About Rescue Horses

Wendy, good point and one I meant to make.
I don't think the price someone is willing to pay should be an indicator of the home the animal is going to get. Stick with your home checks (And do more than one), referances, etc rather than rely on the price dictating the home.

Barry -- The rescue business is one of the worst I could think of for someone who wanted to make money. However Shea mentioned that she is able to survive without the rescue business and from the sound of it is trying to do this for the horses. I don't think wanting to make money would be greedy, but in this business, I think that mentality would be foolish. Shea, I think you got some good advice, and you're headed in the right direction. If you only keep 5 or 6 horses as a time you will be ahead of some of the rescues I have seen. Best of luck.

Thanks Spastic. Like I said, I'm not trying to start a fight, but I've been doing rescue work with all types of animals for 15 years, and ran my own for 4. I had "set" adoption fees, however once an application came in, the home checks, and ALL the references were checked, if I felt the animal was going to get the absolute BEST possible care, I would often lower the adoption fee. Most people don't realize that it cost between $90-$125 to spay/neuter a rabbit. Our adoption fees for bunnies was $95, which didn't even cover that, let alone the feed, hay, other vet care, meds, etc. Average monthly care for ONE rabbit was $35, NOT including any medical care, surgeries, prescriptions, etc. Oftentimes some of these bunnies were with us for over a year, with the average stay being around 6 months. NOT CHEAP, especially when you are caring for 60+ small animals at a time. Most people wouldn't even consider spending that much on a rabbit, but the ones who were willing to do so were the ones that could provide the best. I'm a firm believer that money is not an idicator of quality of life, for humans OR animals. It's the love, caring, nurturing, and overall happiness that matters the most. :)

I totally agree with CSWendy and SpasticD on the free thing. ALL my horses except one were free. Of course nothing is truly free and they all came with a hitch of some kind. Ironically, I value the free ones almost more than the one that I paid for. Somehow I feel more responsible for them because I know that no one else wants them. I still keep in touch with previous owners of horses that have even passed away by now.

Shea, good luck with what you are doing. I wish I could do it, but as stated, a horse rescue generally costs money. If you break even -- good for you. Also, the emotional commitment must be something else. Don't count on the money coming in from the adoption / sale of horses to keep your operation running. It won't be enough for sure. Nice to hear you are limiting the number of horses you have as well. It's too easy to just say, "Oh, only ONE more..." until you end up with 20 and then what?!?

It's not poor ethics. It's business. It's really no different than any owner who has a horse that's unbroke and might sell the horse for $500 but the horse doesn't sell....so the owner puts in more money and time into the horse (training) and the horse is now well broke and worth $1,000 or $1,500 or if the horse gets even more training, like let's say in a discipline...and turns out to be pretty damn good at it.... the price just goes up a bit more....

I commend you for doing what you do. I think that's awesome. I know of several people who have rescues.

One in particular, takes in horses at $600 each from the feedlot and hands em over to trainer friends and the horses get rodeo training (those who are "meant" for it)....in barrels, or cow work or....and trails and ....so on...and so, the price goes up.

She's gotten some really cool horses from the feedlot that had dressage training, were perfect trail horses, were finished cow horses, but who got dumped by their owners at the auction because of money situation or some other reason (nothing wrong with the horses)......for example, there was a sorrel that she got that turns out, ended up at the auction because he belonged to a teenage boy who's mother got pissed off at him and took his horse to auction just because of that.

The horse went to a trainer friend who found out that the horse was a really great find...the horse was fully trained to work cattle and roping! So, his price went up when it was discovered that he was fully trained. All the money goes right back to rescuing more horses.

You might want to get a website and post about the horses you've got, post some videos through Youtube.com.

I would just like to thank all of you. I found good advice and encouragement in ALL of your opinions.

My website is www.wesavehorses.org

If ya'll get a chance, please check it out. I'm open to any suggestions. I think that being accepting of peoples opinions and advice is what helps people and places remain progressive and do the most amount of good. So whether all the opinions I hear agree with one another, I can still find helpful bits in all of them.

Thanks again you all. And Bright Blessings to you and yours.