By Tracy Heckert | CEO/Founder
One of the missions of Charis Youth Ranch is to sanctuary difficult to adopt or unadoptable horses for life. To provide a safe haven where they receive the care and attention required for their special needs. Trigger is one of those horses.
An OG of the ranch, Trigger was part of our very first rescue mission in October of 2009 which brought 8 horses to be kept safe by Charis.
Beginning in April of 2009, we became aware of a small PMU ranch in Winnipeg, Canada who had lost their contract with a pharmaceutical company to harvest pregnant mare urine, which is then used to create the drug Premarin. To collect the urine is an abusive practice requiring the pregnant mares to be hooked up to a collection apparatus as well as stand in stocks for many, many hours. Then, the foals are usually sent to slaughter or auction. Today there are few of these ranches in existence, but back in 2009, many were still in operation. At this ranch, there were foals, young fillies and colts as well as mares and stallions who were slated to be sent to slaughter if no intervention occurred.
Charis Youth Ranch began networking to facilitate the rescue of some of these horses and Trigger along with seven others, arrived to Charis on October 31, 2009. Trigger was two years old when she stepped off the transport from Canada and what we didn't know, was that she was in foal. Two weeks later, she sadly aborted her baby. Certainly not a supported practice, no two year old filly should have been bred and we were sad that Trigger had to go through this. Since then, she has always been a little bit stoic and we have often wondered if it was due to her early loss.
Trigger has always been wary of people and is quite selective in who she decides to allow in her space. Despite years of trying, she has remained somewhat elusive to connection with us and allows only a select few close. She is actually a very sweet mare who nickers at feed time and loves her treats. She has a favorite volunteer Kendra and caregiver Brandy among her top people.
Now 18 years old, Trigger enjoys a great life in our care on a 55 acre ranch with her friend Molly. They live side by side and enjoy an abundance of turnout together. Unless the perfect owner should come along, Trigger will continue to live out her days with us, possibly another 14 years as our seniors tend to live a long time!
The cost to care for our horses is approximately $3,000 per month and is completely funded by our supporters' donations. This includes hay, grain, pellets, farrier and board. It does not include th added cost of vet care when needed. Charis Youth Ranch is an all volunteer organization and the money we raise goes 100% to the horses and a very small amount for Admin. It is because of your amazing support that we are able to continue caring for special horses like Trigger. Thank you!
Links:
By Cathy Nelson | Adminstrator
By Cathy Nelson | Adminstrator
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
