Miniature Horses Saved From Slaughter!

HHH Ranch is quite thankful for the community helping them raise enough money to save two miniature horses from slaughter in a matter of hours.

On Friday morning, Christine Doran, the President of HHH Ranch received a call from another local non profit, Moonlit Pines asking for urgent help. 6 horses were being sent to slaughter and 4 had been rescued, but 2 were still lacking the funds from meeting a horrible fate.

Christine put out a plea on social media and the community raised the money within hours. Each year HHH Ranch takes in 2 to 5 horses, but in the past 9 months they have taken in 13 horses.

HHH Ranch was established in 2015 and is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that creates a community without barriers where everyone is welcomed, accepted and celebrated. They not only run a rescue, but also a therapeutic riding center. They have riders as young as 2 and have even had someone in their 90’s ride. They have programs that teach adults with disabilities work skills and their barn manager was hired on 4 years ago from being a volunteer in a transitional program.

Currently 43% of their students are on full therapeutic riding scholarships. There are always more horses to be saved than what they need, so the ones they do not need for their programs they rehabilitate, retrain and find forever homes for.

Christine said, “We are beyond grateful to everyone who shared, prayed and donated to save these sweet horses! This year has been extremely difficult as the calls do not stop coming. We may have taken in 13 horses so far this year, but we have 18 on a waiting list. Raising the money to save from slaughter is just the beginning of costs for us. Each horse costs us approximately $5,000 per year.” Currently we have 23 horses in our care along with a llama, sheep, a cow, goats and several other farm rescues. In the past 8 years we have rescued over 100 animals.

Last year alone 20,000 horses were slaughtered for human consumption in other countries. In 2007 slaughtering horses in the US became illegal, so horses are now shipped to Canada and Mexico.

Founder and President Christine said, “Before Covid we were bringing in $20,000 from our annual fundraisers and the cost at auction was only a few hundred for horses. This year our annual fundraiser brought in $3,000 and now we are spending $1,000 or more on auction horses. These are tough times and the community's generosity is making a difference in both the lives of animals we save and participants in our wide variety of programs”.

HHH encourages those who work for companies to ask for grants that might be available for 501(c)(3)s, endowments from churches, asking your work if they match donations that you have made, as well as, becoming a monthly sponsor to one of their incredible animals for as little as $19/month. Click here to become a monthly sponsor.

Anyone that donates is invited to quarterly outings at the Ranch where there is no cost and your family gets to enjoy pony rides, the petting zoo, and dinner on them. It just so happens their next one is right around the corner on Friday. October 20th from 5:30 to 7:30

To learn more about them and the impact they are making go to, www.hhhranchil.org