Boots & Bling: Event Info, Table and Event Sponsorships, Auction Donations, Volunteer Opportunities, and more!
Adoptable Horses
Volunteer Corner, Volunteer Needs
Other Ways to Help
AAE Friends, Supporters, & Service Providers
Dust off those boots and get ready to cut loose! Boots and Bling is coming soon!
AAE’s 11th Annual Boots and Bling will be held on Saturday, September 28, 2024 at 4pm in the Forni Building at the El Dorado County Fairgrounds in Placerville, CA.
The evening will feature a delicious and full-of-flavor BBQ dinner by J. Wild’s of Folsom, auctions, dancing, hear about the horses we have helped, and more fun.
Boots and Bling supports AAE’s core mission of rescuing, rehabilitating, and re-homing horses (both wild and domestic) who have been neglected, abused, abandoned, and/or are otherwise at-risk. The evening is all about helping horses-in-need and our community!
This year is extra special because we are celebrating 15 successful years of working on the frontlines of equine rescue! Because it’s a milestone anniversary, we are planning some extra special and exciting things for the evening.
TABLE & EVENT SPONSORS OPPORTUNITIES
*** AVAILABLE NOW! ***
Sponsorship opportunities, from private family tables to exclusive business/corporate packages (and everything in between), range from $650 to $7500. Sponsor tables seat 12.
Sponsor packages are designed to provide branding exposure at Boots and Bling, through advertising and public relations, as well as potential exposure at the ranch in Pilot Hill and the tack store in Shingle Springs.
For more details and package options, please click here.
Contact our event team bootsnbling@allaboutequine.org to develop a package just for you that would be most beneficial to your business.
Table sponsorships aren’t only for businesses!
Table sponsorships are growing in popularity, and limited tables are available. Boots & Bling has sold out the past several years with upwards of 350 to 400 ticketholders.
Don’t miss your chance – secure your sponsorship/table now!
To get started, complete and submit the Sponsor Form in the downloadable packet (found here on our website) OR complete the online Sponsor Form.
Individual tickets will go on sale Thursday, August 1.
AUCTION ITEMS NEEDED
The Boots & Bling auctions are an extremely important part of this event. The funds raised from the evening, particularly the auction, provide critical funding that allow AAE to continue operations, keep our programs growing, and help more horses-in-need.
There are several ways you can make this year’s auction the best one yet!
Donate an item, experience, or volunteer your professional service (This evening is a great opportunity to highlight your business with 350+ in attendance)
Contact your family and network of friends and business associates who may be willing to donate items/products, services, or experiences.
Join our Boots & Bling Auction team and help us contact businesses about donating items/products, services, and experiences.
Refer someone you know to the Boots & Bling team. If you’re not comfortable asking, we would be happy to ask for you.
World Donkey Day is dedicated to promoting awareness and appreciation for donkeys – including our beloved wild burros. To commemorate this day, American Wild Horse Conservation (AWHC) is leading a Day of Action to protect both wild burros and domestic donkeys across the globe!
Like wild horses, burros are faced with significant threats to their freedom and safety as a result of misguided federal policy that prioritizes cruel roundups instead of humane in-the-wild management. This summer alone, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is planning to round up over 1,600 wild burros from their natural habitats. The majority of these roundups will be done with helicopters.
Unlike wild horses, who generally panic and stay together during roundups and follow their herd to the trap site, wild burros are stoic animals who often stand their ground in the face of the helicopters or scatter in an attempt to avoid capture. As a result, roundups can be even more traumatic for burros.
To make matters worse, the captured animals will then be funneled into an overburdened holding system, where 64,000 wild horses and burros already languish. Then, they are at risk of entering the slaughter pipeline thanks to the BLM’s disastrous Adoption Incentive Program (AIP), which was exposed by the New York Times as a pipeline to slaughter for “truckloads” of animals.
Donkeys and burros are especially at risk of slaughter in foreign slaughter plants due to the global demand for ejiao – a gelatin made from boiling donkey skins. Experts estimate that the global demand for donkey skins is approximately 4.8 million hides per year. As a result, the donkey skin trade is decimating global donkey populations. Luckily, countries across the world are starting to take action. Just this year, 54 African countries joined together to ban the ejiao trade.
The United States is the third largest importer of ejiao and is fueling this cruel trade. But, the good news is that Congress is taking notice.
Representative Don Beyer (D-VA) recently reintroduced the Ejiao Act (H.R. 6021), aimed at ending the United States’ involvement in this trade. This legislation would prohibit the transportation, sale, and purchase of donkeys or donkey hides for the purpose of producing ejiao and prohibit the transportation, sale, and purchase of products containing ejiao.
Thank You for helping us help these kids. These are NOT our normal babies. They are from a private herd dispersal. I am grateful they came straight to us as opposed to hitting a sales yard 1st.
There are actually 4 milk babies, and 3 older kids. Two of them spent their first night at the vet hospital. (Our matching funds will cover their first night and the meds.)
Princess Penelope, the one with the funny milk face was colicky and acting like she was dying. In all reality, the banamine and the trailer ride fixed her up quite well. She was quite perky by the time Doc saw her.
Neither of them have any teeth yet, so they are very young. Both of them had fluids , plasma and antibiotics.
I have already gone through 50 pounds of milk powder, and they are all drinking, and seem to be doing quite well. We are dealing with some diarrhea, but that is normal.
A wonderful donor stepped up and said she will match up to a $1000 in donations. I cannot begin to thank her, as well as everyone else who is helping with these kids. This $2000 will go to the vet to cover the 1st night and the meds etc.
This will include donations made as of yesterday morning at 10 a.m. I believe we are close to halfway there.
If you want to donate directly for milk, please call Basin Feed at 509-773-4648.
WIN (WILD HORSES IN NEED) is a 501c3 IRS EIN 55-0882407_
If there are ever funds left over from the cost of the rescue itself, the monies are used to feed, vet, care for and provide shelter and proper fencing for the animals once they are saved.
Thank You for Supporting AAE on Big Day of Giving!
Save the Date for Boots & Bling
Updated Adoptable Horses
Volunteer Corner, Volunteer Needs
AAE Friends, Supporters, & Service Providers
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Together, you gave $30,146 during Big Day of Giving to help horses-in-need! It was a BIG day indeed!
Thanks to you, we met our match, and we surpassed our overall BDOG goal! Once again, our amazing AAE community showed up for the horses and gave with their heart.
Thank you to the Sacramento Region Community Foundation for hosting this monumental Big Day of Giving to raise funds and awareness for so many wonderful organizations.
Together, we are making better lives for for horses like Stormy, but also our community.
Stormy’s owner passed away unexpectedly, and his family did not have the knowledge or resources to care for him. His and his mom lived quietly in a pasture. She found a home quickly; he sat waiting in alone in a pasture. Stormy was a 5-1/2 year old Quarter Horse stallion, and not only a stallion, but a cryptorchid (only one descended testicle). The family had a difficult time trying to rehome him, so they contacted us for help. Another horse-lover met Stormy shortly thereafter, and she offered to sponsor his needs so we could take him in. Besides needing castration, he was thin, his hooves were long, and he needed dental work. He didn’t know much about a halter and lead, either. Thankfully, he was well-mannered and good-natured, and we were able to get right to work. He progressed well at AAE. His basic care was updated, and he was gelded. He didn’t have to wait long before he found a new home; his sponsor adopted him, and now this sweet gelding has a wonderful family!
Your generosity and support is what gives horses like Stormy a second chance. Thank you!
Your donations, volunteering, adopting, and social media shares & likes really do make a difference; it’s what makes all of this work possible!
Today is the Big Day of Giving! Help us reach our goal!
Save the Date for Boots & Bling
Adoptable Horse Update
Volunteer Corner, Volunteer Needs
AAE Friends, Supporters, & Service Providers
Big Day of Giving (BDOG) is a 24-hour online giving challenge that helps AAE and other non-profits in the Sacramento area raise funds and awareness. It is a day to give where your heart is! To learn more about Big Day of Giving, visit www.bigdayofgiving.org.
Thank YOU for your donations so far today!! We’re so close to our goal, less than $4,000 to go. This is a Big day for AAE, and a very important day. Funding today helps bridge the gap between now and our annual Boots & Bling event in the fall. Your support helps horses-in-need like our recent large intake supporting law enforcement in a neglect case! Did you hear?
Back in early March, AAE was contacted by a Nor Cal law enforcement agency requesting assistance with a neglect case that involved 24 Arabian horses. We were told law enforcement stepped in when they learned of starving horses who had been abandoned on a large, remote, high desert property. Law enforcement started providing food and water for the animals from late 2023 until mid-February, but not before three were lost. By mid-February, they seized 21.
Twenty-one horses soon became 22 when a colt was born shortly after seizure. By the time AAE got involved, the horses had been under care of law enforcement for a few months. The horses’ body conditions had improved some, but they were still rough and in need of basic care. Together, with another rescue, we supported this effort, and in the end, AAE took in 15 of the horses (two pregnant heavily mares, four mare/foal pairs, and two young, sickly fillies). The other rescue took in seven (two mature stallions and young five stud colts). These are mostly younger Arabian horses. Basic care had been neglected for some time. In general, body conditions and hair coats were in poor condition, especially the foals and weanlings who were very heavily matted. Hooves were in poor condition with long toes, high heels, splits, cracks, and even one long slipper toe on a young filly. Dental care was needed for the mature horses. Arabian stallions (and potentially mustang stallions) had been running with the mares, so the older fillies and mares are all potentially pregnant.
The group joined us in Pilot Hill without much time to spare! The horses arrived on a Wednesday and just four days later, on Sunday, a new filly was born in the early morning. We named baby girl, Noah, and mom, Norah. About two weeks later, on Eclipse day, mom Sweeney, gave birth to a beautiful and healthy filly named Tyler (as in Bonnie Tyler who sang “Total Eclipse of the Heart”). The new fillies brought our intake total from this seizure from 15 to 17! That’s a BIG number for one intake!
Another important detail. Though most of the horses were friendly, few were familiar with halters and leading. After quarantine, education kicked into high gear. Once we could halter and lead, AAE began updating basic needs (hoof and dental care, vaccines, and deworming), microchipping, DNA analysis, and pregnancy checks, as well as other diagnostics/treatment that was needed (e.g. radiographs of slipper hoof, wound treatment, post-delivery foal testing, etc.). We’re close to all being done.
Once the horses are current with basic care and any additional needs, they’ll be available for adoption. Colts will need to be gelded, and foals will need to be weaned.
You did it! We met our $6000 Match! Just like that we doubled our impact! Thank you for you help in getting us there! And, thank you to our anonymous angels who offered to match your donations!
The match may have been met, but we aren’t done yet! We are only about $5500 away from our Big Day of Giving goal of $30,000, and there are about seven hours left to give!
(1) Set up a bill pay with your bank for a one-time (or recurring) donation.
(2) Mail a check to:
All About Equine Animal Rescue, Inc.
2201 Francisco Drive #140-174
El Dorado Hills, CA 95762
(3) Drop off your donation at:
AAE’s Used Tack Store
4050 Durock Road #6
Shingle Springs, CA 95682
(4) Donate online using a credit card, Venmo, or PayPay by clicking here.
(5) Text AAEBDOG to 53-555.
(6) Venmo your donation to @allaboutequine
(7) Check with your employer to see if they offer matching funds for your donations (another way to double your impact!).
Other Ways to Support AAE
· Give your time and become an AAE volunteer! We are always in need of volunteers and have opportunities at the ranch, the AAE Used Tack Store, remote roles (such as our outreach, grants, fundraising, or events teams), and more.
· Adopt! We have some wonderful horses looking for a forever home
· Sponsor a horse! Donate in honor of a specific horse and make a monthly donation to help cover his/her costs for basic and maintenance care while he/she awaits his/her forever family. Become a hero for a horse! Learn more about our sponsorship program here.
· Shop at the AAE Used Tack Store in Shingle Springs! There you can purchase tack, clothing, boots, and other items to benefit AAE’s rescue operations. The store also accepts donations of gently used tack, ranch equipment, and other ranch related items.
· Join us at Boots and Bling. Sponsor the event, purchase tickets, or donate to our auctions. Celebrate our 15th Anniversary this year on September 28 at the El Dorado County Fairgrounds.
· With our partner, FreeWill, you can include a gift to All About Equine in your will or revocable living trust without spending anything today. It’s a powerful way to rescue, rehabilitate, and rehome horses…today, tomorrow, and for generations to come. Begin your legacy with All About Equine.
· Turn your car, RV, truck, boat, trailer, motorcycle, and/or other vehicle into support for AAE! Learn more through our partner: CARS.
· Donate art, jewelry, coins, or similar items.
· Follow us on Facebook and Instagram then like, share, and comment on our posts!
A call came in this morning. Can we take a trailer load of 7 mustang kids? 5 MIlk babies and 2 older babies.
Of course I am running on Faith as always, so I said YES!.
HOWEVER, we need serious help!
We need approximately $3500, JUST to get them to Chilly Pepper.
It will cost OVER $2000 for 5 babies for EACH MONTH of milk powder.
We will need foal lac pellets, grain, hay, wormer, meds and to get them vetted.
With seven on the way, we are looking at needing alot of help.
I am also having to hire help for feeding, cleaning and taking care of everyone, thanks to my goofy leg.
I put up the pix of my knee so folks understand why I need the help. I am not allowed to lift any weight, and am supposed to be on crutches at the very least. Doc said the original x-ray actually looked better, so that wasn’t real happy news.
I should find out next week if there is any improvement.
So far the bone has NOT healed and it is looking like this is the new me until it breaks. They are seriously talking about amputation if it does break, so I am being extremely careful. However, I know God put these in front of me because He wants me to help.
Help is an additional expense._ So please give generously.
You, my Chilly Pepper Family are just plain awesome. Together, we have saved so many lives.
Let’s help find these precious souls a home and give them the life they deserve.
If you want to donate directly for milk, please call Basin Feed at 509-773-4648.
I put in an order for 5 buckets of milk powder this morning.
THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FROM THE “TRAILER KIDS”
I also appreciate prayers that I don’t get kicked lol.
WIN (WILD HORSES IN NEED) is a 501c3 IRS EIN 55-0882407_
If there are ever funds left over from the cost of the rescue itself, the monies are used to feed, vet, care for and provide shelter and proper fencing for the animals once they are saved.
With BIG thanks to two special, anonymous and generous horse-loving supporters, donations to AAE from now through 11:59:59 pm will be matched dollar for dollar, up to $6,000!
Donate now to double your donation and help us create brighter futures for horses-in-need!
1) Set up a bill pay with your bank for a one-time (or recurring) donation.
(2) Mail a check to:
All About Equine Animal Rescue, Inc.
2201 Francisco Drive #140-174
El Dorado Hills, CA 95762
**If you plan to send a check, please send us an email and let us know so we can count your donation towards the match.
(3) Drop off your donation at:
AAE’s Used Tack Store
4050 Durock Road #6
Shingle Springs, CA 95682
(4) Donate online using a credit card, Venmo, or PayPay by clicking here.
(5) Text AAEBDOG to 53-555.
(6) Venmo your donation to @allaboutequine
(7) Check with your employer to see if they offer matching funds for your donations (another way to double your impact!).
Other Ways to Support AAE
· Give your time and become an AAE volunteer! We are always in need of volunteers and have opportunities at the ranch, the AAE Used Tack Store, remote roles (such as our outreach, grants, fundraising, or events teams), and more.
· Adopt! We have some wonderful horses looking for a forever home
· Sponsor a horse! Donate in honor of a specific horse and make a monthly donation to help cover his/her costs for basic and maintenance care while he/she awaits his/her forever family. Become a hero for a horse! Learn more about our sponsorship program here.
· Shop at the AAE Used Tack Store in Shingle Springs! There you can purchase tack, clothing, boots, and other items to benefit AAE’s rescue operations. The store also accepts donations of gently used tack, ranch equipment, and other ranch related items.
· Join us at Boots and Bling. Sponsor the event, purchase tickets, or donate to our auctions. Celebrate our 15th Anniversary this year on September 28 at the El Dorado County Fairgrounds.
· With our partner, FreeWill, you can include a gift to All About Equine in your will or revocable living trust without spending anything today. It’s a powerful way to rescue, rehabilitate, and rehome horses…today, tomorrow, and for generations to come. Begin your legacy with All About Equine.
· Turn your car, RV, truck, boat, trailer, motorcycle, and/or other vehicle into support for AAE! Learn more through our partner: CARS.
· Donate art, jewelry, coins, or similar items.
· Follow us on Facebook and Instagram then like, share, and comment on our posts!
Big Day of Giving (BDOG) is a 24-hour online giving challenge that helps AAE and other non-profits in the Sacramento area raise funds and awareness. It is a day to give where your heart is! To learn more about Big Day of Giving, visit www.bigdayofgiving.org.
This is a Big day for AAE, and an important day. Funding today helps bridge the gap between now and our annual Boots & Bling event in the fall. Your support helps horses-in-need like Trinity, Rimes, Sage, Elvie, and Kinsey, recent law enforcement intakes.
This year, we’ve had a surge in requests for assistance from law enforcement. Trinity and Rimes were seized in a nearby cruelty case.
TrinityRimes
Both were thin and needing help. Trinity’s hooves were in poor condition, and she had a large swelling over a front fetlock. Radiographs and a vet exam indicated it appeared to be scar tissue from an old injury that was likely untreated.
Rimes was lame with swelling over her right rear pastern, and her long hooves caused more pain and discomfort. Radiographs showed two older, unhealed fractures in her hind pastern.
Visit Trinity and Rimes‘ webpages for additional information and photos of each gal.
AAE was also called to help with foster and medical assistance for three horses from a stray/abandonment case. They were all thin and needing basic care, too. Kinsey had an old, open laceration over a hind fetlock. Elvie had very long, neglected hooves and infected eyes, and Sage had a nail in her hoof.
KinseyElvieSage
When no one came forward to claim any of the horses, they were transferred to AAE. Their basic needs (hoof and dental care, vaccines and deworming) were updated, and they each received a microchip, as well as other diagnostics/treatment necessary (e.g. radiographs of long hooves and nail in hoof, wound treatment, etc).
You can learn more about each horse and see additional photos by visiting their pages: Kinsey, Elvie, Sage
When horses arrive at AAE, they often need their basic care updated (dental and hoof care, vaccines, deworming, etc). Some require more, such as diagnostics, treatment, and sometimes surgery. That’s why Big Day of Giving is so important. We need to be ready and able to provide the necessary care for horses who come to AAE. Feed and care costs have skyrocketed the last few years, and it’s getting more and more difficult to keep up with so many horses-in-need. Your support keeps us helping horses every day!
Give now and anytime until 11:59:59 pm tonight!
Donate for Big Day of Giving, and create a better future for horses-in-need!
It’s the Big Day of Giving, and we are so grateful for your ongoing support and dedication to helping horses-in-need! This is a very important funding day for AAE that supports our cause serving horses-in-need throughout the year.
Your gift this Big Day of Giving will helps provide funding for feed, veterinary care (basic and emergency), hoof and dental care, and all the other basic care and maintenance needs throughout the year.
You are why we are able to help horses like Miles, Monroe, Liza, and Lola!
Miles, Monroe, Liza, and Lola came to AAE as the result of a collaboration with another rescue organization. This is a group of young reservation mustangs. Miles and Monroe had been with a foster who didn’t have experience with mustangs, and Liza and Lola had been with another foster who didn’t have adequate facilities for gentling mustangs. They were unhandled/unhalterable, and as a result, they hadn’t had any dental or hoof care, vaccines, or deworming. Hooves were long, and Miles was intact and needed to be gelded. There was no adoption interest, and no other fosters available to help. They were not making any progress in furthering their gentling to get them the care they needed. We were asked to assist and the group was transferred to AAE. Monroe and Miles came in December 2023. Lola and Liza came in January 2024.
Thank you for being such an important part of the AAE volunteer team! You ARE the heartbeat of AAE, and we couldn’t make this world a better place for horses without every one of you!
With every moment given, your passion, love, dedication, and hard work make a significant difference in the lives of horses and for AAE. The work isn’t always glamorous and the weather isn’t always ideal, but you show up to get the job done, and you save lives! Thank you for your commitment to the horses.
Special recognition to all of our Shift Leads and Team Leads that have made the huge dedication to the horses, their teams, and AAE leadership.
Without all of you, there is no AAE. You truly make the world go around at AAE, you make a much better world for the horses we serve, and it is an absolute privilege to have you in our herd!
Thank YOU!
Would you like to join our volunteer team? Start here.
WIN (WILD HORSES IN NEED) is a 501c3 IRS EIN 55-0882407_
If there are ever funds left over from the cost of the rescue itself, the monies are used to feed, vet, care for and provide shelter and proper fencing for the animals once they are saved.
Did you know? Big Day of Giving is Thursday, May 2, and early giving starts TODAY! Big Day of Giving is a very important funding day for AAE and ALL of the horses we care for every day throughout the year. This year is as important as ever, as the need is extremely high!
Help us kickstart this year’s event and assure we reach our goal by making a gift anytime from today until midnight on May 2.
You can also raise the bar for horses-in-need by pledging matching funds! Inspire giving, and you can make your impact twice as BIG!
To learn more about starting your own matching funds campaign for the horses and AAE, send us an email. We would appreciate that in a Big DOG way.
(1) Set up a bill pay with your bank for a one-time (or recurring) donation.
(2) Mail a check to:
All About Equine Animal Rescue, Inc.
2201 Francisco Drive #140-174
El Dorado Hills, CA 95762
(3) Drop off your donation at:
AAE’s Used Tack Store
4050 Durock Road #6
Shingle Springs, CA 95682
(4) Donate online using a credit card, Venmo, or PayPay by clicking here.
(5) Text AAEBDOG to 53-555.
(6) Venmo your donation to @allaboutequine
(7) Check with your employer to see if they offer matching funds for your donations (another way to double your impact!).
Other Ways to Support AAE
Give your time and become an AAE volunteer! We are always in need of volunteers and have opportunities at the ranch, the AAE Used Tack Store, remote roles (such as our outreach, grants, fundraising, or events teams), and more.
Sponsor a horse! Donate in honor of a specific horse and make a monthly donation to help cover his/her costs for basic and maintenance care while he/she awaits his/her forever family. Become a hero for a horse! Learn more about our sponsorship program here.
Shop at the AAE Used Tack Store in Shingle Springs! There you can purchase tack, clothing, boots, and other items to benefit AAE’s rescue operations. The store also accepts donations of gently used tack, ranch equipment, and other ranch related items.
Join us at Boots and Bling. Sponsor the event, purchase tickets, or donate to our auctions. Celebrate our 15th Anniversary this year on September 28 at the El Dorado County Fairgrounds.
With our partner, FreeWill, you can include a gift to All About Equine in your will or revocable living trust without spending anything today. It’s a powerful way to rescue, rehabilitate, and rehome horses…today, tomorrow, and for generations to come. Begin your legacy with All About Equine.
Turn your car, RV, truck, boat, trailer, motorcycle, and/or other vehicle into support for AAE! Learn more through our partner: CARS.
Right now, federal helicopters are grounded for wild horse foaling season. This is a critical time when new babies are born and bond with their mothers and the rest of their families.
But starting in July, the federal government is set to resume the inhumane roundup and removal of thousands of wild horses and burros across the West.
Photo by Brian Clopp
This summer, a staggering 11,114 of these iconic animals will be targeted for capture, and 10,646 will be permanently removed. To make matters worse, all of the scheduled roundups this summer will be conducted using helicopters.
These cruel roundups often leave wild horses and burros traumatized. Young foals are separated from their mothers, horses and burros are often run to exhaustion, injuries are commonplace, and sometimes lives are tragically lost.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) conducts these operations in some of the most remote corners of the West, away from the public eye. That’s why AWHC has assembled and trained a team of photographers and videographers who deploy to these locations and serve as our boots on the ground, ensuring transparency and accountability during roundups.
The first roundup after the foaling season will take place at North Lander in Wyoming, where 2,806 wild horses are targeted for capture, and 2,766 will be permanently removed. This will be one of the largest roundups of the fiscal year.
It’s vital that our roundup observers are present at this operation and the many more that will follow so that we can tell the stories of our beloved wild horses and burros and fuel change. Take, for example, this inspiring excerpt from a report by our observer at the 2022 South Steens roundup:
“The bay mare was determined to save the life of her foal and she charged under the chopper as the pair raced back up the outside of the trap wings with the chopper hot on their heels. They raced into the wings and we thought that they were done. But the desperate mare raced on towards the ridgeline, her foal like a shadow at her side. As the chopper came close to them they finally seemed as if it wasn’t bothering them anymore, they had freedom in their sights and finally the chopper relented, giving up on the pair, and they disappeared over the ridge.” – AWHC Observer, South Steens HMA
In this week’s edition of enews, we have several updates for you. First, there’s a way for you to speak up for our wild herds by urging your representatives to support pro-wild horse language in the 2025 Fiscal Year spending bill. Additionally, we have a concerning update about a Nevada holding facility and a heartwarming story from Nevada’s Virginia Range.
We need your help today to ask the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies to protect wild horses and burros!
Right now, Representatives Dina Titus (D-NV), Steve Cohen (D-TN), and David Schweikert (R-AZ) are circulating a sign-on letter urging the Appropriations Committee to support pro-wild horse language in Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 appropriations legislation. This language urges the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to invest in humane, in-the-wild conservation initiatives such as fertility control programs. It also urges the agency to study humane alternatives to the use of helicopters, stop cash incentive payments, and more!
AWHC’s investigations team regularly files Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to promote transparency and accountability within government wild horse and burro programs. Recently, we received a shocking FOIA back that revealed 267 wild horses died at a Nevada holding facility in just one year.Read on for an in-depth look at our findings.
AWHC volunteer Deb Sutherland has been documenting the wild horses of Nevada’s Virginia Range for years. As a result, she has watched many of them grow up, and find families of their own. This is the case with four brothers Trident, PJ, Sherwin, and Paulo. Read on for their stories!
AAE Friends, Supporters, Service Providers, & Boots & Bling Sponsors
March was an incredibly busy month at AAE with several law enforcement intakes, and together we have been able to help so many horses-in-need. Before we could introduce two new horses to you, we got the call regarding the big seizure. While the group of 12 is wrapping up their quarantine, we’re taking a few minutes to introduce the two new kids.
TRINITY AND RIMES
AAE welcomed Trinity and Rimes last month after they were seized by law enforcement in a cruelty case. (More applause for law enforcement!) These two were thin and not so trusting when we arrived to pick them up. Despite being hesitant to be haltered, they both loaded into the trailer without issue.
Trinity
Trinity is about a two-year old filly. She has swelling above one of her front fetlocks, and from radiographs and a vet exam, it appears to be scar tissue from an old soft tissue injury that was likely untreated.
After quarantine, Trinity received dental care, vaccines, and deworming, and she got a microchip. She’s been terrified of anyone touching her legs, let alone trying to pick up her hooves, so hoof care is a work in progress until we can handle her hooves safely and our farrier can work safely. Fortunately, her hooves are in fair condition.
Trinity is starting to enjoy people more and more (as long as they aren’t touching her legs or hooves), and we know she’ll make someone a wonderful partner. She will be available for adoption, soon!
Rimes
Rimes is an estimated 2013 mare with a beautiful, icy blue eye. Upon arrival to AAE, she was lame with swelling over her right rear pastern, and her long hooves (especially the right hind) caused more pain and discomfort. Pain meds and a quick trim to the long hind provided her with immediate relief.
Rimes’s basic needs were updated: dental and hoof care, vaccines, and deworming, along with a microchip. Additionally, we needed radiographs to better understand what was going on with her hind pastern. We learned this poor girl has two older, unhealed fractures in her hind pastern. A fracture at the bottom of the bone is almost fused, but the second at the top of the bone is not healing. She is currently on stall rest and daily medication in hopes the upper fracture will heal with some quiet time. Rimes will be re-evaluated in two to three months to see if the fracture has healed. If not, surgery will be considered. If the fracture has healed, she will be available for adoption as a non-riding companion.
Despite her current condition, Rimes seems more comfortable and more trusting than when we first met. She is a sweet mare, and we are hopeful she will heal so she can find her special human and have a special relationship for the rest of her days. Keep your fingers crossed for this sweet gal.
Most new intakes have had little to no basic care, and often other issues or injuries go untreated like Trinity and Rimes. New intakes generally need, at minimum, hoof and dental care, vaccines, deworming, and a microchip. Often times, they need more, like diagnostics (e.g. lab work, radiographs, etc.), various treatments, or even surgery (e.g. castration, etc.). Most are thin to emaciated and it takes time and extra feed for their body conditions to return to normal.
Your support today and every day assures we can assist horses-in-need, including these coming in through law enforcement, to help them transition from rescued to rehomed.
AAE has a very heavy population right now, and it’s especially important we have the resources to support law enforcement when asked. If you can donate to help support the care costs for these two sweet girls, please do. Your support makes this work possible, and it makes a difference in the lives of horses-in-need.
I just got a call for 2 orphan foals. (Pictures just to remind us of how much milk they drink and how much care they need.) I have NO idea what these babies look like, but they will need TLC!
We need money for bail, transport, Foal Lac Powder, Foal Lac Pellets, baby grain, meds, etc. etc.
PLEASE HELP so I can say YES!!! It’s been awhile since Chilly Pepper had a fundraiser. Funds are extremely tight, and in addition to funds for the baby, we currently need hay in NV and WA.
WIN (WILD HORSES IN NEED) is a 501c3 IRS EIN 55-0882407_
If there are ever funds left over from the cost of the rescue itself, the monies are used to feed, vet, care for and provide shelter and proper fencing for the animals once they are saved.
Did you know, that it only costs $30 to dart a single mare with the fertility control vaccine, PZP? This vaccine is humane, scientifically backed, and does not affect wild horses’ behaviors. Did you also know that this fertility control is critical to keeping horses wild?
Here at American Wild Horse Conservation, we are proud to run the world’s largest humane fertility control program for wild horses on Nevada’s Virginia Range. Through this groundbreaking initiative, we are showing the public, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and our elected officials that there is a better way. This program is scientifically sound and a more cost-effective way to manage our wild horse and burro populations rather than subjecting them to brutal helicopter roundups year after year and funneling them into overburdened holding facilities.
Our program is successful and even was the basis for a new peer-reviewed scientific paper, published in the journal Vaccines, that affirmed the feasibility of fertility control programs in large wild horse populations.
Even better? Since the start of this program in 2019, there has not been one roundup and removal of the Virginia Range Mustangs. Your generosity fuels this program and ensures that we can continue and expand this critical work.
The success of our PZP programs has been so critical in our fight to protect wild horses because lawmakers and the public are starting to see there is a better way to manage our beloved wild horse and burro herds. And your support will help us continue to provide the cold, hard, scientific evidence that lends legitimacy to our calls for more humane management of our wild horses and burros.
This fiscal year, 20,000 wild horses and burros are set to be rounded up through brutal and traumatic helicopter chases. Many of these animals will be funneled into holding facilities, adding far too many to the 64,000 already languishing in these pens. But we can fight back with your support!
It looks like we got everyone here with no time to spare!! We have a new foal from the rescued group! A new filly was born very early Sunday morning! She’s a big distraction, and it’s hard to get our work done! Both mom and filly are doing well.
As you can see, baby girl is adorable! She is tall, and mom is so relieved her big belly is gone! Mom went from uncomfortably full-figured to trim, in just a short while. Pictured above left was mom last Friday and again, yesterday morning. She arrived back at AAE late Wednesday night, and baby came early Sunday morning. She had barely moved to her own paddock on Saturday, but it was just in the nick of time. If you missed the story about how/why they came to AA, click here.
Welcome to the world, precious girl! You are already loved beyond your imagination!