One thing I have considered when I think about what HOP does when juxtaposed to how some rescues work is the difference in where the bulk of the neglected, at risk or abused horses come from that end up in the facilities.
We are different from some in that, while many seem to bring in kill buyer / LOT horses that are frequently quite a distance away from the rescue’s location, we are usually overrun with seizure and owner surrender horses from West Virginia or within a few hours of state border.
For many organizations not plagued with so much local neglect and abuse, the horses that come into their facility will be Horses purchased from broker lots or directly pulled by the rescue from places like New Holland and Sugar Creek.
There are many horses to chose from in these situations, and rescues walk away from the broker page or the auction with the horses they decided they could assist that day. A lot of the time, these horses are somewhat decent shape, though rarely do they look their best.
This type of rescue leads to a LOT of Social Media activity, though. Lots of funding. More than other types of sourcing. Often, they are pretty horses with nice photos and include riding videos. They are sometimes, depending on the page, said to be surely headed directly to slaughter if not purchased with a marked up price, and while that isn’t accurate, it creates a frenzy, and often a lot of donating. Buying horses from these places costs FAR more than our cost to drive down the road for a seizure of a starving horse. Our rehab process takes up quite a bit more than these horses usually will after in funding, as a general rule, than the auction pulls may. But that is the issue. . .
It creates a flurry of support on the pages, donations come in quicker and hundreds or thousands of supporters following the horse from some of these major broker posting pages follow the horses over to each rescue page to continue to watch the journey. It grows the network on the facebook page greatly over time, it grows the donation level and interest in the horses coming in.
What HOP does is different, and it should be.
Originally, Just borne from necessity, not a conscious choice, it ended up being what was right.
Pulling from auctions at cheap prices makes sense, as a low end auction horse can have hell ahead of and behind him if he doesn’t get a decent buyer.
This sometimes puts our work and the horses we save behind the 8 Ball.
Why?
This impoverish area is full of horses down every back road in need. Bags of bones on every county road here that are not draw to traders selling to shippers, these are worthless in this condition. . .
I see so much of it, I feel swallowed up in the sadness and hopelessness sometimes.
It isn’t like the posts I’ll see on these huge broker pages where you see an album of horses were people are scrambling to save, save and save. . .and at the end you see a POST that says all the horses have been sold.
Here. . . no one knows their stories, sees their photos and videos, and they die in tied out back behind someone’s trailer because they have no voice, no compelling photo and no story.
At Every turn. I CAN go no where, cannot look on down any road or even on the local craigslist ads without being bombarded by those that will not ever see a post that says: All Horses Sold. Thank You.
We usually take what lands at our doorstep. You see them if you’re on this page. You know.
We do not always see anything before Animal control brings in or what someone begs us to come pick up.
There isn’t much notice, there is just a pick up and figure it out after situation.
Why does this create a difference? Because time is of the essence. We can’t wait around, fundraise and generate interest with some vague description we have.
Starving horses do not pretty pictures make. Owner surrenders don’t make people feel urgency. Death by starvation seems less scary to the world at large, I suppose, than an idle threat about a trip over the border. Nevermind that death by starvation can take 10 years to play out.
Once we post about a horse, the horse is typically already here with us, safe. And folks think: “That horse is already safe. No need to donate or share or worry about that one.” But that is just where the journey starts.
Can you see how that puts the work we do at a disadvantage? As if being in possibly the poorest area in the USA trying to help horses does not put us climbing a never ending mountain side.
I feel the ones hidden in the hollows of Appalachia suffering not for weeks but years on end through winter after winter DO NOT have much of a voice.
That is who we are here. Not really the voice of the auction horse but a voice for the Appalachian horse.
With most of the horses we help. . .there is rarely a question of their fate. They are assured an end where they slowly starve until they are dead.
End of Story.
We have no plans to work differently than we currently do here. . .filling a most urgent, desperate need in Appalachia, but for this one time, we are surely glad we could be there for this different type of rescue.