Natalie's Blind Saves Sanctuary & Rescue

22/01/2025

Education for the week

If YOUR cold outside all bundled up, your horse is cold outside.

Horses that are clipped, elderly, young or naturally thin may struggle to retain body heat in cold weather. Blanketing helps prevent hypothermia and excessive calorie loss!

Wet and cold conditions can lower a horse's body temperature, increasing the risk of illness such as pneumonia. A waterproof blanket keeps them dry. Hence the negatives with wind chills and reaching -40s the past five days! Yes, that's right folks because us caretakers get to watch the temps like clock work 24/7 with little sleep.

Preventing Weight Loss
Horses burn more calories to stay warm in winter. A blanket helps conserve energy, which is especially important for senior and young horses or those with difficulty maintaining weight.

Shielding from Wind and Drafts
Strong winds can strip warmth from a horse, making them uncomfortable and more susceptible to cold stress. Always, always, watch for shivering and double blanket if you don't have a 400g hanging around.

Managing Medical Conditions
Horses with arthritis, metabolic disorders, or weakened immune systems may struggle with temperature regulation. Blankets help them stay comfortable and reduce flare-ups.

Keeping a Horse Clean
In competition settings, a blanket helps keep a horse’s coat clean and free of mud or debris, reducing grooming time and potential skin infections.

Minimizing Coat Growth
Horses that are in work during winter may be blanketed to prevent a thick winter coat, making them easier to cool down after exercise and reducing excessive sweating.

While blanketing is beneficial in certain conditions, it’s important to monitor the horse to prevent overheating, rubbing, or skin issues caused by excessive or improper blanket use. Anything above 30 degrees is safe to remove the blankets for a few hours to air out.

Here’s a quick guide for horse blanket weights based on temperature:

50°F+ – No blanket or lightweight sheet (0-100g)
40-50°F – Light blanket (100-150g)
30-40°F – Medium blanket (200-250g)
20-30°F – Heavy blanket (300-400g)
Below 20°F – Extra heavy blanket (400g+)
Adjust for clipped, senior, young or underweight horses as needed!

If you don't know, don't ask someone inexperienced as it could be detrimental to your animal
Having a shelter, water and plenty of feed helps but blanketing is beneficial, hence why we have had horses live to be so old here, with the oldest confirmed at 44!

16/01/2025

All done
Ran into some issues so they had to go down 150 feet, more money 😢
Electric hook up will be delayed due to the cost of the well. Founders need a generator and really long hoses to run temporarily above ground.. the ground is frozen completely and we're unable to do our underground hose system until the ground thaws
But!
We have 12 gallons a minute coming out, praise god!

Update! $10,540 for the well to be installed and $1200 for the generator and accessories PLUS we're waiting on the electric company to get here for our estimate and scheduling the day to hookup!! The backup generator is enough power to sustain 2 households with 5 refrigerators, perfect!

15/01/2025

Well everyone something awesome happened tonight!

We got to the barn and after chores, Chance the timid scarecrow and Honey Bun needed a blanket.
Our co founders worked diligently together tonight to make a difference!
Chance will not allow anyone near him so it took a good 40 minutes of bolting and rearing for Adam to put a rope around his neck lightly into a standing position and hooked a lead rope to his halter. Then Natalie came in with lots of pets, touches and praise. Adam gave him his grain and told him he was a good boy and not all people are bad. He then walked him around and Natalie introduced him to the smells and touch of a blanket with lots of praise. After 3 minutes that blanket was up over him and Adam was strapping every connector including around the back legs while Natalie held Chances lead and told him he was a good boy. Huge success! We placed a short lead rope on halter for easy catching during trusting in training. After we let him go run, Adam went out for a second catch and he stood for him to grab the lead!! This is a horse that is totally timid and probably not handled and totally terrified!
This is one of the best ones Adam and Natalie have worked together to train, such a great feeling to know how far trust can go if given the proper hand to guide them ❤️ we will post photos tomorrow

On another note we found out why Bentley makes a huge mess out of hay in his stall! He LAYS in it! What! Never has he ever! He usually lays in pasture but we dont blame him, its cold out there! I guess we gotta pick up the sweet boy some straw bedding!

14/01/2025

Another week of grain pickup, thank you all for your continued support! Just met an oat supplier which is local to us, fantastic!
Thank you little Aleena for loading another weekly load 🙏

13/01/2025

We walk by faith and faith alone and let me tell you how some of these horses were truly cherished in their past life.

although we cannot save them all, we do make room for special cases.

Due to confidentiality I cannot specify who but one of the horses in our care received a monthly donation for 3 months of her cares - this is called sponsoring. We are incredibly grateful and blessed to know that this horse is truly cherished and we hope that those people are blessed 10 fold for their continued love and support to help us, help her when we're struggling 🙏
I wish we could say this for all of them but we continue to walk by faith and every once in awhile someone or many people see the good were doing and help us, help all of them. If you'd like to sponsor a horse, you can do so by donating on our website and letting us know if it's for a specific horse or all of them.
Thank you for your continued support in helping us make a difference!

We are 100 percent ran by volunteers and donations go directly to the horses ❤️

In 2018 Adam and Natalie Este were dedicated to making a difference saving and training blind horses and giving them their retirement as a hobby. 

11/01/2025

10/01/2025

Due to the cold and our new residents, we are using up more hay then expected! We need to pick some up asap! $50 per bail and we need 14+! So with 14, that's $700! This will last a month!
Today is $5 Friday, can you help us, help them?!

$308.96 NEEDED for 14 bails
Updated as donations come in, thank you!

You can donate on our website at the bottom
https://www.nataliesblindsavessanctuaryandrescue.org

Or our cashapp is $BlindSavesRescue, our vice president has Apple pay option and our president has venmo to transfer donations. Just let us know what works for you
All donations are tax deductible!
EIN #92-1117248
🙏

09/01/2025

09/01/2025

💕

07/01/2025

The horses are sending many thank yous to our co founders today
Thank you Adam and Natalie Este for making it possible to provide fresh water on site after nearly 7 years of their extreme hardship hauling it in every 2 to 4 days taking 3 hours to fill and dispense for these blind souls 🐎 🐴
Upwards of nearly $15,000 with electric hookup.

01/01/2025

Just another reminder to spread awareness
All nonprofit 501c3 rescues across the nation, united we stand to make a difference. 🙏

01/01/2025

Happy new year

Thank you all for your generosity and support getting us through 2024!

Vet comes in June for all 11 horses so we're gearing up for that expense plus still needing corral panels or cattle panels to make more pasture for the blind.

Natalie and Adam have been volunteering diligently on clipping hooves because not many farriers want to come back on a regular schedule, it's a lot of work but it needs to be done.

We have hats available for donation of $20!
You pay shipping. Your advertising helps us, help them and all proceeds are sent to the horses in our care!

Here's to a beautiful new year ✨️

30/12/2024

Some have asked why we are not registered with MDARD and/or as an animal shelter in Michigan.

Well folks, equines are not protected animals like a cat and dog because they fall under the category of cattle. We did try to register our rescue but we were told that we don't qualify unless we change our articles of incorporation to rescuing cats and dogs as well as equines. Unfortunately, that was never part of the vision and we are not equipped for such need here.

It is what it is until someone changes the law but regardless, we do make a difference, one equine at a time 🐎 the only difference is that we're not a registered shelter and we don't get state funding which that's okay, we've done just fine without. ❤️‍🩹We are a non profit organization registered through LARA with the state of Michigan and a 501c3 non profit through the Irs, that's what we are.

30/12/2024

Someone who works at a Tractor Supply in the upper peninsula of Michigan received a gift card from her work. She wrote a note that said how she got it, who she was, how much it was for and that she felt the horses needed it more then her 😍

$100

I want you to know that we received it and you are a very genuine, kind soul to think of the horses. Thank you so much for your generosity and support, it truly blessed all of them in a time of need 🙏 ❤️

19/12/2024

SURPRISE HATS 💯

LIMITED AVAILABILITY

You'll get what you get for a mystery as far as a pattern and color goes and most sizes are large/xl but run smaller 💕

If you want to order one, we need an email sent over [email protected] with name and address unless your picking up in Houghton County, MI
You can make payment directly on our website but we need the details in the email first! Let's see how many RSVP for our new item!!! I want to make sure we have enough made!

HELP US, HELP THEM!
$20 EACH

Stay tuned for more items yeeee

(Thankyou Marcus)

17/12/2024

As we approach and gear up to close out the end of this year, we want to say how grateful and thankful we are to the many supporters and volunteers. It has also been a pleasure to teach your children and grandparents for free ❤️

Please drop your name and address in a text 9062314084 so we can get you on our newsletter list.

Many challenges and losses we have faced this year but I know that God doesn't give you what he knows you cannot handle. God gives you what he knows that you are capable of and strong enough to endure. When we thought we couldn't handle anymore pain, God put us through another, and another but my faith tells me, God needed us to go through certain trials and tribulations. Remember that as your having a hard time with something, anything through your life and continue to do good in the world. Kindness, it's free and we need more of it spread across the world not just for human life, but all animal life as well.
Hoping you all have a very blessed day and thank you for supporting what we do here.

**When a horse comes to another horse with ears pinned back, she wants nothing to do with the other and it's a warning something bad is going to happen. The horse with the pinned ears is half blind Sunny Bunny. When she could have charged and kicked fully blind and eyeless Serenity, she chose to calmly and slightly swish her tail at her instead. Alerting her that she is here and wants her to leave.
Be more like Sunny Bunny 🐰 🐎