Saving Grace Rescue

03/22/2025

We had a week filled with so much shared knowledge, collaboration and passion for making a difference in the equine industry.

Some of my biggest takeaways from the Summit were;
1. We observe, we don’t judge. said this during our first day and all three of us took it to heart. We are quick to pass judgement when we really need to give grace. We should observe their behavior but not judge them for it. This has also become a favorite line when we are doing something funny and know we probably shouldn’t be 😆

2. Normalize humane euthanasia. I know that’s a hard one but I will die on the hill of euthanizing an animal a day too early is ALWAYS more kind than to wait a minute too late. We as humans like to put our emotions into things we shouldn’t, like when to let our animals go. Horses don’t live for tomorrow, they live for right now. We try to say “they will tell us when they are ready” but that’s not true. They are survival animals so instinctively will live a “normal” life while actually suffering in total pain to avoid looking weak to a predator. If you wait until they tell you, you’ve failed them. The point is pick a good day. Pick a day when they are comfortable, have a full belly from extra treats and let them pass peacefully with their dignity in their safe place knowing they are so loved.

3. Companion horse does not mean unadoptable or “useless”. They are capable of giving us so much even if they can’t be ridden. They build connection, can do in hand activities, help build confidence, teach horsemanship and of course give us something to love and spoil! I know I’m guilty of holding on to the older ones to love and spoil here but if they could have their own family to love and spoil them, why should I keep them from that? The ASPCA takes the approach that there is a person for every horse and I want to do better about seeing it that way too.

We took A LOT of notes and not a lot of pictures but I’m so thankful for the Virginia Partnership for Horses for giving us this opportunity and to the ASPCA for putting on such an educational and impactful summit!

03/19/2025

Day ✌🏼 of the summit! So thankful to the Virginia Partnership for Horses for the opportunity to attend!

03/12/2025

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our sweet Fly guy!! Fly is 2️⃣3️⃣ years young today! 🎉 He is definitely a farm favorite with his gentle but goofy personality!

We even have a little something special up our sleeve to celebrate our sweet boy!

03/10/2025

BIG NEWS‼️We found out this weekend we were selected by the Virginia Partnership for Horses to be awarded a sponsorship to attend the ASPCA Right Horse Summit NEXT WEEK!! 😱

We quickly got to work making sure all of our priorities here were buttoned up and that our amazing volunteers could hold down the farm for us in our absence.

Thank you so much to the Virginia Partnership for Horses for allowing us this opportunity! We can’t wait to learn all the things!!

03/05/2025

Our sweet old man Chief gave us a bit of a scare today. The past day and a half he has seemed off. Not enough to panic over and quite frankly if I didn’t helicopter mom the horses, I probably wouldn’t have picked up on it. He is eating and drinking, passing p**p and peeing, no fever but just seemed not as bright as normal.

I decided to call the vet and asked for an appt to see him. They were booked solid for the next two weeks so we went ahead and made an emergency appointment. Dr. Emily came out and noted his heart rate was elevated. She tested for a virus which thankfully came back negative. She also took blood to test his liver and kidney levels, we don’t have those results yet but she did think he was a little dehydrated. She thinks he may have had a small impaction so we had to tube him to get some fluids and Epsom salt in him to hopefully move things along.

We will be monitoring his water intake and 💩 for the next few days but hoping we caught everything early enough. Sometimes it’s a good thing to be a helicopter parent!

If you’d like to help with this sweet old man’s vet bill, we would greatly appreciate it! All donations are tax deductible! ♥️

03/03/2025

It’s hard to say but I think Chips enjoyed her breakfast this morning 😂

Because she was part of a neglect case and starved prior to coming here, she tries to inhale her food not knowing when her next meal would be. This could cause her to choke so she gets an extruded grain (we call it her coco puffs) with very soaked alfalfa cubes and topped with more water. This allows her to eat her food without having anything to choke on. It also makes for a very messy face but a happy, healthy horse 😍

02/28/2025

Between the rain and the snow we’ve had the last month, the ground has been too soggy for the horses to exercise much. Yesterday we took them on a walk to stretch their legs and stimulate their brains a little.

Momma is the brown and white paint and is very apprehensive of most things. From what we can gather she had a very traumatic past. She came to us starved trying to care for her baby who she could not make milk for because she was so malnourished. She clearly gained weight well, has beaten cancer and is now happy as can be! We do not take her off property much as she is a sanctuary horse and enjoys retirement but yesterday on her walk she was full of life, speed walking past the babies to go on an adventure!

Also Nolan in that golden hour… ☀️😍😍

I’m so thankful for our volunteers who help us around the farm but also allow us to give these experiences to the horses ♥️

02/22/2025

Our hearts are broken. Please pray for the families, friends and whole department as they mourn the loss of two local heroes 🖤💙🖤

02/21/2025

Couldn’t have said it better. Saving Grace Rescue stands with Red Feather Equine Sanctuary and other rescues when we say we don’t support “kill pen” buying. It’s fake. These flippers pull at good people’s heart strings to make a living off flipping horses. We try to educate others on how the process works but most people don’t want to hear it. They want to feel like they are helping and rescuing when in reality it’s just allowing more and more horses to suffer the cycle. Do we hate that innocent horses get trapped in this scheme? Absolutely. I loose sleep over it. But the reality is if we don’t stop funding them, the cycle will never end and more horses will just have to suffer at their hands.

So please if you take nothing else from this, educate yourself. Do your own research if you want to. But be ready for it to turn your stomach.

Not Like Us.

Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl performance wasn’t just a diss track—it was a callout of a culture of exploitation. And that message hits just as hard in horse rescue.

We’ve all seen the posts:
🚨 “URGENT! 24 hours to save this horse from slaughter!”🚨

But here’s the truth—these horses aren’t actually being rescued. The same kill buyers and brokers cycle horses through their pens, knowing that emotional pleas will bring in donations. Most of these horses were never in real danger of slaughter. Instead, they’re being flipped for profit, while the real slaughter pipeline keeps running in the background.

Meanwhile, donor dollars that could support true rescue and advocacy efforts—programs that make lasting change for horses—are being funneled into the very system exploiting them.

I would love to see more ethical rescues take a stand against this game. At Red Feather, we stopped paying kill buyers years ago, when I Iearned the truth about this terrible racket. Now we work to intercept at-risk horses before they enter the pipeline - to prevent their suffering - and fight for real change.

So ask yourself—who are you supporting? The ones truly saving horses, or the ones keeping the cycle alive?

02/19/2025

Prepped and ready for another big snowstorm! ❄️Trough heaters are on, heated buckets are full and hay bags are extra stuffed!

We have all the horses out in pastures for now until it gets heavy and then we will bring them in and hunker down for a long night.

I swear in all my life living here, I never remember having this much snow in one winter!!

01/29/2025

Tragic. So glad to finally see this one happening though. Thank you Suffolk PD and AC for sticking with this one and getting justice served.

01/08/2025

If you’re local to us, plan on enjoying a dinner at Lucky Oyster Seafood Grill this Thursday to support a great local dog rescue!

12/25/2024

We wish you a very Merry Christmas from our herd to yours! 🎄

12/25/2024

Twas the night before Christmas..🎄

12/15/2024

Thankful for our community and the quick collaboration that went into getting these horses safe. The case is still ongoing, and the court date keeps getting pushed but all horses are healthy and thriving in their homes. ♥️ Southern Hope Animal Rescue & Education Spanish Mustang Rescue and Conservancy United States Equine Rescue League, Inc. Regina Waterfield-Hatchell

12/11/2024

Radish Update: Dr Emily was out again for a 2 week check up on his eye. The front of his eye is looking great! It’s clear and has sight; while the back of the eye (where the ulcer actually was) looks like it is not going to heal. Since the bad part is towards the back of the eye, it shouldn’t affect much of his sight. We will wean him off the meds in the coming week and see if any pain returns or if he’s content. If pain returns, we will most likely need to remove the eye.

Nolan Update: Dr Emily also looked at Nolan’s cut on his face and was really happy with it. She said now that the swelling is down, she can feel the bone better and that it is all fine, not fractured! The cut is just superficial at this point and is continuing to heal!

Fly Update: If you were here Saturday for the open house and saw us all panic a bit over our big guy Fly it’s because he seemed to lose some function of his back end out of nowhere. Dr Emily came out on an emergency call that afternoon as we were not sure if it was neurological or something else going on. She seemed to think he may have tweaked his neck causing inflammation on his spine. We have him on steroids and anti inflammatory meds. He seemed to improve a lot overnight which was a huge relief. She checked him again today and he’s so much better than he was Saturday!

I don’t want to jinx us but we have had a relatively “easy” year without a lot of injuries or mishaps so I guess we were due. 😅 let’s just pray this is our three and we’re done for awhile!