Bluebonnet Equine Humane Society

01/06/2025

Happy 2025! Can you believe it is 2025?! It felt like i just got used to writing 2024.

Really, though, I've been looking forward to 2025 for a long time. Not because I want time to speed up, but because it is Bluebonnet's 20th anniversary.

20 years in rescue is a huge thing. A lot of rescues don't make it this long because rescue is hard work. And it is expensive work. And it is very emotional. And sometimes it can be very lonely.

But we're looking at 20 years in rescue. And do you know why we've made it this long? Some folks might say it is because I'm too stubborn to quit. But I say it is because each and every one of you, our Bluebonnet Community, is here. We pull together to help horses in need, to support each other, and to do good in the world. That's something very special, and I'm so honored to be a part of it.

Here's to a wonderful 2025, celebrating YOU, the people who make Bluebonnet what it is, and helping more horses.

01/05/2025

My goal this year is to have more horse fun - to remember what it was like to be a kid and have fun in the barn and love just being around my horses and horse friends. So today I rode two horses - one was ba****ck - and worked with two others.

Maybe I need to invite some other horse friends over to paint our horses' hooves and braid their manes? Remember being a kid . ....

If you had a horse as a kid, what did you enjoy then that you don't do now? Or if you dreamed of a horse as a kid, what did you hope to do that you don't get to do now?

01/04/2025

Chili with an Olaf photobomb.

Chili has gotten good with handling when we work in the training area outside the barn, but if we're someplace different we regress a bit.

So today I "faux" tied him for the first time in a new place. I do this by wrapping the rope around the board without tying it. It gives some resistance but if he really gets upset, it will come free. It is a good way to see if a horse knows to tie.

He did well. He let me pick up both front feet and hold them up and clean them for the first time.

He was too nervous to let me pick up his back feet today. But that was OK - we have made huge progress.

01/04/2025

01/01/2025

When Bandera first got here, if I tried to take him close to the feed room/tack room he would panic and pull back.

So he got rewarded with treats for coming near the feed room, and now I can lead him right to it.

He is also letting me jump next to him (preparation for mounting) without spooking and is doing better with the western saddle pad.

All this has been accomplished in 5-10 minute training sessions. It is amazing how far horses can come in short sessions if you listen to them.

01/01/2025

Happy 2025! Here's to wishing for a better year for all of the horses and for all of our supporters!

Do you have any goals or plans for your horses for 2025? We would love to hear them!

#2025

12/31/2024

Most nonprofits receive a significant portion of their donations in the last 31 days of the year, that’s why we call it 31 Days of Giving. For us at Bluebonnet, that’s been important because we’ve had an expensive year with slow donations. You all have helped change that, and we’re not just a little over $6,000 from meeting our year end goal. Thank you.

If you haven’t donated yet and can donate, please visit https://www.bluebonnetequine.org/help-horses-during-the-31-days-of-giving/

Since I’ve spent the month asking you to give, I thought today I should tell you what I’m giving you – and the horses in our care. I’m giving you and the horses my pledge to:
- Always put the horses first. Even when we’re tired, even when it is hard.
- Also remember and honor how important the people are: our members, donors, supporters, adopters, foster homes, and volunteers.
- Make decisions about the rescue and our horses thoughtfully.
- Make end-of-life decisions with the horses’ best interest first.
- Provide the best care we can for the horses.
- Continually learn more about nonprofits as well as horse care so we can do better.
- Recognize that we’re not perfect and we make mistakes but learn from them.
- Train and handle our horses humanely, and continually learn to do better.
- Improve the rescue, so that we can help more horses.
- Make your donations go as far as possible and do the most good they can.
- Continue to develop new programs and improve existing programs so we can help the horses.
- Listen to you when you have concerns or questions or need help.
- Develop a rescue that will outlast each of us and be around as long as horses need help.
- Be here for the horses and for you.

I’m looking forward to jumping into 2025 with each of you and with the horses we all love. We’ve got exciting things coming in 2025 – including a year long celebration of 20 years of helping horses together.

I hope each of you reading this have a marvelous 2025, and that we can help a lot of horses together.

#2025

12/31/2024

12/30/2024

31 Days of Giving is down to just today and tomorrow. And while I was worried for a while we wouldn't get near our goal, we're just $8,100 away from our year end goal. That's pretty amazing - people from all over Texas, and really from all over the country, coming together to help horses. We've got folks who have just started riding, those who grew up on a horse, and those who have never ridden at all. We've probably even got some donors who are a bit scared of horses but still donating because they want to help. And people have donated not because they are horse lovers but because people they love love horses.

It is a miracle. All of our lives crossing and interacting to help horses. All of us taking on the responsibility to make this world a better place for horses. When the work is hard, when we lose a horse we fought hard to save, when something goes wrong, I can think of all of you out there cheering the rescue on and be instantly lifted up.

Thank you for being there.

And if you haven't gotten to donate yet and would like to push us a bit further towards our goal, you can donate at https://www.bluebonnetequine.org/help-horses-during-the-31-days-of-giving/

12/29/2024

Thank you for being an important part of the Bluebonnet Equine Community - helping horses through donations, volunteering, adopting, and supporting the rescue makes you a hero to horses.

We've got just about two and a half days left in 2024 - which is quite astonishing to me - and I'm quite excited for 2025 in the rescue. We've got some new programs coming for our foster homes and adopters, we've got some amazing opportunities to expand our reach and help horses, and we'll be celebrating 20 years of helping horses and other equines get the help they need. I can't wait to see what we'll accomplish together!

But before we jump into 2025, though, we're hoping to finish 2024 strong. This year has been a tough year for the rescue. A lot of horses have had behavioral problems requiring professional trainers or health and lameness issues requiring multiple veterinary visits. We are happy to spend the money because it means we're helping horses. But it also means we've spent more than we've brought in this year.

As I type, we're about $10,000 from reaching our year end giving goal. A lot of folks have already donated towards that goal, and if you are one of them, I am so grateful for your support.

If you haven't donated yet but can spare any donation, you can donate at https://www.bluebonnetequine.org/help-horses-during-the-31-days-of-giving/. You'll be helping the horses currently in foster homes, helping the horses hoping to come into the rescue in the next few weeks, and helping horses beyond that. And you'll be part of the Bluebonnet Equine Community, dedicated to the horses who need each and every one of us.

Whether or not you can donate right now, I'm thankful for you, and I know the horses are, too. We'll keep working together to help horses and make the world a better place for horses and those who love them.

12/28/2024

We've got just a few more days in 31 Days of Giving, and we still have $23,500 to raise to make our year end goal. If you haven't donated yet and can, please visit https://www.bluebonnetequine.org/help-horses-during-the-31-days-of-giving/ to make your tax-deductible donation.

DId you know that in addition to taking horses in from law enforcement cases and owners who can't keep them, we also help owners who are having a short term financial crisis?

We don't want someone who loves their horse to give up their horse if they're experiencing a short-term financial crisis. If we can give them a helping hand in the form of hay or grain that allows them to keep their horse until things look up, we feel that's a great solution. The horse stays in his or her home and the owner gets to keep a horse who provides support, a break from the stress, recreation, and companionship. I know that when I've had tough times (my husband's cancer diagnosis and my mom's and then dad's deaths), I often went to the barn for comfort or for a break from reality. I don't know what I would have done without my horses, and I hate to think that something that was only short-term could force me to give them up. I'm sure you feel the same.

So when you donate, you not only help the horses who need to come to us, but you also help us keep horses with their owners. This year, we provided $50,000 worth of support to owners - and we had to turn people away because we ran out of funds. Your donation means we could help more people and their horses next year. It would be awesome to not have to say no to folks.

12/28/2024

Setting attainable goals is an important aspect of starting to feel good about how you show up as a horse person.

No one offers the perfect situation for their horse.

There is always room for improvement in both training and management because perfection isn’t attainable.

Learning how to be aware of where training or day-to-day care may be lacking without allowing it to impact how you value yourself is an important skill to practice.

Two things can be true at once:

1. You can be doing the best you can for your horse with what you have access to.

2. There can still be room for improvement or aspects of care that are not ideal.

By acknowledging where there is room to improve, you can, at minimum, be more understanding of your horse’s struggles and less likely to respond with frustration.

The horse who gets minimal turnout through the winter due to bad weather is going to be more difficult to handle.

This is a byproduct of the care being provided and should be expected.

If you cannot immediately change the management situation, what you can do immediately within your power is be more patient when your horse is reactive and explosive.

You can take them out for more hand walks and try to get them out in an engaging environment.

You can do more liberty sessions to try to create more opportunity for autonomous movement.

You can provide more enrichment.

You can advocate for your horse.

Horse owners often are discouraged by hearing information that exposes welfare deficits in horse care and training when it applies to them.

Denial is often the more comfortable path to take.

But, denial doesn’t change the horse’s experience.

It just closes their owner and advocate off to the opportunity to seek means of bettering welfare that are within their ability.

Harm reduction is preferable to taking no action at all.

What sets the proactive horse owners apart from the complacent ones is their desire to continue their learning and their ability to objectively look at their horse’s living situation.

The first step to improving welfare where we can is acknowledging where there are aspects that are lacking in care.

Then we can create actionable steps that are within our power to provide.

So, for 2025, make a habit of creating actionable steps to improve welfare where you can.

This can be as simple as showing a horse you do not own or make decisions for kindness in the moments you do handle them.

It brings them reprieve, even just for a moment.

And while it seems small and trivial, it is something.

Small acts of compassion and patience can create big waves.

So, rather than being discouraged by what you can’t do, try to look at what you CAN do.

Welfare improvement doesn’t need to look like massive changes.

It can start with harm reduction.

12/27/2024

It is still 31 days of Giving - at least for a few more days - and we still need your help raising the funds to meet our goal and help needy horses (and donkeys!). We're $650 from raising enough to get a $10,000 matching donation, so if you haven't donated yet, please consider a gift at https://www.bluebonnetequine.org/help-horses-during-the-31-days-of-giving/

Today intro are the adorable miniature jennies who arrived right before Christmas. Their former owner has been a long time Bluebonnet supporter, but she's had some difficult times lately and really needed to cut back. She returned her two adopted donkeys and also asked us to take these girls. They're a mom and daughter pair who have been together all their lives. They've had some experience with full sized horses, so they're scared of them and can't be kept out with them. They're very bonded and will need to stay together.

They're not yet up for adoption, and we do need donations for their veterinary care (vaccinations, Coggins, and dentals) and for their feed. Your 31 Days of Giving donation helps these girls - and others who are still hoping to find safety at Bluebonnet.

12/26/2024

My voice is hoarse thanks to gems my 10 year old brought home from school and shared (nothing like being sick at year end/ the holidays). So if you can't hear - it is just a heartfelt year end donation request. We have some horses we could take in, but we do need to raise funds to care for them and others. Thank you for your support.

12/25/2024

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate.

Happy Hanukkah to those who celebrate.

And happy (belated) winter solstice to those who celebrate.

Whatever holiday(s) you celebrate during this season, I wish you, your family, and your animals peace, rest, renewal, love, and joy this season.

I am grateful for each of you and the joy and love you give the horses of Bluebonnet and for the peace and community you share with each person of Bluebonnet - not just during the holiday season, but year round.

12/24/2024

Happy Christmas Eve (to those who celebrate) and happy birthday to my dad (in heaven) and Happy 31 Days of Giving to all the horses of Bluebonnet!

I think Christmas Eve/My Dad's birthday calls for a special story, don't you? So today, I want to introduce you to Angel. She's such a perfect example of why we're here, and why we always want to be here for the horses who need us.

Although Angel is currently living in a Bluebonnet foster home, she actually came to us in 2006 (yes, 18 years ago!) from a neglect case. She was very skinny when she arrived, and she needed a lot of care. Her foster homes got her healthy, and I discovered she was broke to ride (back in my much braver, rider most anything days).

Angel was adopted as a riding horse in 2008, and she spent the next 16 and a half years with her adopter. That's a long time, and it would be easy to forget about a horse who was adopted so long ago. But we're here for our horses for life, so when her adopter's husband passed away and her adopter reached out to us, we were ready to take Angel back in and make sure she continued to receive great care.

And here we are, 18 years after she arrived, with Angel back in a foster home. If we hadn't been here, an older (23 year old), grade mare who hasn't been ridden in many years could have faced an uncertain fate. But we are here because you, our donors and supporters, made sure we could be here.

And we want to be here still for the horses who were adopted this year but 15, 20, or more years from now need a safe place to land again.

Your donation will help us keep on caring for the horses we've committed to and allow us to commit to more. If you haven't donated yet, you can donate at https://www.bluebonnetequine.org/help-horses-during-the-31-days-of-giving/ - and we'll keep on working together to help horses far into the future.

12/23/2024

We've got just 9 days to reach our 31 Days of Giving Fund, and we have a LONG ways to go! Right now, we're $1400 away from reaching our next matching donation of $10,000, which will put us much closer to the goal and allow us to help more horses in 2025 (Can you believe it is almost 2025?!). If you can donate, you'll be helping needy horses all across Texas.

This year, we'll spend approximately $155,000 on hay and grain for the horses in our care, and that's in addition to the foster homes who donate all or partial costs to feed the horses they foster. It takes a lot of feed to care for a healthy horse, and even more when they come in emaciated.

We really want to extend our reach next year - to help more law enforcement agencies with their neglect cases, but we definitely need to make sure we have the funds to care for those horses. So your donations DO matter and they DO help!