Native American Christmas Celebration

Nothing like it! 

Come and have a Cherokee Christmas!

Bring your friends and family!

Meet Sandman or Meat Sandman?

Sandman learning all humans are not unkind.

Should this horse be sent to slaughter because it will not be ride able?
       
  Meet Sandman 


His fetlock joints are not strong enough to carry a rider. Under 4 years old, already discarded like trash. He had a bad start nutritionally which caused problems so he was being sold for meat prices per pound. Why would someone breed their animal then not take care of it?  

Very thin on arrival to rescue farm

He is a big Belgiun draft horse and sweet but you need to take time to win his trust. He was treated unkindly because the owner saw no other value in him except a few hundred dollars. Volunteer Elizabeth McPeek put out the word on this guy needing help. Thanks to generous donations from compassionate people, we were able to save him from death. We were able to buy him from the kill pen. He was very underweight, dirty, had bad feet and was terrified of humans. When I arrived at the auction barn, only one man was there. It wasn't an auction day so not much was going on. He told me he knows very little about horses but he would help me get him. He thought he should chase the horse around the pen to catch him so he continued that for a while. I am sure he saw this done many times and knew no better way. All it did was frighten the already frightened horse even more. There were a series of shoots and gates to get horses through to the auction so I went in and got behind Sandman and just guided him by being behind him. He finally got to a small shoot area and the man helping closed both the front and back gate. It restrained him but the poor horse was trembling bad. I had to climb the side fencing to try and get a halter on him. He was so large and fearful. He kept going up and down with his head, it took about 10 minutes to finally get the halter on his head and buckled. I climbed down the side of the fence and held tightly onto the lead rope. Gently touching his face, I whispered, "You are going to be safe now, I promise." With his eyes wide with anxiety of what was going to happen to him, he let out a nice deep breath and walked with me out the barn door. I had the trailer door opened and showed him the good hay waiting for him. There was no hay or water in his holding area so he walked right in to the trailer. I guess he was starting to believe my words about being safe. An hour later, we arrived at the Chickamauga, Georgia farm. He unloaded well, we took some pictures to document his progress. In the pasture, he found another draft horse to buddy up with. The kind volunteers at the farm give him hope that humans are not bad. He has come a long way in the year he has been with us. He gained weight, learned to pick up his feet for the Farrier (hoof trimmer) and is going to get his teeth worked on soon. Yes, horses go to dentists too. 

Volunteers showing kindness

 Our goal is not how many horses find homes, it is to improve the life of each horse, get to know it's needs and search for the best home possible. We get to know each horse and can honestly let a prospective adopter know the needs of each horse. We want long term forever love each horse deserves. That is our mission to Save The Horses. With all the wonderful volunteers, it is done 365 days a year. No one gets a salary, everyone gets more than they give. It is a little sad to see a horse to to a new home but it gives your heart such a lift knowing you are part of something so much bigger than yourself. Some of our volunteers have been here several years, if brings such joy. It make humans human.


Sandman is healthy but does need some dental work which will will have done. He is available for adoption to a loving home who appreciates his majesty and grace he possesses. 

Majestic Sandman

Sad, heartbreaking but not illegal. Thousands of horses are sold to be slaughtered for human consumption every year. Though America does not have a slaughter plant on our soil, horses are sent to Mexico and Canada to be killed. 

Fear in of the unknown is seen in his eye

www.SaveTheHorses.org is against horse slaughter. Horse owners need to be responsible for their animals, stop breeding horses and take to time to find safe homes if they no longer want their once beloved horse. The difference between life and death in only a few hundred dollars. We purchased Sandman for $350. 

Thank you for your continued support to Save The Horses. Your generosity saves lives everyday. Do not ever think your donation is too small. 70 people donating $5.00 each  could save Sandman.
10 people donating $35.00 each and so on. 
It all ads up to saving horses! 

Gwen from New Jersey to Georgia

Jason with Gwen at SaveTheHorses Farm

 Gwen went to a foster home with Lisa and Jen on Sunday. These two ladies have experience in rehabilitating and working with draft horses. We do not know if she has ever been ridden but we do think she drives a cart. Does it matter? Not to all the SaveTheHorses volunteers nor Lisa and Jen. Our theory is all horses need loving safe homes. We honor them all no matter what ability or disability each horse may have. 

Even if a horse becomes a giant yard ornament, we love and honor each one the same. SaveTheHorses sees the value of life in each horse, not a dollar value. In the Spring, they will decide if we should put her up for adoption or if they just can't let her go. You know how easy it is to fall in love when you are with a horse everyday!

Gwen's history? She was saved by many compassionate donors who gathered together enough money to get Gwen from the kill buyer auction in New Jersey inappropriately named Camelot. When you think of Camelot, you think of idealism, adventure and romance. This Camelot is an auction full of horses that are thrown away for a per pound price. With the help of the Internet and those willing to donate, horses are saved from slaughter. Gwen was used up by her Amish owners. There is always another horse to replace another. People are always breeding animals for profit. What happens to the horse after the money changes hands is not important to most people. Those of you reading this are so empathetic for the suffering of horses but realistically, are a small group compared to all Americans. As hard as we work to educate others, most do not know that the fate of many horses is a horrible death then butchered for human consumption. 

This is a happy time from Gwen. She has been in the care of SaveTheHorses since Nov 2010. We let her enjoy being a horse and living on 100 acres of peace and comfort. It isn't about a turnover of horse to new homes, it is about the quality and love each horse deserves. It is costly but it is our promise to every horse. How can we put a price on that? 

Thank you all for being a part of SaveTheHorses.org It is all of you that contribute in every way that makes it all work to Save The Horses.

RIP Arnold Swartzenhogger

Arnold Swartzenhogger

It was about 8 years ago, when Fulton County Animal Services called and left a message. They found a large pig that was unclaimed. They would have to euthanize if they couldn't find a place for him. I only had one pig, Annie, at the time, so I agreed to take him. Annie is sweet and loving so I didn't expect anything different from another pig. 

The animal control officer told me they found him wandering the streets terrorizing local residents. When I saw him, it was easy to see why everyone was scared of him. He was a couple of hundred pounds of a white hog looking animal with large tusks . He surely resembled a wild boar. If any human approached him, he would scream. An adult pig screaming is loud, low a sort of growling, like "I am going to eat you" sound. I can imagine people running into to him in the street and hearing him then running the other way. Both pig and human scared to death. It took while for 5 men to catch him in a stall at animal control. He was just as afraid as the humans he met on the street. People must have thrown things at him trying to make him go away and teased him as well. It was sad to see the mental condition he was in, as well as his physical appearance. He was filthy, covered with ticks and his skin looked like he had poor nutrition.We finally managed to get him by wrapping him in a tarp and everyone picking it up and pushing him into the trailer. Once I got back to the farm, he was too frightened to get off the trailer. It took a couple of brave volunteers to help push him down the ramp of the trailer. He sounded so ferocious. 

I named him Arnold Swartzenhogger. The goal was to get him in great condition, all muscle, like the other Arnold of movie fame. This was our movie star! Everyday, I would approach him, as I got closer, he would let out a loud cry of fear. Eventually I could gently touch him and he learned it was good to be at the rescue farm. His health improved, his tusks were removed and he became Annie's BFF. 

 Arnold became very gentle. He was an older pig but no way to tell his age. Now an older gentleman, our Arnold. 

In the past few months, Arnold lost weight and seemed to become arthritic. Volunteers had to actually lift in up so he could stand. He lost interest in food. He was deteriorating and he quality of life was decreasing fast. You can see he lost his muscle. I was time to help him gently cross the Rainbow Bridge. Finding a veterinarian that knows how to gently euthanize a pig turned out to be difficult but after 20 phone calls, two of our equine vets agreed to the sad task. 

Rest In Peace Arnold Swartzenhogger.

You will be missed, you were very loved. We shed tears for all animals here when we lose them. We are honored he came to us and stayed so long. He brought understanding about pigs to all who knew him. These are gently souls and deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. 

Jake Loves (and needs) Food

Jake has been with us 2 weeks. He is a 26 y o Arabian that the owners said always did well on pasture. I guess they didn't think to buy grain or call a vet. He weighted 742 pounds when we picked him up and brought him to SaveTheHorses Rescue farm. He gets Senior feed several times a day. He makes sure because he gets to walk around free rather than in a pasture and when he sees a human head toward the feed barn, he comes over and whinnies, 'Feed me, please!'. He is a sweet horse and has probably been taken care of most of his life until recently. I don't know what happened that he lost so much weight and it was just ignored but he surely suffered for it. He was starving. I doubt he would have lived much longer without grain or hay. He was on about a 2 acre pasture with green grass, lovely black board fencing in a very well to do neighborhood. 

We couldn't put shavings in his stall because he was so starved, he'd eat them. We let him just be staled on rubber mats and put food grade diaomaceous earth on it to absorb the smell. If he was in the stall and we took a shovel of shavings and put it on the urine pool to absorb it so we could shovel it out, so he could have a clean stall, he would start gobbling the shavings. He couldn't help himself he was so hungry. The other day, he walked into a few stalls that the horses who occupy them were turned out, he was looking in their feed buckets for left overs. Then he rolled in a stall and he was covered in shavings. It was a breakthrough, he is past the starving point. We realized he was ready for shavings in his own stall, to keep it clean and to keep him comfortable. It was a simple thing, shaving in his stall. It was joyous for everyone at the rescue farm. Jake had taken a step forward. 

The day he was brought to the farm, started out bad. He ate some grain in the 30 minute trailer ride from his home back to the farm. He  was so starved he gulped the food down. When the trailer door opened for him to get out to the safety of the rescue farm, food was coming out of his nose. He was choking. Dr Laura Duvall Mohoney came out quickly to get a tube down his throat and clear his choke. He is on antibiotics for any aspirating that easily happen]s when you wash water down a horses esophagus. 

He loves his new girlfriend, Lady Jane. They look like Jack Sprat (who could eat not fat) and his wife (who could eat not lean). You have to love their relationship. He loves her, she could care less. 
She actually love to tease little Humphrey, a miniature horse with a hump on his back. 

Drama sat the rescue farm! 

Thank you for your compassion and support! 

You save lives of horses like Jake, Lady Jane and Lil Humphrey everyday!  Thank you so much! 

Our Farm Inspector is a Goat!

Pebbles the Inspector!

Getting things ready around the farm makes some animals take notice. What was going on here? 


We were going to paint the picnic tables  so we turned them over to paint the underside hoping to make them last longer. Your donations are needed to buy food and hay and pay vet bills for the horses. We really don't want to spend any extra money on picnic tables so we try and make everything last as long as possible. One of the volunteers replaced some rotted wood so we were ready to start painting. 

Pebbles and Goliath

Along comes Pebbles, a very nosy goat who appointed herself  'Picnic Table Inspector'. She knew something was going on and she needed to make sure we 'humans' knew what we were doing. Right behind Pebbles, was Goliath, the Chihuahua, who Pebbles appointed 'Vice Inspector' of picnic tables. 


Pebbles didn't have a mother to teach her so I am guessing she was born a genius. She was found by some city folks who took her to a wildlife sanctuary in Stone Mountain, Georgia called AWARE.  The family thought they had found an abandoned baby deer. It was a good rescue on their part. They wanted to save this little innocent soul and got involved. AWARE called and told us the mistake, it is a baby goat not a fawn, and that they do not do farm animals. One of the AWARE volunteers brought Pebbles to SaveTheHorses Farm and she quickly became a favorite to all visitors. 


We 'humans' have an election coming up in  a little over a week. Zillions of dollars are spent on campaigns ads, truths are told, lies are told and we 'humans' have to make major decisions and pick our leaders. The world at the rescue farm is not like that. These animals take it upon themselves to 'get the job' done when they see a job needing help. No campaigning, no voting, no money spend. They just appoint themselves and take over.  They are leaders!  

Pebbles watching over Roy

When our retired Carriage horse, Roy, was having some physical problems, Pebbles was there to make sure he was safe. 

We 'humans' learn a lot from the animals here are the farm everyday. 

SaveTheHorses.org is a all volunteer, non profit organization that cares for unwanted horses and farm animals. A no-kill shelter located in Cumming GA.

A Horses Destiny is Our Choice

Destiny, a Craigslist find

Craigslist posts has free and inexpensive horses needing new homes everyday. Some horse owners are willing to dump their horses to the first person with a horse transport trailer who shows up. Where is the horse going? Some people don't care, just take it away and they are free of their responsibly. A horses fate is in our hands if we are willing to help. There are people who can walk away from an animal in danger. There are those who find a way to help. 


One local family was looking for a horse when they came across this big mare. Destiny is a Percheron mare that a family saved from Craigslist. She was very thin, had bad feet but she was not the horse they needed for their little 6 year old. They couldn't leave her behind. They didn't feel she was safe where she was but they didn't feel they were knowledgeable enough to make her healthy. Instead of walking away, they found a solution. They brought Destiny home and called SaveTheHorses.org and asked for help. 

Destiny loves carrots. Sandra is enjoying feeding her treats. 

 We have gotten many malnourished many horses and changed their lives. It was a 'yes' we will come and get her when this family called. Destiny was a handful, hard to handle and pushy on the ground  She is big and strong, surely not a 6 year old child's horse. Destiny needs to gain a few hundred pounds to fill on each rib and get strong enough to carry a rider and become healthy. After a month of good nutrition, plus good farrier work by Mele Miller, we moved her to our 100 acre grass pasture in Chickamuaga Georgia. She can gain weight and get her body exercised and build muscle on that big pasture.  

Destiny getting love at Chickamauga

This family still wants a perfect horse for their 6 year old. We have a 'yes' to that too. Caraway is a 20 something Appaloosa mare.

Caraway

 She came to us through animal control a few years ago. It didn't take us long to find her a home. She was adopted to a 10 year old boy named Wiley. She was a perfect, gentle horse for Wiley because he was fragile from the brain cancer that was he was fighting at the time. It was in remission and Wiley spent many hours with Caraway. They were both gentle souls and loved one another. Within 2 years, the cancer overtook Wiley and he passed away. It was so heartbreaking to be involved in this. How can this happen to a child? Life is so unfair. I am so grateful that SaveTheHorses could make Wiley's life happy even for such a short time. Partnering a special boy with a special horse is such an honor. 

After Wiley's was laid to rest. his family knew Caraway could give another child the love she gave Wiley. They were right. Caraway is now the constant companion of that little 6 year old , Meg, and she is making another child smile everyday. 

Caraway and Meg

Rescue is many things. Rescue is everything. It is a fragile circle that rescuers live within. You all know and join in that circle even though we know it can bring heartache and pain at anytime but the moments of joy make it all worth the efforts. 

There is a home for every horse. It takes time and effort and compassionate people like you to keep a rescue running and helping more and more horses. 

SaveTheHorses.org