Silence and mockery are still participation.

I woke up this morning and saw a social media post from a well-known local ranch being Liked, Shared and Commented on multiple times. To simplify, the post was essentially mocking horse rescues and how “everyone is becoming a non profit these days”. And after reading it, along with all the comments, I felt my trigger button being pushed so hard I was no longer able to remain silent on the matter.

There’s a point where kindness has to be paired with honesty.

This is one of those moments.

There’s a strange thing that happens in the horse world.

When a dog rescue asks for help, people nod with understanding.
When a cat rescue fundraises, people share the post.
But when a horse rescue does the same thing?

The comments get quieter, the jokes get louder, and somewhere along the way, the narrative turns into: “You chose horses. Why should anyone help you pay for that?”

Horse rescues do not exist to support someone’s “horse addiction.” We are not asking the public to subsidize a hobby, a lifestyle choice, or a passion project.

And just for full transparency - I personally work a full time job AND a part time job to cover the costs and expenses of my own personal horses and living expenses. ON TOP of the time and effort I put in running the farm and expanding the non-profit.

So when our non-profit asks for support, we are not asking for help caring for OUR ANIMALS, we are asking for help caring for the other animals who had no choice. We exist because those horses were failed — repeatedly, systemically, and often silently - by someone else.

And yet, within our own community, horse rescues are still treated like a punchline.

We experience the jokes, the eye rolls and the never-ending comments about “horse addictions” and “poor planning.”

When we shame rescues for asking for help, we don’t protect the industry — we weaken it. And frankly I’ve had Enough of it.

The horses who come into rescue did not choose bad owners. They did not choose neglect, abuse, injury, or the experience of being discarded when they were no longer useful. They did not choose auctions, starvation, or being one bad day away from a trailer headed somewhere dark.

They chose nothing — because they had no choice.

When a horse rescue asks for help, it is not a request rooted in indulgence. It is a response to suffering that already exists.

To mock that response is to turn away from the horse itself.

This is not a ‘hobby’ it is a response to harm reduction. This isn’t an “Us vs Them” situation. A healthy horse industry requires healthy, reputable and supported rescues. And in return, rescues need ethical breeders, responsible owners, trainers willing to help rehabilitate, vets and farriers who understand rescue constraints and horse people willing to speak up instead of mock and look away.

Horse rescues are not collecting animals for fun. We are practicing harm reduction within an animal welfare system that is incredibly broken.

Non-profits like ours step in when

• Horses are seized and need somewhere safe to land

• Owners are overwhelmed, sick, aging, or out of options

• Horses are injured, unhandled, traumatized, or forgotten

• The industry moves on faster than the horse can

• Or to put it plainly - when humans are irresponsible, uneducated and inconsiderate. And in this society .. that’s more often than not.

We absorb the cost — financially, emotionally, physically — so that a horse doesn’t have to absorb more pain. Calling that an “addiction” doesn’t make your statement true. It just makes you as the speaker complicit in the silence that allows neglect to continue.

Re-Read that as many times as you need to in order to fully understand that.

If You Love Horses, Stop Making Rescues the Enemy

The uncomfortable truth is that horse rescues exist because the horse world needs them. And whether your ego wants to admit that or not, is your problem. But it doesn’t change the fact that it is the truth.

If every horse was always responsibly bred, responsibly sold, responsibly trained, responsibly cared for until the end of their life — rescues wouldn’t need to exist.

But we all know that’s not reality. Rescues are not a threat to the horse industry. They are the safety net beneath it. And safety nets only look unnecessary to the people who have never fallen.

You don’t have to actively harm a horse to be part of the problem. Because silence and mockery are still participation.

When you dismiss the reality of neglect, shame the people who step in to support, normalize the idea that horses are a “luxury problem” and pretend that once a horse is sold, the responsibility ends - you are participating in the problem.

That mindset doesn’t protect horses. It abandons them.

And here’s the other side to that - Horse rescues are not asking to be celebrated - we are simply asking others to take accountability. We don’t need your applause and we don’t want it.

We are asking the horse world to stop distancing itself from the consequences of its own systems.

Instead, consider seeing things from our perspective. Because we believe in collaboration instead of criticism, education instead of ego and accountability instead of blame,

Because the horses don’t care about pride, image, or who’s “right.”

They care about whether someone shows up.

And if you consider yourself to be a horse person, then this is your community too.

You don’t have to run a rescue. You don’t have to donate. You don’t even have to agree with every decision a rescue makes.

But if your response to a horse in need is to mock the people trying to help — then it’s time to pause and ask who that serves.

Because it sure as shit doesn’t serve the horse.

Enough is enough.

Horse rescues are not the problem.

They are the response.

And it’s time the horse world stops turning away from that truth.