06/15/2026
This is what compassion in action looks like. 🤎🐴
Our friends at Gentle Spirit Horses Rescue are on the front lines of the horse auction pipeline—meeting horses in their most vulnerable moments and changing their stories. Today, they prevented suffering for several horses and offered hope—and a second chance—to others who needed it most. Please consider following their page to see their impact and be part of the journey. ✨
OK, today is crazy with the social media attention and comments. We rarely delete or block anything, so there is definitely DRAMA in the comments. By and large, most of you know us and know where our hearts lie, and we appreciate the support more than you know. And for the people new to us - we appreciate all opinions, though our patience is drawing thin on people who don't really want to learn, but just want to be right. Or even more fun, try to rile us up with the comments about slaughter.
But guys ... we're a horse rescue in South Dakota. We've had people do the same things to our face and it DOESN'T WORK. When you regularly have kids at gas stations tell their dad about the "cute pony" you just picked upbecause they were starving, only to have their dad look at our t-shirts and loudly say "they are delicious too" ... well you just learn to let it roll off your back. Because we are mission driven, passionate about what we do, and have spent a lot of time developing our values. You don't get the support we do in a state like ours without developing a reputation for kindness, intelligence and reasonableness. That carries over into our comment section.
Though we are human, and sometimes the snark comes out.
But at the end of the day, it's noise. With nearly 100,000 people having seen several of our posts today, the 10-15 people trying to rile us up in our comments are, well, insignificant. But you know who IS significant?
These three young horses we helped today. Who were given the names Saint, Angel, and Classy, who were treated with compassion and respect by everyone who handled them today, including the people who work at the auction house, and who had hundreds of people, local and online, step up to do what their owners wouldn't.
Now, to address some of the things said: no, it's not illegal to sell a horse like this or transport them to slaughter. The federal regulations about transportation - the only rules that exist - require a horse to be "fit to travel" which is defined as weight bearing on all four legs and able to walk on their own. These three all meet that criteria ... though Angel is close to not being able to bear weight on her left front.
Second, how does this happen? Well, we don't know the story behind each of these, but you also need to understand something that is very common in South Dakota which is pasture breeding. A stallion is let out to pasture with mares and allowed to breed freely. One stallion, lots of mares, means you can register the foals. A lot of mares and stallions are minimally handled, and may only be brought up for spring vaccines, trims, and separating out the babies. That may be the first time people really get their eyes on the babies and find these issues. When they are found, some may chose to euthanize - which by and far will be by a bullet, but most will just bring them to the next auction and let it be someone else's problem. Or actively assume they will ship to slaughter as the people in South Dakota are by and far very pro-slaughter. (We are not, obviously, but we are in the minority).
So to those people, there's no attachment, no concern. They see a problem, and they send it to slaughter to take care of it. Wipe your hands and it's done. Maybe get a little money back instead of paying out to euthanize.
I'm not saying that's what happened here but it's a very likely scenario, especially given that it's June.
Now third, are they fixable. Maybe, with unlimited funds (we know of one rescue that spent $20,000 to fix one leg), something COULD be done. But we don't just weigh the financial cost though that absolutely factors in. We are a large rescue running on a budget that would surprise most. Our annual budget is about $125-150,000 and we care for 60+ horses at any given time with 40-60 intakes and outcomes every year. That's in a state where we have winter for about 7 months, meaning we feed hay for about 7 months. We don't get paid, and run on a smaller crew of people than most would think as well. And those few people ALSO work full time day jobs to pay their own bills.
Imagine what we could do with just one or two full time employees!!
We have fixed some pretty amazing things in the past, including an extremely contracted fetlock. But to make the decision to take those risks takes weighing not only the financial cost but the cost to the horse. There has to be a pretty solid (at least 40%) chance of a full recovery to a pain free life of at least being able to live on pasture without pain meds. We have to determine the rehabilitation time and if the horse can handle it, and what it would mean. A growing horse can't spend months in a sling, for example, and fixing the problems like this need to be done when they are very young, before growth plates start to fuse.
As yearlings, these horses all have growth plates that are fusing, significantly decreasing their chances of a good surgical result. They all have significant swelling and fusion/calcification in multiple joints and other surrounding joints are failing. All of them have more than one leg involved. Even with surgery to literally destroy and shatter the joint and rebuild it with screws and hardware, these horses are still growing and that kind of hardware doesn't grow with them, which could likely mean multiple surgeries. And a horse that undergoes that kind of surgery is never going to run in large pastures like we have here in the Dakotas, but would have limited turnout in small paddocks for life.
That is not, to us, a good prognosis, or something we are willing to ask a young horse to go through. And we are not willing or have the staff/resources to pursue amputation or prosthetics. That's not a line we are willing to cross.
We have enough experience, and trust the vets on site, to know that we were going to do our best to get these horses solely to ease their suffering and humanely euthanize them. That isn't a decision we ever make lightly and we are still deeply grieving the loss of last month's auction horse Misty and her still born foal. We hurt. We are emotional. And we wanted WINS this auction. We didn't want to find a compassion pull, much less THREE. We would give about anything to just close our eyes and let them be someone else's problem.
But our mission is to help horses, improve equine welfare, and end suffering. And that's what we did.
And finally, the transparency. We get it, there's not a lot of trust in the horse rescue world, and conversely there's a lot of lack of acknowledgment that we are a non-profit just like organizations like the Red Cross, Feeding America, and other major organizations. No one here is "money grabbing" and we certainly aren't using "scare tactics" when standing in an auction looking at crippled babies and showing you the truth. We are here, we know what the reality of auction and vet/care costs are, and we know what we need to raise to responsibly rescue. We even said that we were super hopeful with the Mexican border being closed that prices would be low and we IMMEDIATELY shared it when it was. But the money grabbing, "scam" comments remain.
What they don't know is we thrive on transparency and we abhor exaggeration or lying of any type. We don't make up stories to make things seem worse ... in fact we tend to be compassionate and empathetic about people's intentions.
So in that regard, here's our transparence. Bids went LOW this weekend at the auction. There's a buyer for Stroud Kill Pen (and others). We bring up Stroud because they specifically said they would not be buying slaughter type horses while the border is closed and we can report that they did NOT bid or buy the normal amount of horses at our auction. Without their bids, prices went really low for most of the horses.
And we are known, and whether it was simply because they couldn't take them to Mexico or because they respected us enough to let us have them, once they realized we wanted these babies they didn't bid against us (except one bid on the buckskin filly). The auction started them lower than we've seen any horse start in the 2 years we've been going. So we got these three horses for far below what we expected, at $175 for Angel, $100 for Classy and $100 for Saint. It cost their buyers $100 ($107.50 for Angel) to bring them to the auction - $50 entry fee, $40 coggins, and 10% of their sale price.
They didn't make money off these babies, in fact, with the cost of transport, they lost money. What they did avoid was having to pay for euthanasia and disposal.
In that regard, our vet clinic is helping with the costs of euthanasia for all three. They also are the ones who recommended that we get the Marti, who has heaves, because they know we have the experience and medication/tools (nebulizer) to help her.
We raised right around $3000 total for auction - which is normally what we would raise for two horses. Because prices were so low and euthanasia will be affordable, we were able to bring home the two older mares. We spent a total of $1025 to purchase all five horses, and that leaves just around $2000 for the all of the costs associated with all five horses - vetting, dentals, farrier, quarantine and feed costs, transportation ... everything. That money doesn't go far.
So to all our new friends ... this is how we do things. South Dakota is different from what most of you are used to, and that means rescue is different. We are real people and you'll get it straight from us. And we'll absolutely let you show who you truly are in our comments. We don't delete. So if you are used to being a fly-by bully, and having it deleted, buckle up. We aren't scared of differing opinions and absolutely love letting people show their true colors.
But let's be real. The point is to keep the focus on what matters, right? And to us, it's these three and the hundreds of horses that have come through our gates. It absolutely hurts that we can do nothing to fix them, but we can stop the suffering, thanks to those of you who donated and supported and just sent words of encouragement.
