Folly & Friends Mustang Sanctuary

Folly & Friends Mustang Sanctuary Folly & Friends Mustang Sanctuary is a 501c3 nonprofit that provides sanctuary to wild mustangs Our approach is multi-faceted.

Folly and Friends Mustang Sanctuary is a 501(c)3 nonprofit located in Birdsboro, PA. Our mission is to spread awareness about the 50,000+ mustangs who have been rounded up and are awaiting adoption, and help facilitate their transition into domestic life. We are currently home to 10 “permanent resident” mustangs, many of whom are from the same herd and were reunited after being rounded up. They w

ill never again be separated from their family, or know the struggles of water and food shortage. All of the mustangs here are tamed so that visitors can come and interact with their herd and see how loving these once wild horses can become. We have welcomed potential adopters, school and 4H groups, retirement homes, veterans, families from our local community, and those with disabilities to come and learn about mustangs while enjoying the therapy being around these animals provides. There is no charge for visits, but donations toward the herd are always welcomed. Our sanctuary herd is at various levels of training so we can host free taming demos to the public. The mustangs who are trained to ride compete in a variety of disciplines so that the public can see how versatile these horses are and consider them when looking for their next partner. We provide education on kinder training methods, since too often mustangs are trained by breaking their spirit and dominating them into submission. Spend a few minutes in our herd and you’ll see the relationship possible with these animals using a gentler approach. Additionally, our founder, Chelsea is a TIP trainer with the Mustang Heritage Foundation. Through this program you can get a mustang who is halter broke, leads, picks up all four feet, is able to be brushed all over, load on a trailer, and can be kept normal fencing vs the 6’ required for wild ones for just the $125 adoption fee. She also offers private training for other mustangs who need help adjusting to domestic life. We’re always happy to walk interested adopters through the different avenues of adoption, the paperwork, and adoption requirements. In addition to this, we have arranged transport for dozens of mustangs from out west to their adopters on the east coast. Less than 1% of gathered mustangs are ever listed on the Internet adoption, and aren’t visible to those who don’t live close to a facility. When possible, our founder will fly out to the facilities to photograph and catalogue the available mustangs and try to find adopters for them, then arrange cost-effective hauling options. Your tax deductible donations help support the sanctuary herd and our other programs to get mustangs adopted. Our goal is to expand the sanctuary to provide permanent safety to more mustangs, while inspiring others to adopt through our journey with these amazing animals. Visitors are welcome by appointment ONLY. Sanctuary visits are free but donations are always welcome and tax-deductible. Please call or message to set up your visit :)

07/09/2025

Fleet has an extreme fear of ropes and halter, and anything touching his face (okay let’s be honest.. he has an extreme fear of everything). I can sometimes pet right between his eyes but everywhere else is off limits except for if his face is in a bucket of food.
So we do positive reinforcement behavioral shaping, with things broken down into less-overwhelming baby steps. While tomorrow he might react like he’s never seen it before, this session where we would get him to put his nose through the halter (giving him the choice to do it rather than tolerating it being done TO him) was the most consistent session so far.

07/08/2025

Have you ever seen a baby genius? Well now you have.
Fairy has had like 4 sessions with a halter and lead, totaling maybe 40 minutes. She learned side to side pressure, then just learned to walk forward In her last one. This was her first session (and very first try!) learning to “follow the feel” around to the other side. Such a smart little kiddo!

These three added a little more to their education today, although our pens are still a nightmare for footing so we just...
07/08/2025

These three added a little more to their education today, although our pens are still a nightmare for footing so we just used half of the small one 😅
Ada has been helping with riding and training and it’s so helpful to have a second person especially for these early stages.
You couldn’t get three more different horses than Sid, Wren, and Seneca. Sid is slow and not fazed by much. He also is pretty impossible to get to go 😆 Wren is our smallest resident and very athletic. She’s so tiny it takes some effort to stay balanced in the center of her, even though she doesn’t do anything wrong. And Seneca is our largest mustang here at 16 hands. She’s usually very calm but also impossibly guarded, you never really know what this one is thinking.
Can’t wait to get these guys out on some trails!

07/08/2025

Hanging with sweet scared Fleet tonight. I’ll never know why he’s so terrified even after all this time and lots of good milestones, but it always warms my heart when he rallies the courage to do things like this.
He was super offended that my hair wasn’t tasty hay though.

The herd got to meet lots of new people today! As always, Fairy is a new fan favorite and soaks up the attention. I thin...
07/06/2025

The herd got to meet lots of new people today! As always, Fairy is a new fan favorite and soaks up the attention. I think I might have the most well socialized foal ever 😆 Kestrel gave a little girl her first horse ride and the rest of the herd came up to say hello too.
Ps if you want a Folly & Friends tank top or tee like Linda is rocking, I’ll post the link in the comments :)

07/05/2025

The smartest little babe is learning things! She still has opinions about it, but she retains everything she learns like no other horse I’ve ever worked with. I’m very careful about teaching babies to lead because their usual reaction to pressure asking them to go forward is usually to fly back or flip over. Pressure like that can cause a lot of damage to their atlas/axis joint at their poll. So I teach this by first using my hand on the outside of their face, pulling their head to me and getting them to move their hindquarters off pressure from my hand. Then I will halter them and teach them to take a step to the side. Once they’re circling, I’ll teach them to walk forward by bringing back something we start when they’re very young to get them from place to place- a rope figure eighted around their rump. She knows that pressure from this means go forward so I’ll pull slightly on the face lead, then follow it with the nudge forward from the rope. It helps them connect the dots a lot easier and keeps it all very low stress. We’ve only had a handful of 5-10 minute sessions but Fairy picks things up so quickly.

Sent in by Linda, who has Inara and Luna at her house right now 🥰  what a peaceful morning. If you’d like a Folly & Frie...
07/04/2025

Sent in by Linda, who has Inara and Luna at her house right now 🥰 what a peaceful morning.
If you’d like a Folly & Friends mug we still have some left of all four colors/styles. They’re $38, hand made in the USA and very hefty.

07/04/2025

Someone isn’t very good at grazing yet 😆 she was very annoyed when I took the stick from her

07/02/2025

We had some pretty scary flash flooding at the sanctuary tonight. It took out some fencing, flooded the barn, decimated our pens, and forced the herd to have to swim to high ground. I don’t know what instincts kicked in in these (mostly) desert mustangs who have likely never seen this much water or had to swim in their lives, but they all did well swimming across a very strong current. I’ve never felt so helpless in my life and am so thankful for the inherent grit all mustangs possess. I had to get back to the house after this video as the water kept rising.
Now the rebuilding begins and I’m a bit overwhelmed by that prospect when this is the time of year we should be fundraising for winter hay (since the crazy weather here has made it very hard for farmers to get dry hay made).
If you could donate to help the herd, we’d be so grateful 🙏🏻

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The herd sure loves visitors 🥰
06/28/2025

The herd sure loves visitors 🥰

Temperatures this week are going to suddenly be in the high 90s, with a realfeel over 100. It will be Fairy’s first time...
06/22/2025

Temperatures this week are going to suddenly be in the high 90s, with a realfeel over 100. It will be Fairy’s first time experiencing heat like this and as a fellow pale creature, we don’t always fare well in heat like that 😅 So I thought we’d have this XL dog cooling vest on hand just in case. 😆 She didn’t mind it one bit.

Address

Birdsboro, PA

Telephone

+14849477958

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