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The
story of P.E.R.N. (Spring 2005)
In 2004 I was looking for another horse to ride
in limited distance endurance rides. I found some nice horses,
but not the right one. As the months went by with no success
I kept hearing about the PMU foals available. I started
looking on the internet I found a website listing available
horses from a PMU ranch in Alberta, Canada that had lost
their contract with the drug company. Winter was coming
soon and the market for horses didn't look as though it
could take all these horses in and find them homes. The
slaughterhouse was likely to be in their future. As I looked
at those photos I couldn't help thinking there was something
I had to do.
At
first I reasoned, I could manage two horses and went out
to the BAEN chat
board and asked for others to give me their opinions on
conformation and thoughts to help me choose. I chose Morena,
a 1992 grade Morgan mare in foal to an APHA stud, and Uncle
Paint, a grade paint filly. Neither were my looked for riding
horse, but both showed so much promise and personality I
couldn't say No.
Saving
two nice horses from almost certain slaughter was not
enough. But what could one person do? Well, all my friends
know I'm somewhat horse crazy so I sent an email to my
friends asking them to forward on, help, or ignore the
email (whatever they were comfortable doing) and waited
to see what happened. Well, a lot!
Friends
put me in touch with friends, family and acquaintances
who wanted to help. Friends told friends and the horses
on the site began to find homes, one by one. People helped
with funding to help others purchase and bring these
horses home. I made more friends in the process that
I had ever imagined and saw, one by one, each of the
horses from this ranch find a home.
In
late November the horses began arriving. It was a joy
to see each of the horses I'd seen in photos, and their
new owners united. I've enjoyed seeing photos of their
progress, and hearing the adopters stories. I myself
ended up with 8 new horses, each of them very special
to me. They are all looking for new homes, but for now
are taking it easy, getting used to their new home, and
learning to be handled like the wonderful horses they
are.
It's
all a lovely story, and I'm very happy with the outcome,
but unfortunately saving the horses from this one ranch
is only a drop in the bucket. Horses from the PMU industry,
race tracks, ranches going under, and other reasons,
put many quality horses at risk every day. I have decided
to found a rescue organization focused on horses that
have the potential to be pleasure, competitive and wonderful
riding horses but are at risk of slaughter. This rescue
organization will be called Performance Equine Rescue
Network (P.E.R.N.) and we now have
501(c)3 status.
Check
in with us regularly, we have new horses coming all the
time and will be planning events for the future. More
news to come!
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