Rocky Mountain Horse Rescue

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Arvada, CO
Rocky Mountain Horse Rescue

Rocky Mountain Horse Rescue is dedicated to the rescue, welfare, and care of horses, mules and donkeys.
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Located in Arvada, Colorado, the rescue is home to up to 40 donated or rescued horses at a time.

07/11/2026

Not really horse related, but we have a lot of cool wildlife around the rescue that I thought you guys might like to see.

07/05/2026

A little over a year ago, a horse came into the rescue in the worst shape I've ever seen. He was emaciated, covered in bites from other horses and his feet had been recently chopped so short he was lame at the walk. I honestly wasn't sure we could save him. He disagreed with my assessment. Pepper wasn't ready to go, so he focused all his attention on staying. He had a tremendous will to live, and I honestly credit that with his recovery. It was slow going, getting a horse of his size and age (16.3 hands and 30 years old) to gain around 800 pounds, but we were determined and so was he. Pepper gained all his weight back, to the point where the vet advised us that perhaps he should go on a diet! He loved his miniature horse friends, he loved his best pal Buttermilk, and he loved being the center of attention. His hobbies included, trashing his water tank, eluding capture when he didn't feel like being caught, mutual grooming with Buttermilk, and of course, eating.
Last Tuesday, Pepper suffered a stroke-like episode. He was blind in his left eye and was extremely neurological. Dr Shane Baird, ever our savior, came and treated him with steroids and anti inflammatories and we decided to wait and see if he would improve. At first, it seemed as though we might win, but by Thursday it was clear we would not. I'm still in shock, I think, from losing that tough old man.
Taking in an older, dramatically compromised horse, it seems you should always be prepared to say goodbye, but you never are. Especially when they come out swinging like that old boy. Rest in peace, my friend.

05/26/2026

We had a real gut punch yesterday. We had to let our buddy Ken go. A few years back, Ken came into the rescue with his pony pal, Barbie. The two of them were like peas and carrots. Ultimately, we had to separate them because Barbie was getting enormously fat and Ken still needed to be eating a lot of food. Barbie went in with some other chubby ponies, and Ken became (in his opinion) King of the mule pasture. He's lived with his two wives, Rosie and Maisie for the last couple of years, bossing them around and mostly eluding capture by his human friends. It was always an adventure when you had to go get Ken for something.
Recently, we had to have one of Ken's eyes removed because it had a cancerous tumor in it. He recovered well from that and was back to doing "Ken things". However, on Sunday at breakfast time, Ken didn't come over to eat. I was hoping for a moment that he was just not in the mood for my company at the moment, but.......
I knew Ken was ill when he let me walk right up to him and put a leadrope on him. He was, in fact, colicking, I think quite badly, but he really didn't want to complain too much about it. If you have not spent much time around mules and donkeys, you may not know that they really don't exhibit pain the same as horses. They are generally quite stoic, and it makes it hard to evaluate how big of a mess you're in. As it turned out, Ken was in a pretty big mess. Dr. Shane Baird, owner of Mobile Veterinary Services, LLC ,was out multiple times, and at some points it seemed we might be making some progress, but ultimately, we had to admit we had lost. Through it all, Ken, although very sick and surely in a fair amount of pain, remained so steady and uncomplaining it was hard to believe he was really not going to make it.
I know Ken had a great life with us. I'm pretty sure he had never had a great life before coming here. I also know we did the last nice thing we could do for him by letting him go. But still......it just hurts.

05/02/2026

Just a little photo dump here. Nothing super exciting going on at the rescue at the moment. The day to day of making sure everyone has what they need is plenty exciting. We had a big vet day the other day, with our favorite vets from Mobile Veterinary Services, LLC and some great vet students from CSU. Got tons of horses teeth floated, vaccines and worming done. Ken the mule is doing well after his eye surgery, although we may never catch him again. He really gives you the "stink eye" and vacates the area when he sees anyone coming for him. Anyone who says rescue horses are grateful has never met Ken. Big Norma, our one eyed draft horse, met our smallest resident, Princess Buttercup, the other day. In a fair fight, I'd bet on Buttercup all the way. (Because everyone who's ever been around a mini, nevermind a DWARF mini, knows there's no such thing as a fair fight.)
Norma also had an enormous shoe boil on her elbow, which is only interesting because I'd never had a horse that didn't wear shoes get a shoe boil!
Other pictures are just scenes from around the farm, including, of course, the world famous Buttermilk following the feed wagon around on her daily world tour.
Hope you all are hanging in there. With the drought and fuel prices I anticipate feed and hay prices will increase dramatically this year, so donations are always appreciated!!

04/14/2026

Hey, let's talk about something I think people have misconceptions about with rescues. When you adopt from a rescue, read the contract. I'm sure different rescues have different takes on this, but our contract says, if you have to rehome a horse you've adopted from us, you have to let us know. We have to have a signed contract subsequently from any person who ends up with a horse from our rescue. What does that mean? That means we have to approve the home of that horse until it dies. What doesn't that mean? That doesn't mean you CAN'T rehome a horse that you adopted from us.it doesn't mean we expect to get more money from another person who may be the next owner. It doesn't mean THAT person can't subsequently rehome the horse, but it does mean they also have to tell us, and we reserve the right to say no, and ask that the horse be returned to us. We've been at this a very long time, we understand that, in spite of what we wish could happen, not every home is a forever home. But our contract means you can't just shuffle our horses off down the road without our knowledge to some horse trader or random person you found on Facebook without telling us. Why do we need to know? Well, because we promised that horse we'd do the best we could to make sure its life would never suck again, and we would always do what we could to make sure it was safe, including keeping track of the whereabouts of that horse forever and also taking back any horse at any time for any reason. For some reason, some people think this is an unreasonable stipulation, and that's ok. Those people are more than welcome to go get a horse elsewhere.
I'm sure different rescues have different protocols for these situations, and taking horses back with zero notice can be a real pain in the a$$, but it should be of utmost importance, if you're running a rescue, that you know the whereabouts of the animals you rescued.
It also means, for us, that we always need to reserve space for any of our horses that may need to come back. Rescuing should be a lifetime commitment, even if that animal isn't right in front of your face.
And here's a picture of two of our recent (and cutest) returns.

04/08/2026

More happenings from the rescue! A couple of weeks ago, two of our awesome minis were adopted! Phineas and Ferb had a hard life before they were rescued by our pals at Friends of Lackota Animal Sanctuary, I think. They were very afraid and had almost no life skills. When I say, "life skills" I mean, didn't lead and had a tiny meltdown at the thought of picking up their feet. We took them in about a year and a half ago, and worked with them, but they still just really needed the right person to show them that life could be really fun as a pet miniature horse. Fortunately for them, the exact right people called us, looking for a mini as a companion. Fast forward to meeting Phineas and Ferb, and they decided TWO minis was really what they were looking for! So, those two lucky devils got to go together to the most perfect home! They even loaded in the trailer like little champions. They must have known they were going to the best place. Congratulations, Phineas and Ferb!

04/07/2026

Forgive me, I've been on a little social media hiatus. Everyone at the rescue is doing fine. Lots of happenings, but today's happening was our dear old boy Ken the mule got his eye removed! We've been battling this eye for awhile now, and it just seemed like he'd be happier without it.
Many thanks to our fabulous vets at Mobile Veterinary Services, LLC! Dr. Baird and Dr Levitsky are the best!

02/14/2026

I need to get in there and load some hay...... I guess I'll come back later.

01/21/2026

Yesterday, Buttermilk, our pasten arthrodesis gal, was out on her "all property turnout", and had wandered quite far from her pen. I walked up to her and said, "Ma'am, you need to go home." She spun around and took off and scampered all the way back to her pen! I swear she's a person in a horse costume. Pardon the shaky video, I was laughing and didn't get it started until she was half way back to her pen.

Address

9190 Alkire Street
Arvada, CO
80005

Telephone

+13034240037

Website

http://www.rockymountainhorserescue.org/

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