Kentucky Humane Society Equine CARE

06/24/2025

Today was farrier day, and a couple newer intakes are a bit shorter this afternoon than they started this morning. Sorry to adopters who like them taller, but not sorry since that was a lot of excess foot this fella didn’t need. Excessive length of the hoof places unnecessary strain on soft tissues and joints and can contribute to potential injuries.

Take a lesson from Apache this summer and shed what’s not serving you, even if you need help from a professional to get it done. (Thanks Aaron!)

06/23/2025

It's that time of year again - hay is ready to harvest and we need YOUR help stocking our hay lofts. Our goal is to purchase a year's worth of hay for our horses by July 15 so we can ensure they're happy, healthy and well-fed all year. The average cost for a bale of hay is $10, so a year's worth of hay for a farm of our size will cost upwards of $30,000 - that's why we need your help. We understand this goal may seem lofty, but our farm can care for over 40 horses at a time. Many are nursing or medically vulnerable and in need of special, nutrient-packed hay to help them rebuild their strength until they're healthy enough to be adopted and start anew. Your gift today at kyhumane.org/equine/give will help us keep our sweet horses at Willow Hope Farm well-fed and happy as they continue to grow and rehabilitate. Thank you so much for being a Hay Bale Hero!

06/23/2025

We always love welcoming new friends to Willow Hope Farm for Equine Assisted Learning sessions! The First Hour Grief Response team joined us last week and learned about their strengths as individuals and as a group. They also spent time working hands-on with our farm residents, navigating an obstacle course and seeing their leadership skills grow in real time. BIG thanks to Rotary Club of Louisville for making this EAL session possible for the First Hour team. 🧡

06/22/2025

Well…
Peggy Jo said she, in fact, WAS ready to go ahead and have her baby.

A beautiful chestnut filly was born early Saturday morning (yesterday) with an irregular blaze and four white feet. Mom and baby are doing well, Peggy is a good protective mom so far but she’s had plenty of experience as a free-roaming mare having babies out on the mine sites. Look for more photos in the next week as the little one stretches her legs and learns about the world.

Happy Birthday little one. 🎉

06/21/2025

It’s been 3 months in care for aged former free-roaming mare Stella. She is still feral but she’s healthy enough now that her education will start soon. She wasn’t thin because she was old, she wasn’t “built that way”. She was full of parasites and starving with sharp painful teeth.

Training aged feral horses from scratch seems like a waste to some, but she didn’t choose the life she was living. She was just trying to exist, day by day, in the only life she’s known. As long as she’s healthy and willing we will do our best to prepare her for eventually finding a home, and we’re thankful for the support of followers like you who help us as we put one foot in front of the other time and time again. ❤️

https://linktr.ee/khsequine

06/20/2025

Peggy Jo looked ready to pop when collected later last year, but she was initially palpated as not pregnant. However, it turns out she had just very recently been bred when captured because a subsequent recheck found that she was in fact in foal. She looks smaller now than when collected but she was very bloated on arrival and is now much healthier. She’s good to catch and handle now and we are anxiously awaiting a foal in the future. She has been slowly starting to fill her udder but it doesn’t seem like foaling is imminent just yet.

Do you hope to see a c**t or a filly from Peggy? As long as it’s a healthy foal we will be happy! Thank you to her sponsor Carolyn. ❤️

06/19/2025

The remaining horse of the three from Mercer County is the past foal of Demara, who was given to the last owner as a foal along with mom Demara. She came to be called simply “Baby” and has had little education at all in her young life. She was originally said to be 4, but was acquired as a foal at the same time as her mother, and the surrender form said they estimate they’d had Demara around 6 years, so I suppose we will wait for the vet to tell us how old she seems to be.

This gal has been sponsored by Faith G, and Faith has asked to name her Penelope. Thank you so much Faith!

Welcome to the farm Penelope, food is plentiful here and you’ve much to learn after you’re feeling up to it. ❤️

06/18/2025

Happy Adoption Day to Elana and Stanley!
(Video taken this morning. )

06/18/2025

Still room to join us! ❤️

Women Veterans and First Responders:
Please feel free to join us on Saturday June 21st for another fantastic Women Warriors session here at Willow Hope Farm! Please RSVP if you plan to attend so we know how many to expect and thank you for your service and/or personal sacrifices along the way.

06/17/2025

Meet Demara. She is the thinnest of the 3 horses we picked up from Mercer County last week. Thanks again to Officer Whitenack for calling us when the owner admitted they needed help and would happily surrender the horses so they could get the care they need.

Demara has been sponsored by KHS Volunteer, Wolfgang. Thanks friend! We are all excited to see her gain weight and hopefully find a great home in the future when she's healthier. Also, Jenn with The American Saddlebred Legacy Foundation offered to help get DNA kits for Demara and her ~4 year old daughter to see more about their bloodlines or identity, we are grateful for their help as well.

Demara was originally offered through an auction or a "kill pen scheme" up north and someone in Kentucky bought her. While the mare was in a quarantine facility before shipping to Kentucky, she surprised everyone by giving birth to a foal. The purchaser could not board a mare and foal at her chosen location and could not find anywhere to board on such short notice so Demara and her foal were given to someone else around 4 years ago which is where we picked them up from. Her "foal" was never properly weaned and unfortunately Demara is still making some milk (probably mostly water at this point) for her "baby" adult mare. If both were healthy, we would separate them, but they really need to just focus on eating and gaining weight first before we do anything that might cause stress, especially with high heat and humidity.

06/15/2025

Thank you to volunteer Ann W, previous sponsor of Frank, for offering to sponsor this cute Mustang cross fella from this week’s intake of 3. She’s thinking of a good name for him and his new beginning here at KHS.

He’s probably in the best shape of the three, but being at least half-Mustang means that’s not so surprising. Most mustangs are adapted to eating coarse and poor arid-region grasses and they are known to make the most of each calorie they can find. It’s doubtful he’s ever had a dental, so we expect that really with the most basic of care and food he should bounce back fairly easily. We are told he had some handling as a wee youngster so we are eager to see how much handling he will allow or how much additional training he needs.

06/13/2025

Would anyone like to help spicy grandma Jewel?

Jewel recently has become a bit apathetic about her feed, but still very much enjoys munching hay and seems otherwise fine. We want to be sure and keep her eating well especially since she is 30 years old. We have started her on UlcerGard but are also going to likely add in Sucralfate next week to just to cover any potential ulcers instead of putting her through scoping. If not better by next vet visit we will also pull bloodwork to cover all the bases.

If anyone would like to donate some chopped alfalfa for her to have in her stall when she comes in during the day, I'm sure she would be very delighted (as would we). She still chews and consumes baled alfalfa too, if that's what's available but with her old worn teeth she does often quid all the stems (rolls them into a ball and spits them out). You can find some online and have it shipped directly to the farm, can pick it up and drop it off (and meet her too), or you can donate $ to help cover the cost if that's you favorite way of helping. Puchasing for pickup sometimes gets complicated because they might not get the memo that we are picking it up and ask to see a license to match it to the purchaser before they will hand over the goods.

Our address is:
4416 Todds Point Rd.
Simpsonville, KY

Please let us know before dropping by so we can have a donation receipt ready and someone to help unload. Thanks!