Adopters and Foster Homes for Horses

I am posting this as a reference for potential foster homes for rescue horses and for potential adopters.

What you find when offering horses for little to no cost, is people really do want to just show up, say they will be giving the horse to a good home and load up the horse and be done with it.

That simply is not how this little rescue works or how any legitimate rescue should work.

First of all, I think it is wholly up to each rescue to decide how they want to screen. They (including me) put in a HUGE amount of work, if they are truly a rescue, into what they do. They never make a dime and always lose money. It is the rescue's choice to set their rules, however strict.

If you had seen what seemingly nice adopters have done without references being checked, facilities being checked to horses in the past in many other rescues, I doubt anyone would question references so much. People can seem real fine, but many, many times, they are not. No matter how honest, how nice you seem, references and photos are a MUST. Even this doesn't assure anything.

If you can get professionals, like Farriers and vets vouch that the care of the horses you currently have, that is great, then you at least have a lot of hope the horse will get consistent care. You can never just take someone at their word, though I wish it could be otherwise.

So, what I need is this:

If you have horses now: I need vet references and farrier references. If you cannot provide these, let me know why. If you do your own horses hooves, let me see photos of balanced, healthy hooves on your horses. If you give your shots yourself, that is fine, but if you've had horses for awhile, you will have needed to get medications to keep on hand, such as banamine, incase of colic, for instance, so you must have working relationship with a vet, and if not, let me know why you do not. In order to save money isn't a good reason. If you've had health horses until now, that is wonderful, but if you've had horses for a few years and never contacted a v et, how will I know if this horse you want to adopt colics in the middle of the night, a vet will come out to see a horse for someone he has no working relationship with? If you haven't needed vet care for your horses, but you have dogs or cats, I can use those references, in many cases.

I need photos of your shelter for the horse. It does NOT need to be fancy or new, just safe and clean. My own facility isn't new or expensive. It can be a run in or a stall. I need to see photos of your fence. Loose barbed wire will NEVER DO, and any barded wire will usually not do unless you have 50 acres of tight strung fence because of the risk it poses. On massive amounts of land, concessions can be made depending on the situation.

I want to know how many horses you have now and how many times you've bought and sold or given away a horse in the past few years. This tell me how likely you are to keep this rescue. You can lie about this or you can be honest. . .of course.

Please do not expect me to ignore these requirements. Unless I know your personally, I simply will not and cannot take your word for it.

You would not believe what people will say and do to get a free animal. It is sad, but it is true.

You might say that too many horses need homes to be picky, but I say they might as well stay in the same abusive or neglectful situation they are used

to than to be moved to a potential new neglect situation or to a home that will just send them down the line when the newness wears off.

It is better, in my opinion, to put a horse down than send it to a sub-par home.

When you adopt, there is a contract, too.

Frankly, these requirements, believe it or not, do weed out a LOT of undesirable folks. If someone isn't willing to go through this simple process, I cannot count on them to put years into the care of the horse they are asking for.