Bring Brego Home! Help a Disabled Thoroughbred

Brego the thoroughbred has had a hard run. This 21-year-old gelding was badly abused on the racetrack before ending up at rescue, where he was adopted by an owner who was unable to spend much time with him. His painful past and lack of consistent handling turned him into a wild creature, whose reactivity scared me while I helped care for him and his barn mate during my high school days. After graduation he was sent to live at another farm. I did not see him for five years, when I moved home in the middle of the COVID pandemic and found he had been brought back to my high school barn. He was suffering from an untreated eye disease; that, combined with his air of loneliness, drew me to him. With the owner's permission, I started re-socializing him.

Over the last three months of medical treatment, training, and TLC, this once-wild horse has blossomed into a gentle, intelligent senior who has bonded strongly with me. I am unable to take a horse myself, and with a cross-country move in my near future, I shed many a tear over the prospect of leaving this beloved old boy, a grief compounded by the fact that his aging owner would not be able to give him the consistent care I had been. Miraculously, my new employer in Seattle, Emerald City Pet Rescue, stepped in and accepted Brego into their sanctuary herd. He will retire to enormous stalls and pastures, top-notch veterinary care, and all the enrichment and affection he could want. And as an employee, I'll be able to see him all the time. We get to stay together after all!

Just one catch– we have to get him to Seattle.

As a senior horse with partial blindness and iffy trailer skills, Brego will need the best. A high quality horse shipping company will cost between $3,000-$5,000 to move him from Maryland to Washington, hence our target of $4,500. I'm a broke college graduate, and no one in my circle is able to pony up four grand (pardon the pun), so we have started this fundraiser to help get Brego to his final home. We would like to move him in the beginning of September 2021.

This horse and I have been through a lot together. He has carried me through one of the hardest years of my life, and I have had the honor of watching him learn to love his life again. If you are able to donate or share, I cannot thank you enough.

If you can, please help us bring Brego home!