Bluebonnet Equine Humane Society

12/02/2025

is in the downhill stretch and we have about 33% of our goal to raise thanks to our amazing donors and supporters.

Empire is just one of the reasons your donations are important. She’s one of the horses placed with us this year. She’s a 15 year old Arabian mare who spent many years with her owners. When they couldn’t keep her anymore, they asked us for help. Fortunately, we had space and could say yes.

After she arrived, she was diagnosed with DSLD, a degenerative condition that left her unrideable. She still seems comfortable in the pasture and doing some light work in hand - but she’s going to need an attentive home who will monitor her condition and make the tough decision to help her cross over when things have deteriorated.

That’s not what we wanted for Empire. She’s such a sweet mare but we believe she could have made an amazing riding horse. Instead, she will still make someone a very sweet pet and companion for as long as she’s comfortable.

Realistically, though, we know not many people want to adopt a horse with a degenerative condition. But that’s ok. We made a commitment to each horse that we take in, so Empire’s part of Bluebonnet now and we’ll care for her.

Your donations allow us to make - and keep - the commitment to each horse we say yes to. And it allows us to say yes to even more horses next year.

12/02/2025

is half over, but donations are going rather slow. We've got $1,039 to left to raise to make our second matching grant of $2,000.

Deciding that it is time to help a beloved horse leave this world is hard. We’ve been there, and we know the pain. We know what it is like to agonize about when to make the decision: is it time? Should I wait a little longer? Is she having more good days than bad ones? What if I wait and tomorrow is a better day?

Imagine how much harder it would be to know you need to let your horse go, but to not be able to afford that final veterinary bill. Put yourself into Pam*’s shoes for a minute.You’ve owned Jinglebelle* for 25 years, ever since she was just a young and energetic five year old. The two of you have grown up together, exploring trails, bringing home some ribbons in open shows, and logging countless hours together. You cried into her mane when your boyfriend dumped you in college. She was part of your wedding, and then you trusted her to carry your first child around on her back.

And you watched her slow down. She developed arthritis and Cushings. She lost most of her teeth and needed to eat wet food. And now she doesn’t want to eat much and she’s lethargic.

You know it is time to let her go. But you got laid off from your job and your car broke down. You’ve run through your savings and there’s just nothing left to pay a large vet bill with.

Imagine how hurt and worried and stressed you would be. Your heart would be breaking and you would be eaten up with guilt.

Euthanasia is expensive. Because horses are so big, the drugs used are costly. And because fuel is so expensive, farm calls have gone up.

There are many ways we can help horses, and help their owners, and sometimes that looks like helping ease suffering. This is why we created the Rainbow Bridge Program, to help with the costs of euthanasia for horses who are suffering and whose owners simply cannot afford the cost of letting them go.

This year, we’ve helped several owners give that final gift to their horses. But we’ve depleted the Rainbow Bridge Fund. This is one reason why your donation this is so important: you’ll help us replenish the fund and be able to keep on helping horses in the following years.

You’ll be helping owners like Pam and horses like Jinglebelle in their time of need.

*Names/details changed to protect privacy.

12/02/2025

It is - and we've met our first match! Susan D. is now matching the next $2,000 raised - so your donation still gets doubled!

One way we help horses is by working with law enforcement and animal control agencies to take in abused, neglected, and abandoned horses like Amarillo and Butters. These were the first two horses into Bluebonnet in 2025, arriving from a neglect case shortly after the first of the year. Law enforcement discovered Amarillo and Butters after receiving a complaint of emaciated horses. When officers investigated, they found the two mares with nothing to eat and an owner who refused to care for them. The officers obtained a warrant to seize the horses and picked them up. After court, they asked us to take them.

When we take horses in from law enforcement and animal control cases, we don’t charge the agencies for our assistance, and this allows them to stretch their animal control budgets further and help more animals. But it means that the cost of veterinary care, rehabilitation, housing, and training the horses falls on us. This is why your donations on are so important: you make it possible for us to say yes to horses like Amarillo and Butters.

Today, both Butters and Amarillo are healthy, happy, and loved - but we know there are many other horses out there who still need us. Your donation will make a difference.

12/02/2025

Good morning! We're a third of the way through , and we've raised 14% of our goal - we need your support to help doing good work.

Through our Horse Owners Assistance Program, we provide short-term help with feed and hay or veterinary care to horses whose owners are experiencing a temporary crisis, horses like Patches. Patches’ owner’s wife passed away after a brief battle with cancer. Her owner was overwhelmed with expenses and thought he may need to give up his beloved horse. But the idea of giving up a horse he loved so soon after his wife’s death devastated him. Fortunately, a friend told him about Bluebonnet and we were able to provide feed for a few months while he got back on his feet. This kept Patches in a home where she was loved and happy, and her owner kept the comfort and peace he felt when he was with Patches.

If you would like to help others like Patches and her owner, please consider a donation this . We currently have $1,500 left to raise to meet our first matching donation from The Charles and Janet Sembroski Trust. When you give now, the trust matches your gift so your donation goes further and helps more.

12/02/2025

Happy everyone!

December 2nd is the day designated for radical generosity, and it is how we kick off our holiday giving season. We know so many other charities are asking for your donations today. So why should you donate to Bluebonnet? What makes us different?

At Bluebonnet, we believe there are many ways to help horses. Sometimes it means helping law enforcement remove horses from negligent owners. Other times it means taking in owner surrendered horses. It can also take the form of educating owners to be better caretakers and trainers of their horses. And sometimes it means providing a helping hand so that owners can keep their horses.

We don’t want to overwhelm you today - the holiday season can be overwhelming enough. So instead of posting a request every hour like we have in the past, we are going to just post a handful of times today. Each post will introduce you to one of our programs and the horses and people they help. You can see how your donation makes a huge difference to so many.

Right now, we're working to raise $5,000 to earn a match from The Charles and Janet Sembroski Trust, and we have $2,420 to go - so donating now can double your donation!

We hope you’ll donate so that we can help even more horses and people in 2026. Not only radical generosity - but radical helping. Making the world better, together.

12/01/2025

Happy December everyone!

It seems like I just got used to typing 2025, and now there’s just a month left until the end of the year!

We’ve had a great year at Bluebonnet, helping many horses and many horse owners. We’ve taken in 50 horses and found homes for over 90 horses. We had a fantastic Bluebonnet Horse Expo & Rescue Horse Training Challenge, and we’ve gotten to help many people through our horse owners assistance programs, thanks to everyone who has donated, fostered, adopted, and volunteered this year.

We’re preparing for a year full of helping other horses and humans in 2026, but we’re going to need your help to make that happen. Right now, the The Charles and Janet Sembroski Trust is matching the first $5,000 donated to Bluebonnet for . By donating now, you can make the next year better for lucky horses and the humans who love them. And your donation will be matched, going further and helping more!

Big thanks to The Charles and Janet Sembroski Trust for this awesome matching donation.

11/27/2025

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Today, and every day, I am so grateful for you and your support.

And I am so grateful that I get to dedicate my life to helping both horses and humans.

Thank you for being part of the Bluebonnet Community.

11/26/2025

On Nov. 25th the American Association of Equine Practitioners and Equine Disease Communication Center produced a  webinar for horse owners to learn more about the equine herpesvirus outbreak in Texas. Drs. Krista Estell, Dr. Katie Flynn  and Texas state veterinarian Dr. Lewis “Bud” Dinges, pr...

11/20/2025

I was hanging out with my hairy, handsome boy Galeno the other day, thinking about how absolutely in love I am with this horse. This got me thinking of the idea of a “heart horse” – or the horse you bond deeply with.

Some people really hate the term “heart horse”, and others really don’t believe the idea that a horse is going to bond with a human. I hear “the horse will like whoever feeds him” as someone rolls their eyes and scoffs at the idea of bonding.

Other people want to feel an instant connection with a horse and get frustrated if that connection isn’t there either immediately or at least within the first few weeks. I hate that because that makes people second-guess, sometimes even dislike, the horse. And they give up on the horse when they could develop an amazing partnership and relationship if they had given it more time.

I’m sure some people do have an instant connection with a horse. But to be honest, I never have.

For the first couple of years that I had Galeno, I wondered what had possessed me to adopt this horse. He was hard – he didn’t want me to touch his ears (including bridling him). He would jerk the lunge line away and try to run off. When I started riding him, he bolted.

I worried there was something mentally wrong with him. Or maybe I was a horrible rider. I thought about returning him. I had crises of confidence (multiple times). I sometimes didn’t even think I liked him.

I’m stubborn. Sometimes that means I don’t know when to give up, but this time it worked out in my favor. Because I kept trying and one day, I looked at this horse and realized I could not imagine my life without him. I pity my vet the few times I’ve had to call her out for emergencies for him, because she probably dreads the day something is truly wrong. It’ll be ugly.

Galeno isn’t the only horse that I’ve wondered if I made a mistake with – although he’s probably the most dramatic case. I’ve had other horses who I just didn’t feel much more until that one day when I realized I did.

What’s the purpose of this post? It is to tell you that sometimes those bonds take work. Sometimes they take you questioning your own sanity. Sometimes it means working and crying and working again. And then one day you wake up, and you see a heart horse standing before you. You see the horse you cannot live without.

So give it time, keep working, and don’t give up on your horse or your relationship with him or her. (My caveat here is: if the horse has dangerous behavior and you are truly in over your head, you need a professional assessment and then you may need to decide whether or not this is something you can work through).

And also remember, your relationship with each horse you care for, ride, and/or own will be different. I own three full sized horses (and my daughter’s pony) right now, and my relationship with each is different. I’ve been lucky to have more than one “heart horse” and even those relationships are different. But I love them all.

11/20/2025

Great information from one of our partners, Equine Mobile Veterinary Services: Kris Anderson DVM.

By now, you’ve heard about the emergent cases of EHV-1 linked to a large event in Waco.

There’s a lot of hysteria and drama online, and we have a lot of clients calling the office. While we want you to be careful and follow good biosecurity practices, please don’t panic.

This isn’t my first experience with an EHV-1 outbreak, and my advice is the same as every other outbreak: sit tight and stay home and keep others away from your horses. This means don’t haul to events or to trail rides, don’t have friends over to ride. Go ahead and cancel the body work and farrier. Cancel elective vet procedures. However, if your horse is sick, injured, or ill, call your vet – don’t postpone emergency care because you’re worried.

Right now, this bout of EHV-1 has been linked to the barrel racing community, so barrel horses are at a greater risk. However barrel racers board at mixed discipline barns. They share fencelines with horses on other properties. They come in contact with other horses at the vet. The farrier or bodyworker who works on a barrel horse may be out to your farm next. I expect this will spread beyond the barrel horse community (if it already hasn’t).

Even though horses can be contagious and spreading EHV-1 in the early stages when it is still hard to detect, doing our best to indentify and treat cases, as well as isolating exposed horses, is our best way of slowing or stopping the spread.

If you board, have recently traveled, or have shared fencelines with horses who travel, monitor your horses and those around them for any symptoms. Take temperatures twice daily (normal temperature is 99-101.5F).

This is great information that I borrowed from another clinic:

Limiting exposure to other horses helps because EHV-1 spreads through:
Direct horse-to-horse contact
Respiratory droplets
Contaminated surfaces
Shared water or feed buckets
Human hands or clothing that touch an infected horse

Practice good biosecurity (this is always good advice, not just now):
Wash hands & change clothes after visiting other barns
Don’t share buckets, hay bags, or grooming tools
Especially don’t share bridles/bits
Monitor temperatures daily
Stay home if your horse seems “off”

Reach out to my office if your horse has been exposed to a positive horse and isolate that horse from all other horses.

If your horse has a fever, even if they’re showing no other signs, contact my office immediately. If you are concerned your horse is acting sick or off, even if they don’t have a fever, contact my office immediately.

And I know this is scary and you love your horse. Just remember, we all love our horses and want to protect them. Let’s not point fingers or blame people. Let’s work together to slow the spread of this virus and not let fear make us turn on each other.

11/20/2025

If you are a horse person who is online, you've probably heard about the EHV-1 outbreak by now. If you haven't, Brazos Valley Equine Navasota has some great information on their page and on their website.

Out of an abundance of caution, we're suspending intake and movements of horses within the rescue for the next two weeks and will re-evaluate at that time. As far as we know, none of our horses have been exposed but this strain of EHV-1 does not seem to be behaving normally, and so many horses were potentially exposed at a couple of big events.

As a rescue supported by generous supporters who also uses foster homes, we feel it is our responsibility to be cautious about threats to the equine population.

If anything changes, we will update.

Also, if you are an animal control officer or law enforcement officer reading this and need help with horse cases, please reach out. We'll be handling those on a case by case basis and working with our veterinarians (and yours) to figure out the best way to quarantine and help the horses who are in immediate need.