It’s a common story, but it shouldn’t be. A horse is adopted and falls into the wrong hands and becomes abused and neglected by an owner who had no business purchasing the horse in the first place.
Many people have turned a blind eye to this epidemic, but The Right Horse Initiative is here to make a change, “The Right Horse is an initiative funded by the WaterShed Animal Fund, a division of the Arnall Family Foundation dedicated to improving the lives of companion animals. Our goal is to massively increase the number of successful horse adoptions in the United States by working together to reframe the adoption conversation and shatter the stigma surrounding horses in transition.” – The Right Horse Initiative
One of the biggest arguments against adopting horses is that they are usually poorly trained, thus limiting the pool of potential buyers. This is why The Right Horse Initiative has taken it upon themselves to ensure better training for horses up for adoption, “For the most part, adopters are looking for trained horses. Most equine adoption centers could place more horses into adoptive homes if they had more resources to provide training to their horses while in transition. In some cases, horses may just need some minimal finishing training to transition to a new career; and in some cases horses may need complete training if they have never been ridden.
“Many equine adoption centers operate on small budgets and not all equine adoptions centers have the budget or the operational infrastructure to have trainers on staff. The Right Horse is piloting a program at Dumb Friends League Harmony Equine Center to provide a regional training hub. Local equine adoption groups can bring their horses in transition to Dumb Friend’s League Harmony Equine Center for training. Once training is completed, HEC will perform the adoption with potential homes or the horse will be sent back to the original adoption center to process the adoption. The goal is to assist local groups in providing better trained and more desirable horses to their adopters. In addition, this increases movement in all the adoption centers and decreases their length of stay while increasing their ability to take on additional horses in transition.” – The Right Horse Initiative
The Right Horse Movement has some huge goals, and they need help to accomplish them! Make sure to stay connected on Facebook and Instagram, and use the hashtag #RightHorse to help spread the word.
