What We Do

Return to Horse Medicine (R2HM) is a unique horse rescue, working with the high needs horses of the equine world. Horses have lost their place in our culture even though much of what we as a species have been able to do can be attributed to the leg up horses have given us. Looking at wild horse round ups, the mismanagement of the public lands on which they roam, over 24,000 horses sent to slaughter in 2021, and the global impact of climate change, R2HM recognizes that now is the time to renew that relationship, to remember the honor in the connection between the horse and humans, and to reconnect the overarching relationships between all living beings on this planet.

As a student of the Carolyne Resnick Method of horse training and a lineage of learning all the way back to the Dorrance Brothers, I bring a new mindset and skillset to the world of equine relationships and training. This new mindset – of horses as partners with opinions, thoughts, and preferences that require listening and honoring – brings alive the depth and breadth of what the horse-human bond can and should be, of what it means to really Return to Horse Medicine. This unique perspective is logically applied to those horses who need it most – the young, the troubled, the defiant, the dangerous.

Having done horse rescue and training work for over 20 years, it is time to launch our official 501(c)3. In that 20+ years I have learned a lot, not just about horses, but about the relationship between horses and humans and humans and the planet. Looking through the lens of my Native American culture, I see the need for the shift in mindset within the equine industry. That industry largely sees horses as machines and minions for performance, a means of making money, and sometimes pets, but almost always as something requiring domination and control.

Return to Horse Medicine refutes the belief that horses need to be dominated or controlled. R2HM is about rescuing horses but, more importantly, about righting the relationship between horses and humans, returning horses to the dignity they deserve, and the respect required for all. In the process of that, we want to lead by example in the relationship of horses and humans with the land and the other living beings we live alongside. It is about returning to the core medicine of balance.

That’s what Horse Medicine is: whether horse or human, it is standing in your power, in balance within yourself and the World around you. It is about self-empowerment. It is about compassion, authentic relationships, and the healing and growth it provides to our bodies, hearts, and souls. Engaging with horses in new ways, embracing a perspective that sees the interconnectivity of all that lives, and embarking on a new journey together is the ultimate outcome of Return to Horse Medicine.

Data on Rescue Horses
Virginia
While there is data available for the equine rescue industry, the quality of the data is compromised by the difficulty of locating and accurately counting rescues, adoptions, returns, successes, etc. from across the nation. The best metric is to look at the success of individual rescues.

Virginia has approximately 30 horse rescues, most of whom share a mission to rescue abused, neglected, and unwanted horses. Some are breed specific and others simply strive to save as many as they can. Most offer their charges for adoption. There are approximately 1,000 horses that pass through horse rescue barns per year in this state. In informal conversation, it is not uncommon for horse adoptions to result in the return of the animal. This is sometimes due to owner circumstances, but the largest reason cited is that the animal isn’t a good fit.

United States
The 2017 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office indicates

“Horse population. Federal agencies do not have a recent estimate of the total U.S. horse population. Available data suggest that the domesticated population may number from 5 million to 9 million, but there are limitations to these estimates.”

That means, if Virginia simply has its equal share, there are between 96,000 and 173,000 horses in our state alone. If just 3% of those horses become unwanted in any given year, that puts 2,800 to 5,000 horses at risk and in transition in Virginia. Remember, Virginia rescues are moving about 1,000 horses a year. It doesn’t take a math wizard to see the gap. My experience of the equine rescue industry is that there are always more horses in need then there are placements available.

Wild horses, round ups, and slaughter
The number of wild horses and burros as of March 2022, according to a report released by the Bureau of Land Management, is 64,000 horses and 17,000 burros. The 2022 plan as of this writing is for 11,000 of those horses to be removed via round ups.

Those round ups often separate family units, with foals as young as hours old up to a year left behind or killed in the process. Additionally, there are 50,000 wilds corralled in BLM holding facilities, many who have been there for years. The cost is over $130,000 per day. That’s a lot of money on a system already struggling to manage its resources.

For those horses lucky enough to be adopted, the road is far from gentle and rolling. The NYT reported that mustangs adopted under the BLM Adoption Incentive Program, where the government pays $1000 for those willing to adopt an unhandled mustang, were being flipped in mass and sold to slaughterhouses despite contractual language preventing such.

Additionally, training and care of unhandled mustangs is not for everyone. They are often subject to inhumane training techniques, at worst, but seldom gentle handling. They are different than domestic horses in their needs, desires, expectations, and history. If those differences aren’t honored, the results are often most dire for the horse. Hundreds end up as unwanted horses.

Unwanted Horses: R2HM’s Focus
The phrase of “unwanted” was first coined for horses in 2005. The following are the reasons the unwanted status is applied to horses:

Lack of training
Medical conditions including lameness and genetic diseases
Old age
Overbreeding
Temperament
Behavior problems
Owner issues, often economic, illness and end of life.
As a rescue and training organization, R2HM addresses several of the above causes and can reverse the fate of horses both currently in the hands of loving owners and those who have found themselves in dire situations – kill pens, animal welfare seizures, and abandonment.

According to the ASPCA, 24,000 horses were sent to slaughter in 2021. Of those, 92% would easily have been rehomed or rehabilitated to become a successful companion animal.

There are hundreds of orphaned foals across the US each year. Their situations can be the death of their mother (wild or domestic), round ups, rejection of the mother, the nurse mare industry, and other natural and human created circumstances. The care of these younglings is unique and critical to ensure that they, not only survive, but thrive into healthy companions and partners.

Our work is necessary and, while we rescue and support only a small number of horses, our outreach and education through our programs and training touches lives well beyond, even into future generations. Additionally, the intense, unique work we do with our target population is designed to impact a lifetime – and horses well loved and cared for can live upwards of 40 years.