Twenty-four, seven–that’s what caring for horses entails. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, horses are the responsibility of someone. And that’s if they are young and healthy, turned out, and don’t need special care. If they have physical or psychological problems, or if there are special needs that must be seen to, care can become time-consuming and expensive. Then multiply that by dozens, hundreds, thousands in one location. That’s what you are facing when you look at the multiple rehabilitation, rescue, and holding facilities for horses across the United States. And this isn’t a problem just in this country, it is occurring around the world.

There are individuals and groups who make it their life’s work to help horses. In TheHorse.com’s online version of The Horse Source directory, there are 406 listings under the Welfare/Rescue heading.

For example, Diana Pikulski, executive director of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation (TRF), said there were more than 900 Thoroughbreds in the care of the TRF in early January 2005. Those horses are housed in facilities across the United States. That doesn’t include the ones that are on their way into the program, or have been adopted and have just left the program (69 were placed in 2004). That’s 900 horses being fed and cared for on a daily basis. If you are interested in adopting a Thoroughbred, visit www.Thoroughbredadoption.com or call 800/728-1660.

The Standardbred Retirement Foundation (SRF) currently has more than 80 horses in its care across the country, and it placed more than 100 in 2004. If you are interested in adopting a Standardbred or helping this organization, visit www.adoptahorse.org or call 732/462-8773