12/31/2024
We are twelve years old today!
12 years ago, I went downtown to the Secretary of State's office in Los Angeles and got the Articles of Incorporation for PPR stamped. We'd already had Juesa, our first horse, for a couple of weeks at that time, having retrieved her from the Lancaster Animal Shelter and started the process of fattening her back up. In short order, we added a few more, none of which wound up getting adopted, so our first lesson in horse rescue was: when you want to help the old ones, odds are good you'll be the last place they live!
Sometimes luck has been with us - we've found amazing homes, even for horses as old as 28. We will always be grateful to Suzie who adopted Coda (Scimakota), an old Arabian who had been in his stall for years after his elderly owners couldn't manage anything more than throwing feed. He emerged sound and sassy and ready for action after we fixed his terrible feet, and I think he made it to 32 or 33 with Suzie's loving care. He wasn't a polo pony, but he was a horse that needed us and I'm glad we could be there.
We have had so many unbelievably great adopters and so many unbelievably great volunteers and donors over the past 12 years. We started out with horses in boarding that only got out when we took them out, so we had to make daily trips, often twice a day, to the barns they were at to make that happen. Los Angeles barns don't typically include any turnout. Now, 12 years later, most are here at home, with big paddocks to gallop and play in, slow feed nets of hay to munch on, sparkling clean water tubs and mush buckets provided as needed. The few that aren't here are on pasture board elsewhere. Not one single horse is locked in a stall. I never get tired of seeing how happy they are. This is how horses are supposed to live.
Like any rescue, we have had some frustrating situations to deal with. I think most of you reading this were probably around this summer when we got Pi***la back in terrible condition and had to rehab our own horse. This is probably the part of rescue that gets to you the most - when you really think you've made a good choice and you can trust someone, and then you turn out to be wrong. You dwell forever on the fact that the horse could have just stayed with you and never suffered. You say to yourself, well, they have to move on so that we can help more, and nobody is going to be right 100% of the time. That's true but it's still something that wears on you - the guilt. I check adopters out like I'm recruiting for the CIA but you can still be wrong. It's a difficult, stressful thing to have inhabiting your head 24/7.
The other thing I've learned is that there's a great deal of difference between how you feel at 45, the age I was when we started out, and 57, the age I am now. Maybe not if you get to the gym regularly and eat healthy, but like most people running a rescue, my life is chores/work/chores/sleep. The chores provide some exercise, I guess, but not the exercise I really need. Every year I get more tired and it gets harder to drag myself outside and do the work - especially in our three or so months of summer heat. I say all the time that I would die without Irene, our volunteer who comes daily, but she's older than I am and we're both lamer than most of our retirees at this point. I have cameras running and sometimes I watch myself on video and can't even figure out which leg I'm lamer on. :D
With all this in mind, and yet the overwhelming urge to keep providing the best care possible to these adorable, hilarious senior horses, we've decided to make a change we've been heading toward for some time now. Polo Pony Rescue is becoming a lifetime sanctuary for the horses. We have one horse, Gringa, on a trial that we think will become an adoption and stay at our trainer Monica Whitmer's place, which means no worries about care. Other than her, everybody we have is a retiree - and as we approach being retirees ourselves, PPR will be a safe haven for the current collection to live out their lives surrounded by friends, good food and good care. We will of course always take our returns, but we won't be adding new horses to the group so that, naturally, every year there will be a few less to take care of, and chores will become a little easier. We have 28 right now, and the average age is 21.7. We do have two (China and Brandy) who are fostered and we appreciate the outstanding, loving homes that have chosen to care for them.
I know that sanctuaries are always the hardest to get support for, but due to our large collection of horses who are past their working lives, we're been 99% a sanctuary anyway, and we're just making it official. I'm not going to slow down on posting lots of pictures of the horses and their lives, we will always welcome visitors who want to meet them, and we hope you'll continue to work together with us to make sure every one of these horses continues to enjoy the retirement they so richly deserve.
Happy New Year, everybody - we hope it is one of the very best for you, your family and your animals! And of course if you're still looking to make a last minute donation, our Venmo is and Paypal/Zelle are [email protected]
