It’s an all-too-common issue these days: you take good care of your horses, providing food, water, shelter, attention, veterinary care, a farrier, the works, but your neighbor does not. What do you do? An old adage (are there any new adages?) says that if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. That sounds like an unequivocal call to action, and some individuals and organizations concerned with animal welfare feel that doing anything is better than doing nothing.

The danger, however, is creating new problems while trying to solve existing ones. Rescue groups that take in more horses than they can manage sometimes have to be rescued themselves, and good-hearted and well-intentioned individuals create more problems than solutions when they overextend themselves by taking in too many horses that need help