Spirit Horse Equine Rescue

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Spirit Horse Equine Rescue A 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to helping equines in need and providing information about natural methods of horse keeping and training.

Spirit Horse strives to make the world a better place for all domestic equines. Through education in Natural Horsemanship we endeavor to help people make the change from traditional horsemanship, which uses fear, intimidation and mechanical devices to Natural Horsemanship which is based upon equine psychology, communincation and behavior.

AAARRRGGGHHH! WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE????A follower just sent us a message about this fake FB page that is supposedly ...
10/12/2026

AAARRRGGGHHH! WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE????

A follower just sent us a message about this fake FB page that is supposedly us! Our address is used, but the email is incorrect, as is the phone number...phone number has a Denver area code.

They are asking for donations AND are offering horses "for sale". They have 9K followers.

I've already received emails on OUR legitimate email about horses.

This has been reported to FB and will be reported to the FBI as it is a cybercrime.

Can you please share this far and wide to spread the news - so people don't send ANYTHING to whomever this is.

10/12/2026

Meanwhile, at The Home Farm & foster farm - the lovely Julie (30 years young), Holy Week, Charlotte at the door, and lovely Juniper (one of our many mustangs). Thereā€™s always a lot going on and weā€™re often treated to gorgeous sunsets šŸ“šŸŒ…

10/09/2026

MUSTANG FILLIES
Journey to Gentle
In this reel, I'm showing how to help wild horses become used to the motion of swinging strings, halters, and ropes. There's a fun moment when they become distracted by another horse, so I pause the lesson (they weren't in a "teachable" frame of mind right then) while their attention was elsewhere. It's good to see that do to the other work I've done with them, they're pretty unworried about the goings-on. I have to put a bit more energy into the rope to cause them to move. We can always work on getting them lighter in the future, the important thing for now is that 1) they are not frightened by the motion 2) they do respond (and calmly) when I add energy.

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Sorry to be absent - our hearts are hurting. We just lost a dear dear friend of over 50 years to cancer šŸ˜”Dick Schmidt ha...
10/08/2026

Sorry to be absent - our hearts are hurting. We just lost a dear dear friend of over 50 years to cancer šŸ˜”

Dick Schmidt has been a stalwart supporter of Spirit Horse - fostering horses at his farm for many years. We always knew they were in very capable hands. Heā€™s been battling the horrible disease for over 2 years, but recently things turned bleak. We were able to return his kindness and offer sanctuary for the last of his horses - a couple of seniors shown here. Iā€™m sure Hannah, the sorrel, and Luke, the bay, miss their home and their people - Dick and his wife Sharon. But we will do our best to make their final years as good as possible.

A bit of backstory - Dick & I met when I was in college - through our shared love of tennis. He was married and had 3 kids. I often played tennis with his teenaged son, who was quite talented. Life moved forward, I graduated, got my first teaching job and married Jeff. Dick and I played mixed doubles in some tournaments and won a big one that qualified us for the national level to be played 6 months later. I didnā€™t know it at the time, but I was pregnant. By the time the tournament rolled around, I was pretty far along. I had my docā€™s ok to play, but Dick was really worried about me. Our teamwork went right out the window as he tried to protect me by running down nearly every shot. We lost miserably, but weā€™ve laughed about that many times over the years.

Meanwhile, his son actually became a professional tennis player! I became a professional tennis umpire (eventually working the US Open in New York and being invited to Wimbledon) and even umpired one of his sonā€™s matches!

Dick and I also owned horses and boarded them, but went trail riding often and even camping with Sharon and my hubby, Jeff. Within a year of each other we moved to our own farms not 2 miles from each other. Our friendship endured through our kidsā€™ marriages, Jeffā€™s 18 year journey through cancer, his younger daughterā€™s death from cancer (that disease has had a tremendous impact on us for sure), and becoming grandparents. So many memories. Itā€™s a lot to think about at this sad time.

Thatā€™s probably more than you needed to know, but itā€™s important for me to share how this is impacting me and my sharing on this page. I need time to mourn a man who was a big part of my life. RIP Dick. Love you, bud šŸ©·šŸŽ¾šŸ“

10/05/2026

Meanwhile - elsewhere at Spirit Horse - recent adoption return Dallas has been fully integrated with Juneā€™s foster returns, Clara and Charlotte.
Poor Clara has been struggling through a bout of laminitis, a colic that led to an abscess on her hip (from rubbing the skin off rolling on the ground in pain), and most recently a hoof abscess šŸ˜ž

Clara is walking quite a bit better now - the new Cavallo hoof boot helps šŸ˜Š

Sheā€™s also benefitting from twice daily treatment with her Horse Halo red light devices.

Clara has been a real trooper through all of this and weā€™re hopeful for a full recovery.

Please send your prayers, positive thoughts, love, and healing energy her way šŸ™āœØšŸ©·šŸ’«

10/04/2026

Mustang Fillies
Journey to Gentle

They've only known stressful loading: 1) when they were rounded up a year ago 2) when they were loaded in California for the trip to Wisconsin 3) when they were loaded into our trailer at the adoption event in Jefferson.

We want the girls to have a good feeling about a trailer. So last night we backed the goosneck up to their pen. You'll see them being let out this morning, and running down the lane to the round pen as usual ....until ....skidding to a stop when the see the trailer!!

Is this like watching paint dry OR a fascinating study of equine behavior?

Lots of approach and retreat (which is why we do that with them!). With absolutely ZERO pressure, in about 1 1/2 hours they'd loaded themselves and were contentedly eating hay. They were even non-plussed about Linda opening the access door to video them from inside.

10/03/2026

MUSTANG FILLIES
Journey to Gentle

Drumroll, please....

After much careful consideration, Linda Ager and her family have chosen names for the two BLM mustang fillies she adopted exactly 4 weeks ago today.

Thank you to all who made name suggestions! You came up with some great ideas.

Because they came from the Centennial HMA in Southern California in Mojave Desert country, their names begin with Mojave. The filly formerly known as "Tagless" has a moon shaped "star" on her forehead - so Moonstar was the choice. The other filly, who is without any markings and known as "Tag" since she had hers on longer, has appeared to be quite calm and "grounded". The word terra means earth - so she'll be known as Mojave Terra.

Please continue to follow the fillies' progress - they are truly amazing creatures. By reacting, commenting, and sharing, you can help us spread the word about these gentle, Evidence-Based Horsemanship methods. Our greatest wish is to make the world a better place for horses - something you can get behind, we're sure šŸ’™

10/02/2026

MUSTANG FILLIES
Journey to Gentle

Today's reel shows how I used a soft 22' lead rope looped around "Tag's" neck to encourage her to follow a feel. She's not "locked in" with a closed loop - that will come later. With this technique, if she gets really frightened, it's easy for me to just let go of one end of the rope and walk away with the rope sliding off of her.

Some people call this "broke to lead". We'd rather not call horses "broke". It's an antiquated term from when people believed horses had to have their spirit's broken in order for us to do what we want to them. Now the term is normalized - halter broke, broke to lead, saddle broke, broke to drive, kid broke..... Remember "words become actions".

Teaching this skill before haltering makes following a feel WITH the halter simpler. A halter can put so much pressure on a horse's head, we'd like to avoid horses pulling and struggling with the halter. This is a good preliminary exercise.

Note: When Tag makes the slightest try...giving to the pressure, I release it. At this early stage I'm not looking for movement of her feet (though I'd take it šŸ˜Š), just a give. At one point, I wasn't sure if she was just following ME or following the pressure on the rope, so I continued until I was sure she was following the feel.

Using these methods - without force - teaches the horse they have some control over what is happening to them. From an equine brain science standpoint, it allowing them a "locus of control". That will help them throughout their lives to allow them to work through challenging situations without panicking or "shutting down". You can learn more about equine brain science from Dr. Steve Peters - who has a brand new book out, "Horse Brain Science Simplified" - available on Amazon!

šŸ„¹šŸ˜„šŸ˜ šŸ˜” Showing up on my feed yesterday - a video showing 2 guys ā€œhalter breakingā€ a foal. I didnā€™t want to share the video...
10/01/2026

šŸ„¹šŸ˜„šŸ˜ šŸ˜” Showing up on my feed yesterday - a video showing 2 guys ā€œhalter breakingā€ a foal. I didnā€™t want to share the video and boost their algorithims. It was SO HORRIBLE - my screen shots capture much of it.
Itā€™s so diametrically opposed to what weā€™re doing with ā€œJourney to Gentleā€ and our mustang fillies..it makes me want to weep and rage!
Even worse - they got 2.5K šŸ‘šŸ»on the video!
Please help us spread the word about A BETTER WAY, by reacting, commenting and sharing our videos!

09/29/2026

MUSTANG FILLIES
Mile stone - it's not so much getting the halter on - as how it happens. "Tag" did beautifully and we set her up for future success. Hooray!

This reel is a part of the series "Journey to Gentle". We are working with the adopter of these BLM mustang fillies as they learn to adapt to their new lives with humans...using techniques that honor the equine nervous system.

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4107 N Rivers Edge Drive
Janesville, WI
53548

Telephone

+16087742526

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