Midwest Horse Welfare Foundation, Inc.

09/11/2024

We remember

09/03/2024

Does anyone remember "Jane Doe", now known as Janie, from way back in 2007, and Durango from 2008? Here is a pic of Durango and Janie from their happy home with Gloria and Richard, who adopted both of them way back in 2009 (holy cats, that is 15 years ago!). Janie has quite a story, and it took about 2 years for her to become adoptable. Janie was a horse that escaped from somewhere (no one ever claimed her) and was running loose for about a week before being captured. She needed a lot of rehab, physically as well as mentally and emotionally. Durango came to MHWF via a sheriff's department case back in 2008, and it took over 100 days before MHWF was able to gain ownership and eventually find Durango a good home after her rehab. Gloria and Richard fell in love with and adopted both of these beautiful girls eventually in 2009. What a wonderful story of resilience, persistence and people coming together to make things right for both of these horses. Thank you so much to Gloria and Richard for choosing adoption!
If you'd like to read more about these horse's stories and the long journey of Janie, you can find in the comment section that will take you there.

08/29/2024

Victor just popping in to let you know he is as handsome as ever and working on more freckles every year. Speaking of years, Victor has been at MHWF for 4 years now! While Victor is a horse who cannot be ridden, he sure has a lot to give, is easy to take care of, is a very happy boy and guaranteed to make you smile. Of course he's a big boy, standing at about 17.2HH, but he has that puppy dog personality going on strong. Victor is always up for making you smile. Who doesn't need more smiles in their life?
Go ahead and hop on over to our site to find out more about Victor and how to adopt him or any of the wonderful horses available.

08/26/2024

You know what we say - we celebrate every adoption, but when a pasture buddy type horse finds a new loving home, we celebrate even a little harder. Time to celebrate Kelly finding herself a loving home! Kelly is a now 26-year-old Saddlebred mare, and while pasture sound, is truly not able to stand up to riding. JoAnn came along and decided that Kelly deserves to be given lots of extra love and attention by herself and grandkids as well, and she has adopted Kelly! JoAnn adopted a wonderful mare named Dalila from MHWF back in 2018, when Dalila was 24 years old. Sadly, Dalila crossed the Bridge recently at the age of 30 after an adverse reaction to anesthesia. Our hearts go out to JoAnn and family on their loss of Dalila, and we are also very touched that they opened up their hearts to a special horse like Kelly. We know they are going to love Kelly, and Kelly is going to bask in all of the extra attention that she is going to be getting. Kelly has been part of MHWF for 17 years (first arriving to MHWF back in 2007), and has been at our facility now for the past 2 years when she made her way back to us in 2022. We are grateful for the time we've spent with Kelly and grateful that she has gotten such an amazing and loving forever home with JoAnn for her senior years. ❤️

Big congratulations to Kelly and JoAnn, and thank you for choosing adoption again JoAnn!

08/23/2024

This looks like a simple video of a horse being ridden, but it's so much more than that. This is Quest. I know there are a lot of people who know who Quest is, a lot of people who met Quest in the approximately 5 years that she was a resident at MHWF after being rescued back in 2017. Quest was terrified of people and had never had her feet trimmed at the age of 6 when we took her in. Quite a few people felt the best solution would be euthanasia, which many times that is the correct answer for horses who are physically and mentally too far gone. Quest always showed that she was making progress and could and would come around, and amazingly that one particularly bad hoof was also rehab-able and she became completely sound as well. We stuck this out with Quest and many, many people helped along the way. Here she is now, happy in her adoptive home with Kodie, who adopted Quest in 2022. Quest is actually being ridden, this is just so wonderful. Of course this is a long road that has many twists and turns, with a huge thank-you to everyone who stuck with us on this and especially to Kodie for opening up her heart to this extremely special mare.

08/19/2024

Check out Roses Bloom, Standardbred mare adopted by Deb a while back. What a wonderful update on Roses!
From Deb:

Wanted to let you know that Roses Bloom is doing great and is the most wonderful gem of a horse! You’d never know she’ll be 21 this year! We feel so lucky she is part of our family… thanks again! Photo taken after our first trail ride together. Love this girl!!❤️

08/13/2024

Congratulations to Katie, and to Irongate for getting such a great person to add to their wonderful staff.
We can't go without mentioning those two wonderful equines both came from MHWF. ❤️❤️

We have very exciting news to share. Please join us in welcoming Katie Neumann to the Irongate Equine Clinic team!👋

Katie grew up on a small dairy farm outside of Sauk City, WI. She fell in love with horses as a little girl and used to show hunter jumpers at local hunter jumper open schooling shows. Now in her free time she enjoy hanging out at the barn with friends and trail riding with her two rescue horses Dixie and Jethro.

Katie will work with all three of our veterinarians in the field assisting them with their patients and appointments. We look forward to you meeting Katie soon!

08/09/2024

We think Meryl thinks Myra is cute, and we agree with her! Meryl was formerly known as Lady, a 20-year-old Standardbred mare who got adopted by Cassandra and family back in March of 2024. Not only did they give Lady a beautiful new name, but also a beautiful new life with a loving family to go along with it.

08/05/2024

Check out Raven (FKA Lakota), 26 years old and still going strong! Raven was enjoying hitting the trails today. This lucky girl was adopted from MHWF by Donna 11 years ago (2013), and has really blossomed into a true gem over the years.

07/31/2024

Who are these two cuties you ask? They are Andee and Mayhew, just like their halters say ;) (even though Andee's name is spelled wrong on his halter, but that's ok). These two Haflinger geldings have been part of MHWF since 2021, and are available for adoption. Andee is 23 and Mayhew is 27, and they are as sweet as they come. They will not be split up, must be adopted together. Both are trained to drive and have been a team their whole lives. All of their info and how to adopt is on our site.

07/28/2024

Ever wonder how some horse's manes get so messed up sometimes? ;) Have a great and peaceful day everyone!

07/27/2024

It seems that sometimes people may be leery to adopt/buy a horse who is around 20 years old, fearing they are "too old". Check out this 21-year-old horse competing in the Olympics. His rider is 57.
https://www.horseandhound.co.uk/features/oldest-horse-at-olympics-wundermaske-ronald-zabala-goetschel-eventing-865493?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_content=horseandhound&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwY2xjawERzU1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHViVQB9dXE-EN1OtpFAy6sW72DEdllN_A7__RzI_ETeanvgnl5c1pegIVA_aem_zByDIGEHd-0GRS0kGW0_YQ

The oldest horse at the Olympics Wundermaske is partnered by the oldest event rider, Ronald Zabala Goetschel, with a combined age of 78

07/25/2024

Chief is the name of this beautiful little pony, and he was adopted from MHWF on the 4th of July in 2020 by an amazing family. The updates on adopted equines make us so happy, and this one even gave us a little chuckle. Here's a recent update from Tracy: "Chief has been a busy dude this summer. We've got the kids riding him independently and we've been practicing to get him ready to go to horse camp with Natalie. He was doing awesome at practice, but he got kicked out of camp after the first day. It sounds like he was having some trouble playing nicely with the other ponies. Camp or no camp, he's doing more work than he has in a while and taking to it well."

07/25/2024

Drifter is sure that Jazzy thinks he's quite handsome. We think they are both stunningly beautiful.
Drifter is a 10-year-old pony gelding, Jazzy is a 15-year-old half Arab/Saddlebred, both available for adoption. You can find all of their info on our site ❤️

07/20/2024

Lace knows that she gets special treats every day. This is the cutest face to be greeted by that anyone could dream of, even if it may be a little bit about the treats ;)
For those who don't know who Lace is, she is a 27-year-old mare who came to MHWF back in spring of 2021 when her owner could no longer care for her. In the 3 years that Lace has been with MHWF, she truly feels at home and is the sweetest girl ever. Lace was noted on intake back in 2021 to have a little blood in one nostril from time to time. We had a lot of testing done including ultrasound and it was discovered that she had a huge ethmoid hematoma deep in her nasal cavity (tumor of sorts). We went on to have Lace treated, which was about a 2-month process of injections every 3 weeks, and that resolved the hematoma. Unfortunately, we found on ultrasound in about 2 years' time the tumor has started to regrow and we are monitoring this. We have made Lace a permanent resident here at MHWF to live out her golden years. She is very comfortable, healthy and happy.
Thank you to all of you for your support and making the care and treatment of horses like Lace possible. ❤

07/19/2024

Tye is one lucky guy and found himself a great home with Roxanne and Brian! They have been looking for some time now, and Tye seemed to fit exactly what they were looking for. Brian now has a horse for some leisurely rides to join in with Roxanne. Roxanne also adopted Stormy from MHWF back in 2016, so Tye will have an MHWF alumni pasture mate to live with too. ❤
A big congratulations to Tye, Roxanne and Brian, and thank you for choosing adoption again!

07/18/2024

It's been just over a year since Polly mule arrived to MHWF, along with her sidekick, Lolly. As many of you know, Polly came to us with cancer in her right eye. The cancer was pretty advanced and Polly needed surgery to remove the cancer, along with the eye since it was so advanced. We took Polly in for that surgery last fall. Polly did great with the whole process, and has gone on to heal up just great with no signs of any recurrence. Polly has adjusted great to having only one eye, and is a very sweet and happy girl. Now that Polly is completely healthy in mind and body, we will be taking the next steps to see what she may or may not know about being ridden. Stay tuned in the following weeks to hear more about sweet Polly!
Thank you for supporting MHWF and making it possible to give so many equines a chance for a great life and giving them just what they need. ❤️

07/16/2024

Figaro, Figaro, Figaro! Do any of our followers remember Figaro? Figaro came to MHWF way back in 2007 as a 4-year-old (17 years ago!). Figaro had wound up in a bad situation that he was saved from as a youngster. Unfortunately, his bad start in life left him with some tendon problems, deeming him not able to be ridden. Figaro lived with us at MHWF for a lot of years, always a favorite in the herd. In 2013, Christine and Nick came along and wanted to give Figaro his happily-ever-after home and Figaro has been thriving with them since, 11 years now. They have the best farrier (also the farrier we use) who has been able to keep Figaro comfortable and thriving. Figaro also lives with Amos the Standardbred and Sully the Arabian, also adopted from MHWF.
Thank you to Nick and Christine for choosing adoption and giving these horses such a wonderful home!

07/10/2024

Scotch was 12 years old when he came to MHWF back in April of 2021. He had not been handled much and never trained to ride or anything of the sort. We took in Scotch along with 6 other horses from the same place at that time who needed help, which included two stallions who needed to be gelded and handled and trained, two other geldings and two mares. You can follow their individual stories on our site's discussion forum (Lace, Boston and Cowboy still reside at MHWF, Lace being 27 years old is living out her life with us at MHWF). Scotch did great while here at MHWF and we sent him to a wonderful and kind trainer for about 4 months to get a good solid base of training and start under saddle back in 2021. A big thank-you to Katryna Miller for all of her help with Scotch and putting such a great solid foundation on him! Scotch did get adopted in the fall of 2021 and did wonderfully in that loving home, but unfortunately his adopter needed to return him due to no fault of Scotch at all, but for financial reasons. Scotch has done beautifully at MHWF, and he finally got adopted back on June 9th, but he just left for his new home with Tina this past Monday. Tina came and met Scotch, hung out with him and rode him and they got along just great. We wish Scotch and Tina all the best on their new adventures together!
A big congratulations to Scotch on his new loving home, and thank you to Tina for choosing adoption!

07/08/2024

Training, skill, hard work and dedication -
This has been 𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐅𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐑'𝐒 𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐊 𝐉𝐔𝐋𝐘 𝟒-𝟏𝟎
No statement could be more true than "no hoof, no horse", and we honor farriers everywhere during this week of National recognition for what an important part of the equine industry these professionals are. Here at the Midwest Horse Welfare Foundation, Inc. we would especially like to honor our wonderful farrier, Mike Kissack, this week and always. Mike does such a fantastic job on every equine, from the tiniest to the most giant, from the very special needs to the "easy ones", kind, caring and so understanding of everyone's needs. Mike has helped save so many horses with his skills and dedication, and our hat's off to you Mike, 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐊 𝐘𝐎𝐔!

07/06/2024

Did you know that the measurement of a horse is described in "hands"? Each hand is 4 inches, and height is described by how many hands tall they are and divided down to an inch increment in between the 4 inches. Below is a diagram to give a visual on how that works, starting at the 56 inch mark, which equals 14 hands (14x4=56 inches). This system of measurement was based on the width of a human hand and dates back to ancient times when people used parts of their bodies to measure things. This has been kept as the preferred unit of measure in spite of both imperial and metric systems as it is part of tradition.

07/04/2024

From all of us at MHWF, we wish you all a happy and safe Independence Day holiday.
248 years ago...on July 4th, 1776
This great nation, the United States of America,
In a struggle for what was right and free,
Was proudly born...
May we celebrate that precious freedom
For which our forebears fought so bravely...
The freedom that is inherent
In the Stars and Stripes, our revered flag...
Celebrate Freedom this Fourth of July!
Let Freedom Ring!

07/03/2024

Let's give a big warm welcome to Drifter and Jazz! Both of them are ready to look for their new families. Drifter is a 10-year-old pony gelding and Jazz is a 15-year-old half Arabian/half Saddlebred mare. Lots of information on the site about how to go about adopting either of these two, or any of the other wonderful equines available for adoption.

07/02/2024

The raffle and the raffle party is over and the tents, stage, tables, chairs, pota-potties and everything else are all cleaned up and hauled away. Tonight after work was our first chance to get online and share not only some updates and thank you's, but the winners as well.

So we will start with the winners.....

1st Place: $1000 Ben C.
2nd Place: $500 Brenda L.
3rd Place: $300 Randy K.
4th Place: $200 Laura K.

Congrats to all the winners of this year's raffle and a huge thank you to everyone who bought or sold tickets and made this all possible. One thing we wanted to share was something we just found out tonight, the Grand Prize winner, Ben. C. is only 4 years old. His grandmother bought tickets for each of her grandchildren and Ben was one of those kids.....congrats to little Ben!

We also have a ton of people to thank for all their hard work here, the night of the raffle.

We want to start with Dean P. Not only do Dean and his wife Tracy do a ton of horse hauling for MHWF, but Dean brought his entire PA system ( not a small one either) and spent one night setting it up, one long night running sound for 5 bands, and one night tearing it all back down and packing it up. He did that while being pretty sick the entire time. Thank you Dean and Tracy!

We also want to thank Cheryl B., who not only sold quite a few tickets, but she also did the 50/50 raffle here that night and another fundraiser for us in southern WI last month. Not only that, but Cheryl, PJ, Jerri and my mother, Jane B. pitched in and had most of the mess all cleaned up before we ever got out of bed on Sunday morning. A huge thank you to my mother, Jane as well as Cheryl and her friend PJ for all their help!

We cannot forget to thank Len and Donna R. for being a huge help with a little of everything here at the party on Saturday night as well.

Last but not least, a huge thank you to Deb W., Jerri M. and Donna R. for taking over the silent auction and making sure it went as smooth as it can go and giving Karen and I the chance to enjoy the party and chat with the people who came. They were a very big part of making the party go as smoothly as it did. Thank you very much to Deb, Jerri and Donna.

It was a fun night and we had about 150 people drop by throughout the night. The bands were excellent and we could not have had better company.

Thank you to everyone who had a part in making this happen. Without each and every one of you, none of this is possible. The horses thank you from the bottom of the huge and grateful hearts.

06/29/2024

Today is the day! The 2024 MHWF Raffle Party!
https://www.facebook.com/events/970179811497868
This is not only a fun way to celebrate the raffle and the winners of the drawing, but also a way for MHWF to show our appreciation to all of our supporters! We hope you come and enjoy the great food, live music, drinks, see the horses of MHWF, and enjoy the great company of other animal lovers!
Day of the Raffle:
*Doors open at 2 pm.
*Raffle drawing at approximately 6 pm.
*There will be a stage, live music from 3 to midnight+.
*Free food, drink, beer, water and soda.
*Door prizes, silent auction and a 50/50 raffle.
*People of all ages welcome!
*Free camping on site!

06/19/2024

Athena came to MHWF way back in June of 2010 as a 5-year-old (Paso Fino mare). It took about a year to get her ready to be adopted with some various issues she had, and she got adopted in September of 2011. Athena has been in the same home all of these years and is doing fantastic! Her adopter, Karol, says, "She’s a good horse and one of the best decisions I ever made"
We thought all of you would enjoy seeing a little update on adoption horse who came to MHWF 14 years ago and loving her home for the past 13 of those years.

06/12/2024

Miss FiFi wants to share the news that she found herself a new family! FiFi met Donna and John this past weekend and picked them to be her people. FiFi is embarking on her new career as being a best buddy to another horse named Polly who recently lost her pasture mate. FiFi will be adored and treasured in her new home, and we're thrilled for everyone involved.
FiFi is a 21-year-old Thoroughbred mare whose racing days are well behind her, and she is now living her very best life. We couldn't have dreamed up a better life for Fifi. She will be leaving soon for her new home, and we want to give a big congratulations to Fifi along with Donna and John, and we thank them for choosing adoption.

06/06/2024

Two horses were killed in late April and according to a news release from the family, Iron County Sheriff's Office has no promising leads six weeks later.