08/24/2026
🧡 SOMETIMES A SIMPLE JOG MEANS EVERYTHING
The Story You Don’t See Behind the Video 🐴
This one is a little longer, but we promise it’s worth the read.
Recently, we’ve realized that a lot of people don’t know that H.O.O.V.E.S. is also a sanctuary for our horses.
And that’s an important part of our story to tell.
It’s easy to look at our property and think, “Wow, they’re so lucky to have that many horses.” Or even, “Do they really need all of those horses?”
It’s also easy to scroll past the pictures and videos we share and see healthy-looking horses grazing, playing, jogging around the pasture, or loving on a veteran and assume that life here is all sunshine and butterflies.
The reality behind those pictures is often very different.
This morning, we got to watch Hemi JOG.
And he looked GOOD.
To most people, the video below probably just looks like a happy horse moving around the pasture.
To our staff and the people who care for him, it was a video shared with happy tears.
Because we know what it has taken behind the scenes for Hemi to have mornings like this.
Hemi came to us with Exercise-Induced Pulmonary Hemorrhage (EIPH)—a condition where strenuous exercise can cause bleeding within the lungs. It isn’t something we can simply “fix.” It is something that has to be understood, monitored, and managed so that we can protect his health while still allowing him to have the best quality of life possible.
Then, within the last year, Hemi was also diagnosed with Chronic Progressive Lymphedema (CPL).
CPL is a lifelong, progressive condition affecting the lymphatic system in the lower legs. It can cause chronic swelling, thickening and changes to the skin, inflammation, infections, discomfort, and other complications. There is no simple cure. Care is centered around managing symptoms, preventing complications, controlling discomfort, and giving him the best quality of life we possibly can.
And that is the part you don’t see in a 20-second video.
You don’t see the countless trips in and out to check on him.
You don’t see the chronic abscesses that form in his hooves.
You don’t see the days when caring for those hooves alone can mean hours of additional work on top of normal animal care.
You don’t see the monitoring, treatments, pain management when needed, or the people who know him well enough to notice the smallest change in the way he walks, stands, eats, or simply looks at us.
And Hemi is not the only horse here with a story like this.
That is what sanctuary means.
It doesn’t simply mean giving a horse somewhere to live.
Sanctuary means making a promise.
A promise that when a horse comes here carrying medical problems, physical limitations, behavioral challenges, trauma, age, or a history that makes them difficult to place elsewhere, we don’t stop loving them when caring for them becomes inconvenient, expensive, exhausting, or complicated.
We meet them where they are.
We manage what cannot be cured.
We treat what can be treated.
We adapt.
And we show up.
Every. Single. Day.
There are tears shed on the really hard days—the days when we’re exhausted, worried, frustrated, covered in mud, treating the same problem again, or wondering what tomorrow is going to bring.
And then there are tears like this morning.
The good tears.
The tears that come when the horse you’ve worried about is jogging across the pasture, looking strong and feeling good.
The tears that remind us exactly why all of those hard days were worth it.
There is an unbelievable amount of love poured into these animals by so many people—our staff, animal care team, volunteers, donors, veterinarians, farriers, and everyone else who plays a part in keeping them healthy and comfortable.
And we don’t share Hemi’s story because we want anyone to feel sorry for him.
If you’ve ever met Hemi, you know better than that.
You know his heart. You know his personality. And if you’ve ever watched him connect with one of our veterans, you know exactly why he is here.
He gives so much to the people who walk through our gates.
But behind every horse who pours into our veterans is a whole community of people pouring into them.
So yes, this morning we celebrated a horse jogging.
Something that might look completely ordinary to everyone else.
But to the people who know the whole story?
It was everything.
The tears we shed on the rough days.
The tears we shed on the good days.
The countless hours.
The endless care.
And the incredible amount of love poured into these animals by so many.
This is sanctuary.
And this morning was a really, really good morning.
Keep going, Hemi. 🐴🧡 We’ll happily cry every single time.
