Carrying Heroes

Carrying Heroes was founded in January of 2021 with the purpose of rescuing horses and using those horses to serve veterans, active duty, and first responders or other emergency workers (and their family members) in order to reduce the effects of stress encountered due to service. PTSD and suicide risk is high among those we serve and so by reducing stress, we can help reduce suicide risk while also increasing quality of life.

We rescue horses who are at a high risk of ending up in the slaughter pipeline, or ones who are currently in holding pens awaiting shipment to slaughter. Hundreds of horses ship over our country's borders every week to be slaughtered and the USDA deems over 90% of them are healthy (and could live healthy lives.) The horses we take in are usually in very poor condition due to lack of food and care; some don't make it because they didn't get help soon enough. One hero family member told me, "How that horse looks on the outside is how I feel on the inside." But it is a special thing when the hero participant gets to be part of helping that horse get strong and healthy again. 

To date, we have saved 12 horses (8 of them were straight from a slaughter holding pen and the others were at high risk of ending up there.) Most of the horses we have rescued so far will stay with us through the end of their lives, but we know that we can help more horses (and more people) by saving horses that we then adopt out to hero families. In 2022, we completed our first adoption to a hero family and it couldn't have been more perfect! We are excited to be able to continue helping horses and heroes in this way.