Sacramento area horse rescues are becoming more and more necessary in today’s economy. Horses are big animals that require a lot of care, time and money to support. Like dogs and cats, horses are sometimes put in a position where their owner can no longer care for them. When this happens, they are usually sold-but sometimes, the owner does not have time for this or their efforts at finding a new home for the horse are unsuccessful. When that happens, they often turn the horse over to a horse rescue to take care of the horse and try to find it a new home. There are several horse rescues in the Sacramento area.
TB Friends
Woodland, CA
http://tbfriends.com/
TB Friends specializes in rehoming off-the-track Thoroughbreds, although they have taken on other breeds in emergency situations. Owner Joe Shelton keeps a daily blog on the website that chronicles their daily lives on the farm with an average of 100 Thoroughbred racehorses. There are always many to choose from for someone looking to adopt a horse, all for very reasonable adoption fees. The horses have varying degrees of soundness and levels of training, from chronically lame horses that were once successful on the track, to perfectly healthy ones that were too slow to race. TB Friends has rescued thousands of horses and found homes for them all over the country.
Glide Ranch
Davis, CA
http://www.glidefoundation.org/
The Glide Foundation was created through a perpetual charitable trust from the estate of Thornton (“Tawny”) S. Glide, Jr. and his wife, Katrina (“Scatter”) Dangberg Glide, both now deceased. The Foundation provides grants to certain organizations, but it also provides a home to abandoned horses, cattle, sheep, goats, pot belly pigs and donkeys. Unlike TB Friends and many other rescue organizations, Glide Ranch does not rehome the animals it adopts. Instead, they live out the remainder of their lives on the property. There is a waiting list to send an animal to Glide Ranch.
The Grace Foundation of Northern California
El Dorado Hills, CA
http://www.thegracefoundationofnorcal.org/
The Grace Foundation was founded in 2002 by Beth DeCaprio. In addition to adopting horses of all different breeds and finding them new homes, they also provide equine-assisted learning programs to youth, such as Life Science field trips, summer vet camp and day camps. They also teach riding lessons. They welcome donations and volunteer assistance.
Horses Honor and The Shiloh Foundation
Auburn, CA
http://www.geocities.com/horses_honor/
The Shiloh Foundation takes on horses from Horses Honor, as well as purchasing horses at auction that might otherwise have gone to slaughter. These horses are often young horses that simply need retraining to be good citizens, while Horses Honor often keeps the old retirees. Both rehome horses of all breeds for a fee.
Performance Equine Rescue Network (P.E.R.N.)
Greenwood, CA
http://www.pernrescue.org
P.E.R.N. is an organization that was founded in 2005 with the intention of saving horses that have potential as pleasure, competitive and all-around good riding horses that might otherwise go to slaughter. Many of these horses come from the PMU industry, racetracks, and ranches that go out of business, and P.E.R.N. helps them find new homes.
Most horse rescues are 501(c)3 organizations, so donations are tax deductible. They are largely run by volunteers, and these people are to be commended for their wonderful efforts in saving horses from horrible fates.
