CRITERIA FOR HORSE DONATION

All of our horses are obtained through either a donation from a private individual, show, dressage, hunter jumper barns, etc… that no longer have a use of the horse, or from legitimate rescue organizations. We also accept finished (trained) Mustangs supporting the adoption of this regal animal in American history.

The criteria for accepting a “horse” donation for the White Horse Youth Ranch is as follows:

• A horse must have a quiet and steady disposition that can tolerate green or novice handlers/riders and not react violently to unusual environments
• A horse must be in good overall medical condition, “treatable” minor foot or leg issues are acceptable however, painful, serious or on going medical conditions will not be eligible
• A horse must be able to be ridden, in English or Western disciplines.
• A horse’s age will be decided on a case by case basis.

Each horse and case is given pain-staking consideration during the decision to accept or not after a thorough evaluation by our vet. We never like turning away any animal in need; however, the structure of the Ranch, as well our limited resources, somewhat dictates that we would be unable to care for these horses appropriately during all stages of our development and operations.

The two most common circumstances that limit our acceptation policy are:

• Criminal animal abuse cases. Please understand that we are not a law enforcement agency, and we are restricted by law from interfering in cases of criminal animal abuse. If we are notified of suspected criminal acts, we will, of course, forward the information to appropriate authorities for their intervention.
• Long-term medical care/”hospice” animals. We do receive requests to adopt horses that require long-term medical care due to injuries, birth defects, etc. Our foremost goal is to ensure that all horses receive the best care available, and sometimes we have to accept that it may not always be at our facility. If we are contacted by someone who wishes us to adopt their special-needs horse, and we are not able to do so, we will make every effort to connect them to appropriate organizations in the surrounding areas that specialize in caring for these animals.

If you are looking for resources to help place a horse with special medical needs, the following sanctuaries can be contacted to find out if they would be a good fit for your special horse. Please understand that White Horse Youth Ranch cannot make actual recommendations for specific facilities, or make claims regarding their services; however, we feel it’s helpful to offer what information we have to people looking for help. You can also find more horse sanctuary information on the search engine “Google.”

Redwings Horse Sanctuary – Lockwood, California – www.redwings.org

Broken Oaks Equine Retirement Center – Dallesport, Washington – (509) 767-1461; gpratt@gorge.net

Horse Rescue of North Scottsdale – Cave Creek, Arizona – (602) 689-8825

Shiloh Horse Rescue – Sandy Valley, Nevada – www.shilohhorserescue.com

Safe Haven Horse Rescue – Cottonwood, California – (530) 347-4941; safehavenhorse@gmail.com

Willow Pond Ranch Foundation – Soquel, California – (831) 464-BARN(2276); sharonray@willowpond.org

Golden Carrots Horse Rescue – Anza, California – (909) 763-0900 – cocarrot@earthlink.net

Thank you for your interest in supporting the White Horse Youth Ranch.