HAHS

As many of you know, I was barn manager for a 501(c)3 horse rescue and animal sanctuary in Ohio for around three years. Circle P Sanctuary is a wonderful horse rescue that I would have never left if it wasn’t for the fact that my family lives in the Chicago area and I was ready to move back home after being away for seven years. The things I remember most about Circle P Sanctuary is the rolling green fields, the amazing staff and volunteers that felt like family, and of course, all of the horses and animals! Circle P Sanctuary is a growing horse rescue  that focuses on education, rescue, rehabilitation, and adoption. The book I plan to self-publish this spring largely focuses on horses that I had worked with while at Circle P Sanctuary, so I don’t want to say too much more, but it is a wonderful organization that takes the time to rehabilitate horses back to their full mental and physical health and makes sure to take the time with potential adopters so that animals are adopted out to their forever homes!

Click HERE for their website!!

Now that I am back in Illinois, I am working with the Hooved Animal Humane Society! Whereas Circle P Sanctuary usually held around 30 horses, the Hooved Animal Humane Society (HAHS) currently holds 106 animals! Compared to Circle P, working at HAHS took some adjusting! It is really great to work at such an established society however, because I can look at Circle P and see the amazing potential it has to grow over the years. Circle P Sanctuary has currently been operating as a non-profit since 2007, while HAHS has been around since 1971!

Click HERE for their website!

Out of the 106 animals currently at HAHS, two are goats and five are pigs. HAHS is such a large organization that it takes in animals from all over the state of Illinois and has an essential role with statewide investigations and court cases on animal cruelty and the violation for the Humane Care for Animals Act. With animals waiting in impoundment as part of court cases, animals coming and going to training, and animals being sent to foster homes, it takes a lot of dedicated people to make such a large organization work! Despite the large number of animals on the property, all horses, pigs, and goats receive quality care during their stay at the society. Some of the older animals or animals with limiting injuries may never get adopted and instead are able to live out their life at the society. One of my favorite horses, Charlie, is a blind gelding that has been there for several years. Despite is blindness, he is very easy going and is never surprised by anything. In fact, he has learned the sound of the ATV we use to feed the other horses and knows that it carries hay and grain. It is not uncommon for him to hurry through his own portion of grain so he can then follow the ATV around for a snack as I quickly try to feed the other horses!

Peter Pan is a blind Appaloosa gelding that is best friends with Charlie!

It is amazing that any of these horses ending up at a humane society! Rita is a big, beautiful draft mare that used to pull carriages all around downtown Chicago. Years of pulling carriages around the hard pavement has left her with sore feet, but she still enjoys her time out in the pasture and may be able to do some light driving with special shoes. Diesel is a recent addition that we evaluated and found that he has had extensive training in reining and is responsive to the slightest change in seat or with the lightest touch of the rein! Nebulae is another mare, although almost 30 now, that won several stakes races as a racehorse and even qualified to run in the Breeders Cup! Her and her two daughters somehow ended up at HAHS.

Nebulae with her two daughters taking a nap in the sun

Minnie! How can you look a this face and not want to adopt her!

The majority of horses that end up at HAHS seemed to have been ridden in the past and although I am still learning about them (in some cases, I am still learning which horse is which!) they all just seem like horses that have fallen on hard times. One mare, Poppy, was an old lesson horse that must have outlived her purpose. She was saved from a slaughter truck bound to Canada. When she comes into her stall for attention as I am cleaning, I stand and rub her neck and think that I am so glad she got a second chance at life. Other horses come to HAHS young and untrained, but with great, willing personalities and learn quickly. Looking at how many horses are easy to work with or are already superbly trained, it is amazing how many of these horses ended up unwanted. Sure, there are definitely the so called “crazy” ones of the bunch – the ones that came in near feral or the ones that are still untrusting of humans because of their past. But even with these horses, patience and kindness can go a long way!