As we slowly start seeing signs of spring here in the Catskill Mountains, it makes me itch with enthusiasm.  With the snow melting, plans of building our new run-in and installing all our fence is all I can think about.  Horses have always been my passion, having been born into a family of horse people and riding throughout all of my childhood and teenage years. Only once in all that time did I have any experience at a horse auction, and even then I now believe I was truly blind to what I was seeing at the nieve age of 15.  I rode along with the woman I boarded with, her neighbor having sent her in search of a horse.  We left with a beautiful grey Polish Arabian that we spent less than $200 on, which to me at the time was just so unbelievably cheap.  As an adult, I have learned about the true ugliness that goes along with auction, the stress put on these poor animals who are clueless to what is in store for them.  I simply can’t in good conscience ever pay someone privately for a horse when so many are lost to slaughterhouses every year.

Photo credit BOBDOGidaho

We are not a big farm, only 6 acres here on the mountainside but large enough to save a few from time to time.  Come spring, along with the completion of our run-in and fence installation, will be time for me to go back to that same sad auction I visited so many years ago and save a life myself.  As I having been waiting for this for more years than I can count, for now all I can do is plan.  It’s exciting to think about but I am struggling with handling my patience?!  So I plan away…   As I brainstorm I’ll be sure to let you all in on our updates as they come to light.  In the meantime, I hope that you will take the time to learn about the dark side of horse auctions and join in helping save these beautiful creatures in ANY way that you can, one at a time..