forever homes, there are 2 ways.
–Via the Bucket Fund which this month is collecting to help support these horses for the first few months in their new forever homes.
–OR, by becoming a sponsor for one of the individual horses at TGC (linked here). You can also email her directly (cocarrot@earthlink.net) saying “I pledge X amount for X horse ….”
(Sponsorship at TGC is any amount you can commit to – monthly, every other month, every third month, every six months, or annually. It’s the committment that makes a sponsor, rather than a general donor.)
OR, JUST DO A LITTLE DANCE… THAT THESE HORSES ARE S-A-F-E. YAHOOOOOOOO!
HORSE AND MAN is a blog in growth… if you like this, please pass it around!
Copyright
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
You restore my faith in humanity. This month marks 1 year that we let our two ancient TWH’s travel to the rainbow bridge. We are still recovering from the financial impact of the last few years – but would not have changed a thing. We still miss them dearly. Soon we will be able to help others again.
YES I DID. GAVE THE NAME AND ALL THE CONTACT INFORMATION OF THE SHELTER THAT HAS THEM… LA County:
Castaic
Animal Care
Center
31044 N. Charlie Canyon Rd.
Castaic, CA 91384
(661) 702-7098 and talk to Kathy Baxter (Shelter Veterinarian) or Karen Stepp (Shelter Manager
Hours:
Monday – Thursday: 12:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Closed Holidays
Directions:
Take the 5 Freeway, exit on Parker Road and go east. Make right on Castaic Road merge onto Tapia Canyon Road and make a left on Charlie Canyon Road.
You never mentioned where these horses are, is Castaic in CA near Ventura?
Thank you for all your efforts to save these horses. I have donated but didn’t see where I could donate monthly. I will go back and look. As a horse owner we all know how much money and work it is to take care of horses. I am in Minnesota or would have seriously considered taking one myself. Thanks again! Linda
People can donate or send good wishes or not. What does extortion have have to do with anything? If we love horses, we try to do what we can. If someone doesn’t agree, go try to help a cause you do care about. I’m happy the horses will get a life they deserve and have earned.
Dawn
Sorry you had to endure the nastygrams. People, I tell ya.
Every horse rescue is hurting for funds in this economy, and there are more “unwanted” horses than ever, at least partially for the same reason. I rescued an elder horse four years ago (who is doing GREAT) and I know how hard it is to place them and how much more expensive it is to care for them. I did donate to this cause, because I have little doubt these horses gave their all to their owners for many years. They deserve respect and retirement, not a sale to the meatman and a brutal transport to a more brutal end.
I hope others see the light (and the light in their hearts) and help out a little….
Bless you Dawn.
You know I have donated in the past………………but right now the Gov is wanting to take some of my SSI.. so I gotta take care of me and mine.
You do good work,don’t let those few idjits get you down.