MISSION & PROGRAMS

Mission:
Freedom Hill Horse Rescue rescues abused, neglected, slaughter bound, and otherwise unwanted horses from hostile and often unlivable conditions. We are committed to providing rehabilitation, training, and placement for as many horses as we can reasonably house. We offer horse owner assistance to those who can no longer care for their horses- whether it is taking the horse into our facility or providing assistance information to the owner. We also host events to educate the public on horsemanship and community action.

Our organization provides programs involved with equine rescue, adoption & retirement
Our organization conducts Equine Assisted Services in accordance with the EQUUS Foundation Guidelines on Qualifications of Organizations Conducting Equine Assisted Services (EAS).
Our organization provides outreach and/or public education programs involving horses.
Our organization is directly responsible for the care and shelter of equines involved in our programs.
100% of our total programs and services are equine-related.

Our organization does not CURRENTLY use satellite, overflow, foster, and/or outreach facilities.
Summary of organization's recent accomplishments, goals, strategies to achieve the goals, and capabilities to meet the goals, including its long-term plans to sustain its programs:
Freedom Hill Horse Rescue (FHHR) has continued to rescue horses in need for twenty years. Our most frequent request is from horse owners who have come upon hard times, either financially or health reasons and must give up their beloved horse. We have also been contacted by families of horse owners who have passed away and they want to honor their family members love for their horse and make sure the horse does not end up at auction, slaughter pipeline or other unfortunate situations. They are all desperate as usually the horse is of senior age and sometimes not rideable or has health issues. We are their only hope. In the past year, FHHR has taken in a 30 year old Arabian gelding whose owner had passed away and an 12 year old Thoroughbred mare that was given up by an owner who was not able to provide the care needed for her financially as well as a 27 year old Quarter horse mare whose owner was in ill health and actually passed away a few months ago. All of these families are very grateful that FHHR will provide the best care and training for these horses and will make sure they continue to have a job to stay fit by participating in our Equine Assisted Services programs for scouts, veterans, school groups and families. We have a unique capability to provide these programs to our community and our goals are to continue to expand on our programs by having our volunteers and our community, and our past participants of our programs to spread the word about our programs. This year. thanks to those that have done so, we have scheduled a new veterans program that is sponsored by various veteran organizations in MD and by the general public so that the veterans will not have the expense of attending such a session. We have a certified instructor dedicated to providing the best experience for the veterans and first responders so they may experience the wonder of horses and how they can heal. We expect to hold another 3 week program again this Fall and to schedule another Spring and Fall session in the coming years. We have a 20 year lease at the farm we occupy and our long term goals include continuing all our programs. We are consistently contacted by scout groups, public and home school groups, and families to come visit our facility and from there, they learn about all the services we provide and sign up for programs or events we have scheduled.



Please describe what steps your organization takes to ensure that:
1) all interactions between your equines and people are mutually beneficial and conducted in accordance with the Guidelines for Human-Equine Interactions stated below;
2) all equines in the care of our organization and/or equines that participate in the organization's program have access to clean drinking water at all times; nutritious food in sufficient quantity, including natural forage such as pasture grass and/or hay; appropriate veterinary, farrier, and dental care; shelter and protection from the weather; sufficient safe space to move around comfortably on a daily basis; and daily opportunity to freely interact and have contact with other equines:

Our organization has 100+ volunteers that come to feed shifts each day, twice a day, in AM and PM to care for our horses. They make sure the water troughs are clean, the stalls are mucked and full of clean bedding, our paddocks are mucked, the pastures dragged and the horses are fed and groomed on each shift. There are from 5 to 10 volunteers on each feed shift and we have Feed Shift Leaders that orchestrate the group for the chores that need to be done. We buy the best hay at least four times a year. Volunteers inspect the hay bales at each feed shift when they put the hay out into the paddocks in hay nets and hay huts. The hay is replenished twice a day and old hay is raked up and removed at least once a week. We purchase various grain, chopped forage and supplements monthly that is specific to each horse's needs. We schedule vet exam and vaccines twice a year and our farrier comes twice a month to trim the 4 week and 6 week horses. We have 4 paddocks, each with adequate run ins for shelter and each run in has an overhang so that the number of horses in each paddock can have protection from all kinds of weather, sun, flies, and wind. Each paddock has a pasture of approximately 3 to 4 acres attached that the horses have access to graze the grass freely and stretch their legs. There are usually only 3 to 4 horses in each pasture. We have found that the smaller groups tend to bond, interact and play better than larger herds together. As indicated in our previous paragraph, we ensure that all our horses are inspected and groomed each day and they can participate in our programs thereby providing activity and social interaction for them. We have a written policy for our programs and activities that describes what stress looks like in a horse and the instructors know to remove the horse from the program should they be showing any signs of stress. Our instructors are certified in the welfare of horses as well as human needs.

Equine Transition Services:
Overview of our programs involved with rescue, rehabilitation, retraining, re-homing and/or retirement:
     Freedom Hill Horse Rescue currently has approximately 100+ volunteers who work with our rescue, adoption and retirement programs. We have an adoption staff that advertises, does back-ground checks, on-site visits, and maintains relations. Our rescue staff works to bring in horses if we have space or help with owner assist situations. Our feed shift teams work with sanctuary to keep them healthy and give them a job. A trainer comes to our facility 1 to 2 times a week to work with our horses that need initial training or refreshment training whether it be groundwork or under saddle.

Equine Assisted Services (EAS):
Our organization provides the following Equine Assisted Services (EAS):
    Personal Development Learning

1: Total number of Equine Assisted Service Providers at Hampton Plantation