Does anyone know any good links to horse rescue/adoptions websites? I live in North Carolina and would like to know if there were any near me especially. I've been considering purchasing a horse and though I would keep this route open also.
Also, has anyone had any experience adopting a rescued horse? THis will be my first horse and I'm not so sure if it would be a good idea or not.
Thanks!

http://cberhorses.com/DEF-Home.asp

http://www.canterusa.org/

I adopted my yearling from a place called Freedom Hill in southern Maryland, and they are really great people. Freedom Hill's web link is:
http://www.freedomhillrescue.org

You could also look at http://www.pmurescue.org This site has a search engine so you can look for certain breeds, sexes, ages, etc.

My own horse adoption experience was really good, and Sunny is a wonderfully intelligent horse. If you do end up adopting a rescue be prepared to be extremely patient and gentle. Many of these horses are coming from horrible experiences and have only known bad things to come from humans. I have had Sunny for just over a year and she has just recently allowed me to freely touch and rub the top of her head and ears. I shudder to think what was done to her in her past. But this is just something to keep in mind.

My advice is to contact the rescues you are interested in to see what their response is like and visit the facilities if possible. If anything seems "fishy" or if the horses are not being cared for in a manner you like, move on to a different group. Try not to be taken in by feeling sorry for a particular horse (hard, I know).

Hope this helps!

I think it all depends on how experienced you are with horses, and how old you are. Many times rescues come with a lot of issues, and it can take years to overcome them. Also to consider where you will be keeping your horse. If it is at home you can give lots more one-on-one attention than you can if you have to travel to get to the barn.

You could look at a PMU baby, and they will have fewer emotional issues, BUT...babies can be intimidating because they get big very fast, and do not (generally) have manners, haven't been handled. They may nip, bite, kick, run over, or otherwise injure you. If you are apprehensive, it will make the problem worse.

Also, consider whether or not you have access to a trainer or other person to help you, and bounce ideas off. My trainer is great to bounce ideas off of, and gives me pretty good feedback as to whether they are sound ideas or not.

Good luck finding your horse. As mentioned previously, try not to let your own emotions get in the way of making a good decision. It is all too easy to feel sorry for a horse, but you can't save them all.

There are quite a few people here that have rescue horses, and are doing a fantastic job with them too.

Probably the best advise I can give you is to really think it through, and make sure that it will be a good match for what you want to do.

Have fun!

For a first horse you need to be able to try the horse for a week to be sure you and the horse click. This leaves out most "rescues".
Horses are selling low right now, about 42 cents a pound. So if you pay over 600 for a horse through a resuce the place is not a true rescue but out to make money.

i know of a bad rescue in lower Central PA. we had donated my husband's horse, hoping to find him a home with a kid of his own. ok, 6 months later-after bugging the woman to come and visit him, She finally went to check on him. she had placed him in a home that starved him. And had not checked up on him. Some rescue.

So after 6 months, our easy keeper was skin and bones. and i told the woman, if she would break the contract, i would take him back. She told us She would never break the contract, she would own him until he died. ( selfish witch). Yet, she never took care of him. SO the only way we could get him back was to ADOPT our own horse back. What BS. so we did, and within a few months, we had him back to his normal weight. 7 months later his cancer( he had it 5 yrs prior on tumor on penis) came back, his penis was necrotic, so we had to put him to rest. i was grateful he had us to care for him the last 7 months of his life. at least he knew we loved him in the end..

please be careful when you go to a rescue. don't let them mislead you into getting a horse that is too much for you. this particular rescue has a habit of getting off track TB's in, and they are not always the right horse for everyone, but they have so many, they push them onto the adopter. plus you will never own the horse, they will retain ownership.

Also look at rehabbed TB's -- there is a place called, hmmmmm, crud, I forget their name-- but you could probably find it on google, they have a facility in E TN that rescues horses that have been injured or neglected off the track and reschools them. Premarin mares are great but you must be very experienced. They have little experience with people and are often large horses, so any stress and their first response is to explode and run away.

As well, the CANTER website (you can see it here is great if you want to adopt a off the track TB. My grandmother has a TB from here, from the NE chapter, named Sunny, and he made a wonderfu first horse. Many of these horses have been trained to ride, not just race, too, they just need someone who will give them a good home.

I have seen very very few good outcomes from "rescues". Lots of horror stories and I have retreived a number of horses for clients.
So as soon as anyone mentions "rescues" or "donate" I get really worried.

I have done horses for a lot of the places that take donated horses, they end up in the kill pens, just far enough away that the owners do not know....

The United States Equine Rescue League, http://www.userl.org is in NC and if you go to the Regions section you will be able to click on the link for the region you live in. I do not have any experience with adopting a rescued horse. However, I know of a great book for first time horse owners! It is entitled "Your First Horse: How to Buy and Care for Your First Horse". It was written by Jackie Dwelle. The website is http://www.firsthorse.com if you want to check it out! Good luck!

Try these - EquiSearch - Rescue Links

Guys... guys... guys... gotta learn to look on EquiSearch first, lol!

Hmm, don't know of any near you off the top of my head. Wish you were closer to WA. There's a good one on the other side of the mountains from us. If I needed another horse, I'd be over there shopping. Lots of great horses at their last stop before slaughter if no one buys 'em.

Columbia Basin Equine Rescue

Karen

Have you tried www.petfinder.org?

WOW! THat's really interesting! I didn't think price had anything to do with weight. Are they basing these off what people are paying for meat across seas??

Thanks for the info! It will be sooo helpful. I will definately look for that book!