Remember the SHEW Horses this Giving Tuesday
As we approach the end of 2024, we reflect on the many ways SHEW has helped horses this year. Join us in galloping across the finish line this Giving Tuesday, December 3rd, with your year-end, tax-deductible donation. Together, we can make an even bigger difference in 2025
We have some wonderful news to share with you as we reflect on our accomplishments in 2024. It's inspiring to see what SHEW, "The Little Rescue that Could," has achieved!
This year, we saved three horses from the brink of death due to slaughter. I'm thrilled to report that they are now fully recovered and are thriving in their new lives!
Every dollar will allow us to say "YES" when the phone rings this winter. Horses in need are depending on YOU!
Let me introduce you to the first of these amazing horses. Olaf, a tiny feral, was found in dire circumstances - emaciated and facing severe abuse at a rural auction in Kentucky. At barely 12 hands tall and 10 inches wide, he was forced to bear the weight of a full-size western saddle along with two large boys on his back. When SHEW friend and rescue partner, Erin O'Neal of Appalachian Legacy initiative, called us to see if we would help this little guy, we were able to say, without hesitation, “YES,” thanks to YOU. Today, Olaf is living his best life as a fancy show pony! His story could have ended so differently and is a testament to the difference we can make together.
The second horse we rescued that day was Justice. As I cruised through the sea of horses, I often offered sugar cubes, knowing it would be the last act of kindness most of them would experience. That’s when I came across an incredibly dehydrated, almost pitch-black horse with sunken eyes, struggling to breathe through his snotty nose. I offered him a sugar cube, but he didn’t understand what it was.
He was in a rope halter, tied to the wall on a very short rope. While nobody was looking, I loosened the rope to allow him to turn his head just a smidge. Poor horse! As I started to walk away, he turned and nickered at me. I could feel his eyes following and searching for me as I rounded the corner. I went back and spent a few more moments with him. That’s when I knew I couldn’t leave this one behind. Sometimes, the universe gives us an unexpected gift, and we were determined that Justice would join Willow on the trailer back to SHEW.
Once at our quarantine barn, we were better able to examine Justice, get him well hydrated and feed. When we checked his teeth to estimate his age, we were surprised to find he was actually very young—maybe only three and a half years old.
In the weeks that followed, Justice regained his health and showed us that, despite not having been handled much before, he was extremely friendly, happy, and curious about his new world. Being a young quarter horse cross with a good weight, Justice was, unfortunately, a perfect target for kill buyers—his favorable meat-to-bone ratio, and smaller size meant many more horses could fit on a single truck. But NO, they weren’t going to get this one! Justice is alive and well today because of YOU. He has a bright future, with no limitations on what he can achieve, and as of this writing, he is pending adoption! THANK YOU for helping us save this wonderful fellow! YOU changed his world!
As part of a vital nationwide rescue network, SHEW attended the Homes for Horses conference in Washington, DC, this past September. followed by a day dedicated to lobbying and educating our legislators on issues like horse slaughter, soring, and the plight of our majestic wild horses. We are so close to closing these loopholes!
Also, this year, thanks to YOU, our wonderful supporters, we were able to say “YES” again when that call came about a horse owner losing his farm, leaving four older OTTBs (former racehorses) with nowhere to go! With a little help from our friends, three were quickly placed, but poor Meadow was the last and faced euthanasia if a home couldn’t be found. We gladly opened our hearts and barn doors to this lovely fellow. It wasn’t long before we restored his weight, took care of all his medical needs, vaccinations, dental work, and farrier care. Soon, he found his perfect adopter at a local farm with a wonderful dressage program!
Sadly, just three months later, Meadow became terribly ill for reasons we have yet to determine, through no fault of his adopter, who also has two other SHEW horses. Working with specialists can be very costly, but we were able to provide financial medical support to help Meadow get back on his feet. Once a SHEW horse, always a SHEW horse!
We remain committed to all fifty-four horses that have come through our gates since SHEW began in 2014, as well as the eighteen others we have been able to place directly.
One more pony also joined the SHEW family this year. SHEW is highly regarded in veterinary circles for its good practices and dedication to helping the community during times of crisis, which was the case with Reba. An urgent call came from one in this circle about a fiery red pony, with a short bobtail—shortened by a goat who had chewed it off. Reba was found in severe respiratory distress, her life hanging in the balance. In addition to suffering severe hoof neglect, Reba was rated a 2 on the body score scale, had seven old broken ribs, and was blind in one eye. While her owner cared about her, they were unable to physically nor financially care for her. Poor Reba had lived a solitary existence for years, with only a goat for company.
Today, after spending several months with SHEW, Reba is thriving—healthy, sassy, and breathing normally with the aid of lifelong medication. She has returned our kindness by becoming a wonderful SHEW ambassador, traveling to fairs, enjoying her adoring fans at events, and toting small children around. Most recently, she exceeded all expectations while working with a blind, autistic teenager.
Manny is just one of the wonderful students from the Homewood Center for neuro-divers teens who thrives in a non-mainstream educational environment. Each year SHEW hosts four farm outings for them. At SHEW, they can discover all the things they CAN DO. Manny and Reba were matched together as a team. As Reba lightly leaned into Manny, he leaned into Reba for guidance—it's as if they both knew they shared a common challenge. Together, they made their way around the arena and through an obstacle course Reba had practiced many times. THIS was Reba's shining moment! There was not a dry eye in the house that day, watching the one-eyed pony guide the blind child so gently and patiently. The power of these gentle creatures never ceases to amaze me. Remember, without YOU Reba wouldn't be alive today!
Moments like this are "powered" by our amazingly dedicated volunteers. A HUGE THANK YOU to the volunteers who drop everything to help staff on days like these. Thanks to them, we can stay 95% volunteer-based, meaning that every donation goes straight to the horses and programs that support our mission. Our volunteers are diversely talented, and we have a place for everyone, including those that wish to help in ways besides direct horse care. Fundraising, events, art projects, gardening and office work are just a few of the ways to be involved
SHEW does so much more than just rescuing horses. We pride ourselves on being an all-inclusive organization with many paths to help equines.
Because of YOUR ongoing support, we not only sponsored 2 horses with A.L.I. in Kentucky, but we also sent two truckloads of supplies to equine victims of recent hurricanes. We are keeping our quarantine barn available for the time being, in case any hurricane horses need to come north.
Our dream is to one day soon have a larger facility that can accommodate all our big dreams! Imagine a critical care/rehab unit—not just for SHEW horses, but for our community to use when traditional options are cost-prohibitive. We also envision an intern program designed to help with critical rehab horses, providing young pre-veterinary students with valuable hands-on experience. A first-time horse owner/adopter boarding program to teach new owners best practices and ensure a good bonding transition.
Picture an equine sanctuary for horses that, due to medical issues, mental trauma or advanced age, aren't candidates to move on to a new home but aren't euthanasia cases either. This is where horses like Reba and Cinder can shine! They can help with all our special non-ridden programs like a more extensive veterans' program and the addition of therapeutic horsemanship.
We are dreaming BIG and with your continued support, we know we'll get there!
Winter is just around the corner. We're gearing up to be ready when the phone rings—which has already started! Whether it's emergency placement, intercepting an auction-bound horse, outbidding kill buyers, or providing temporary feed or medical assistance, we are here to save horses from suffering.
Your gift today or in the coming weeks, as we think about Giving Tuesday on December 3rd and end-of-year tax-deductible charitable giving, will mean the world to us—and especially to the horses in need who will benefit from your generosity.
Just $50 will trim the next horse's hooves
Just $100 will provide a neglected horse with dental care so they can properly eat and digest the nutritious food we give them.
Just $500 will cover the initial two veterinary visits—one for assessment, paperwork, and fecal testing, and the other for vaccines, soundness evaluation, and any follow-up testing.
$1000 will save a slaughter-bound horse, bringing them off the auction floor and into SHEW’s quarantine facility, covering the first week of a specialized feeding program.
$3,000 will give a horse a completely new lease on life, including rescue, 30 days quarantine with a specialized feeding program, and all the routine initial veterinary, farrier and dental needs.
$100,000 is 100,000 steps closer to the larger farm expanding our mission trifold by adding a critical care/rehab unit and space for sanctuary horses to go.
This spring, the second and third of the year's rescues were saved from the auction in New Holland, Pennsylvania. This is where kill buyers purchase horses to resell along the pipeline to processing plants in Canada and Mexico, where they are brutally slaughtered for human consumption. Did you know that over 20,000 American horses still cross our borders each year for this purpose? The good news is that, thanks to national and local efforts supported by people like YOU, that number has dropped significantly from 154,000 just ten years ago!
So, there we were, at the auction, looking at over 150 plus horses that would be run through the sale in just about two hours. Many were once loved, most had worked hard for their humans, and some were unhandled, having belonged to someone who never bothered to train them. Most would be sold by the pound. All had been reduced to a number stuck to their hip. Who to choose? Who to save? That’s always the most heart- wrenching part
First, there was a small, older pony mare with laminitis—a debilitating disease of the hoof—tied to the wall with the other “littles.”
Out of nowhere, a huge, terrified draft horse, whose handler couldn’t control him, ran right over her, knocking her down while she was still tied. How she survived, I’ll never know. But in that moment, I knew she would be coming with us.
Since that day, Willow has repaid our kindness with her gentle manners and quiet desire to just be loved. Once recovered and healthy, she was adopted by our veterinarian, Dr. Lewis. He simply couldn’t resist her sweet little face.