Therapy Horses Need Help with Feed

Hi my name is Jody Nixon and I am an equine facilitated learning coach certified by Eponaquest international. I have 17 horses I partner with to help heal families and children who are dealing with trauma, addiction and PTSD.

The horses and I live in Montrose on the western slope of Colorado. Our area has been declared a state of disaster due to unprecedented drought. Wildfires are out of control, our air is thick with smoke, many of the creeks leading to our major rivers are now bare rock and our pastures dried up unseasonably early. The extreme drought has also caused hay prices to triple due to lack of supply.

Sadly I may try to find homes for some of the horses, but many are older horses rescued from extreme situations and have special needs which makes them less desirable than younger, healthier rideable horses.

The government has declared our area of Colorado a disaster area and are providing relief funding for cattle ranchers to help feed their livestock. Unfortunately, the government does not consider horses to be livestock, so I do not qualify for help.

I need to feed my horses.

I need help from the world right now.

I normally pay $3,000 a year for hay to feed my whole herd of therapy horses and they graze on our pasture the rest year. However, with the pasture dried up so early and the cost of hay tripled, this year it will cost me $20,000 to keep them all fed.

Can you please help keep these horses fed? Any amount is huge. This herd of horses is incredibly specially helping people heal from tragedies, traumas and stresses in their lives. Now they are going through their own tragedy that no rain is falling to provide grass or hay for them to eat.