Red Feather Equine Sanctuary

27/10/2025

26/10/2025

Please help our friends at Hasty’s Haven who jumped when we asked if they could support a large surrender request we received for unhandled/intact donkeys.

Thank you Joann and team!! We can't wait to meet them! 🫏♥️

23/10/2025

He found his spot pretty quickly 🤍

Every single one of us is obsessed with this mule/giant stuffed animal. Nabbi is in the right place.

You can help us help more souls like Dagnabbit, keeping them out of the slaughter pipeline and preventing them from ever having another bad day.

Responsible sanctuary changes lives forever.

www.redfeatherfarmnc.org

21/10/2025

The FALL DROP is live 🍂

If you don’t have an RFES shirt for every day of the week… then you don’t have enough!

Our volunteer crew came up with the “Treat Dispenser” shirt themselves, and we hand-picked a few of our most-requested items to pull together this little fall collection.

Every dollar goes right back to the animals, so you can feel cozy in more ways than one while rockin’ your Red Feather gear. ❤️

https://www.redfeatherfarmnc.org/category/all-products

18/10/2025

Dagnabbit (aka Nabbi) has officially arrived and joined the Red Feather crew. He won’t meet the herd until he’s fully healed from his gelding surgery, but he’s already received a clean Coggins, vaccines, deworming, and a much-needed hoof trim.

Equines of all ages, shapes, and sizes are at risk of falling into the broker and slaughter pipeline, and I mention brokers intentionally, because once an animal enters that cycle, they are often never seen again. Even if they don't go to slaughter, they are lost to fates unknown. It happens so often that there are entire Facebook groups devoted to “Find My Old Horse” posts or tracking down missing and stolen equines.

While every horse, donkey or mule is vulnerable, Nabbi was especially so. He was intact, meaning someone would have to pay for castration, and many prefer to pass that cost on to the next buyer. He is young, which is appealing to people looking for a working mule. And he is untrained: too much of a “project” for many who bite off more than they can chew and turn to an auction house to solve the problem.

These are the kinds of situations that play out every single day, and at Red Feather, the buck stops here.

So welcome home, Dagnabbit. You’ve landed in a place where you’ll never be passed along again, and there’s an army of kindness ready to greet you. ❤️

Please consider a donation toward the extensive intake costs of the including Nabbi, who is still awaiting castration that is scheduled for next week.

www.redfeatherfarmnc.org

11/10/2025

Rescue thoughts

I'm always trying to show you the horses through my eyes - where they're perfect while doing nothing, perfect while being imperfect, perfect in the small moments where history and culture have conditioned us to think they should be useful or working or sound or anything other than what they *are*

Maybe it looks boring to you. But these are the times when their stories mean the most. The day they’re rescued is important, sure, but it’s the days of retirement and quiet care that we’re really fighting for.

AVA | AURORA | HANK | ZEPHYRA

“Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragements, and impossibilities: it is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.” — Thomas Carlyle

10/10/2025

Happy Friday from the Quarantine Crew ✨

All three equines have settled remarkably over the last two weeks, and as soon as they hear a car coming down the drive, they assemble at the gate for feeding time. It's actually quite sweet to see, knowing that they didn't have regular meals to look forward to, or even clean water in their past lives - and now they have a team of people showing up to attend to their every desire!

As you can see from the photos, they have especially been enjoying the molasses mineral bucket we offer to horses who come in skinny and nutrient-deficient. Each of them has a smear of sticky brown molasses on their nose (it easily washes off) which is another sign that they are enjoying the perks of their stay.

As soon as their Coggins tests come back negative, the two horses will be ready to move on to their forever home with while Dagnabbit the mule is heading straight to brain surgery ✂️ to remove those man bits that cloud his better judgement. Even though mules are sterile and can't reproduce, males still produce hormones that can make them difficult or even dangerous to manage, and Nabbi will be a much safer citizen once gelded.

If you're able to contribute to the ongoing fundraiser for their intake expenses, please do ♥️ As you all know, rescuing equines is wildly expensive and these babes are already racking up a tally between vetting, farrier, hay, and grain. We think the cost is worth it - knowing that we can guarantee vulnerable horses a lifelong safety net and prevent them from ever winding up in the broker or slaughter pipeline - and we hope you agree!

www.redfeatherfarmnc.org

08/10/2025

“I can’t afford a horse that can’t be ridden.”

We hear this more often than we’d like to. Once a horse becomes unrideable, they become vulnerable — their worth tied to what they can do for someone, rather than who they are.

The truth is, “rideability” means different things to different people, and too often, those interpretations don’t consider what’s best for the horse.

When we founded Red Feather, we wanted to change that conversation. Riding can be wonderful, but it shouldn’t be the benchmark of value. Horses deserve safety, belonging, and compassion — whether they can carry a rider or not.

💛 Help us create this reality.

🔗 www.redfeatherfarmnc.org

05/10/2025

Happy Sunday from the Hankster ✨

03/10/2025

Thank you to everyone who has contributed towards the and the expenses of getting them healthy again after long-term neglect. All three had to be sedated by our veterinarian so we could safely trim their overgrown feet, pull bloodwork for Coggins, and more. Heather guessed it had been a year or more since their last hoof care. The mare’s feet were the worst—so overgrown the bars had folded over her soles and trapped bacteria inside the hoof capsule. The smell when it was exposed was… unforgettable. Her recovery will take the longest.

Mel and I also went over every leg, carefully removing bot fly eggs by hand (I’ll post more in Stories for those who like to geek out on horse care). Each equine was dewormed, given rabies vaccines, and received a basic exam. The vet aged the mare and gelding at about 9–10 years old, and Dagnabbit the mule is just a baby at around 2. The next step for him is brain surgery (otherwise known as castration)!

Please consider a contribution if you’re able. Preventing neglect, suffering, and cruelty should be just as much of a priority as responding to it. Because of responsible rescue, these three will never know the slaughter pipeline. With your help, we can keep opening the gate to safety for equines in need. ❤️‍🩹

02/10/2025

Tomorrow is vet & farrier day for the , and we’d love your support if you’re able. We’ve chosen to have the veterinarian sedate them for hoof trims, since they’ve had very little handling and we don’t want to put our farrier in an unsafe position. While they’re here, the vet will also pull Coggins bloodwork, give rabies vaccines, check their teeth, deworm them, and handle any other health concerns that come up. And yes—we’ll be scraping off those bot fly eggs on their legs, because they’re driving me crazy.

Their feet might not look outrageously long in the videos, but they are months overgrown and badly need attention. Research shows that every extra centimeter of toe length adds as much as 110 pounds of strain on the tendons of the leg. Imagine that building up over time—it’s incredibly damaging to the bones and tissues of the foot and leg.

Getting these three horses back on track is exactly why we do this work. They’ve already been through neglect and uncertainty, and it’s just not fair for horses to suffer only to wind up in broker lots or worse when we have the chance to step in sooner.

If you’d like to help cover tomorrow’s vet and farrier care, we would be so grateful. Every little bit makes a real difference for them.

www.redfeatherfarmnc.org