So I am working on this new page for my planned long-distance ride with my horse that we are doing this summer.  We are riding over 1200 miles throughout the upper Midwest in an attempt to raise awareness for different equine rescues and sanctuaries.  I will be stopping along the way, and volunteering at some of these unbelievably important and unfortunately necessary places of respite and healing.

These sanctuaries, while always busy with caring for animals in need, have experienced a drastic upsurge of cases in recent years. The combination of a stumbling economy,  suburban/urban sprawl and land loss, as well as the overall mind set of the horse being seen as a luxury, recreation available only to the well off, versus as a companion or working partner, -amongst other issues-  have all contributed to this current state of affairs.

Most, if not all, equine rescues are filled to capacity, or beyond. Horses are simply being turned loose when their owners can no longer afford to care for them, or no longer want to.. and no one shows up to claim them when they are found.. others are simply left to rot in their pastures, with no food or care, waiting.. while no one ever comes. Still others are taken off to auctions, being transported through hellish conditions on their way to the kill floor, and their ultimate, untimely death.

emaciated, neglected horse from a herd of 60, rescued in Idaho

THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE

and I want to do something about it. and I want to travel with my horse, proving that equines can still be a valid and sustainable mode of transportation.  Thus the project “Jackie and Solei’s Wild Ride” was borne…