Someone set me straight about these Horse Rescue farms~!

You know Annnie, if you have a burning desire to help a horse in need, there are plenty of auctions where you can pick one up yourself for a lot less than $500.00.

I agree and I just may do that. After seeing what there is not to offer via adoption here I think that is the better option.
I think the weanling just caught my eye, and I thought what the heck...but for now I will wait. Good suggestion and likely at some point I will do just that.

She is not a rescue. She is either a hoarder or trader. Maybe even both. There is no rescue that I have ever heard of that has an adoption fee of $25,000 on any horse. In their application they only need ONE reference and it doesn't have to be your vet. She sounds like a hoax to me.

I have a friend who gave a horse to HCW.... and while they do take in the occasional slaughter-bound horse, I fear most of the horses they take in should maybe not be resold and are far from needing rescuing. HCW is fairly well-know in my area - and not for good reasons. Another person I met got a horse from them only to have the horse come to her with a serious case of lice and a not as serious - but still costly - case of worms.

HCW is more a place where people seem to dump horses they can't sell for whatever reason and HCW relists them as "rescues" to find them homes and make a profit off them in the process.

In my opinion Second Start Thoroughbreds is a lot more legit as far as rescues go, and there are a number of adds on Kijiji that could offer you a valuable horse without the bidding war and also would give you a lot more background. And if you really must 'rescue' a horse - go down to the Kitchener Livestock Exchange.... there are tons of horses who really could use saving going through all the time.

When I found Persia at a rescue in California and called on her I was told that if I couldn't come see her but knew I wanted her, I had to let them know before the next day when people were coming in to look at the new rescues. There was no "I'll keep you in mind, but let me see if I can get more for her first". Her price was what she was listed for and as long as I signed the contract and faxed it back before someone else did, she was mine.

The rescue you are looking at seems very unprofessional and I wouldn't help people like that make their money. Best to look elsewhere.

This doesn't have anything to do with anything, but the horse they have named Beau listed as a Percheron, looks identical to Persia my Percheron/QH. I wouldn't be surprised if he was mixed with QH as well. He doesn't look full Percheron anyway.

Thanks for all the input everyone. The old saying "If it smells like a rat..." rings true. Unfortunately it is farms like this that put people off of the legit Rescue places. My daughter and I were talking and I had come to the conclusion that this place was more of a hoarding situation than a Rescue. Another friend went there apparently a while back (she just told me about it)and was looking at a little paint mare that they were selling for $1000.00 (they gave her the song and dance about having several offers) They advertised her as sound, and told her when she called that the mare had a slight blemish on her hock but nothing to worry about...well when she got there the mare was tottally crippled, couldnt even put the leg down true. Of course she felt bad for the mare but no way could she buy her. She is an equine message therapist and she felt the mare was beyond help. HCW hadnt done xrays, had the vet look at it or anything.
Personally I think they should be shut down, jmo.
They should at the very least not be able to call themselves a Rescue Farm...

Second Chance Thoroughbreds or the Ontario Standardbred Adoption Society would be better places to look. Although a lot of their horses aren't in a "need rescued" situation, they could still use a good home.

Kitchener Livestock Exchange has some rough looking horses go thru it at times, if you truely feel you want to give a horse in need a home.

David Carson Farms in Listowel has sales fairly regularly too, for just regular horses...
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Haha! David Carson's is where my old Percheron came from :) I absolutely love their draft horse sales - some really nice horses to be found there.

Same with the Kitchener sale is where my barn manager picked up a team of Percherons - broke to ride and drive and both goregous! - for $600/horse.

There are some super good deals to be found if you're wanting a horse when you go to auction. But I found I needed my friend with me when I went, because if it was up to me six horses would have been coming home lol.

There are some shady "rescues" around here also. One just over the MD line was just plain despicable. The woman had horses pastured 24/7. We were there in early winter...the horses were standing up to their hocks in cold thick mud 24/7 ... with NO run in shelters, no stand of trees to get protection from the rain, nothing... in any of the REALLY REALLY small fields and their only protection from the weather was their blankets. They stood in this thick, cold mud day in and day out....their legs, hooves and even their blankets were caked with it. One was even lying down in it. Can't tell how their weight was due to the mud coated blankets.....but they looked wet, soggy,muddy, cold and miserable. And she had 4 or 5 horses in each of her very very small paddocks. They were severely overcrowded which resulted in nipping and biting.

A few years ago I was looking to bring in a companion horse and shopped at many rescues. IMO, you definitely have to be careful and picky about who you deal with. I also contacted HCW and after a short conversation I got the willies about that place as well. Nixed her off my list.

I have given up on dealing with rescue operations and instead go right to the source now -- usually the track up here for a good Standardbred. Easy to get for free, often delivered, between 2 and 5 years old that need some retraining for riding. The auction is another place, yes, but you must be very careful with that as well. You get exactly one chance to see the horse, judge whether it's been drugged, can't work with it... cross your fingers and hope for the best.

There are many people who are trying to place their horses in a good home. Watch the classifieds, kijiji, local mags -- you might get one that way. The great thing here is that you get to see how the horse has been living, you can probably meet it a few times and sometimes, not always, but sometimes you can get a reasonable relationship going with the previous owner.

Nothing is truly for free though (<$500 is almost free...) so take a grain of salt with you wherever you go.

Be careful, don't rush and you will find something.