Montana Horse Sanctuary

The Sanctuarys mission is to help Montanas in-crisis and abused horses by providing financial and educational support to rescuers, horse owners and animal control agencies. We provide grants, education and hands-on support. Read on to learn how we are doing.Montana Horse Sanctuarys grant program continues to expand and is helping loads of horses all over the state. Through this program we provide much-needed financial support to horse owners in financial crisis, and also to private rescuers. Additionally we give substantial support to fellow horse rescue and sanctuary nonprofits and to law enforcement during seizure and care of abused horses. Our education program has branched out to include other horse organizations including Pony Club and 4-H. This update was written Nov. 1, 2024, just before filing our 990 for 2023. This update includes activities in 2023 and 2024. While the term grant is inaccurate when used this way, according to those who are accountants, we use it as a catch-all for our financial support. Support to horse owners in financial crisis: $12,184 in 2023Grants this past year included a wide array of veterinary, farrier and hay gifts. The goal is to keep horses in their homes. Too often, dedicated and experienced horse owners have to give up their beloved horses due to an unforeseen financial crisis. This can result in horses being too quickly placed in unsuitable homes, sent to already crowded rescues or the worst-case scenario of being sent to slaughter in Canada or Mexico. Most grants range from $750 - 2,000 and we seldom give an owner more than one grant. Our hope is that the grant gives them time to get back on their feet financially or take the time necessary to find a qualified, loving, new home for their horse(s).We started our support to horse owners in 2004 with a small hay grant to a Helena horse owner. She was able to keep her horses and continue providing them a good home. Since then we have given scores of hay grants, keeping hundreds of horses safely at home with the humans they love and trust. This type of support includes not only hay but also bagged feeds and supplements when necessary. One of the veterinary grants to a horse owner this year helped pay for the care of a mare who developed severe complications and then colicked after surgery. By the time she learned of our program the owner had already spent $26,000 on vet bills. The mare had come through many difficulties yet kept fighting to stay alive. The owner was heartbroken to think that she may no longer be able to keep providing care after all they had been through. The Sanctuary gave her $3000 to help with post-surgical care and today the mare is healthy again. We recently received a heartfelt photo and thank-you. Support to private rescuersHorse rescue in Montana is not limited to nonprofit organizations. Over the past 20 years we have seen a huge increase in the number of horse lovers who rescue from one to several horses at a time. Some eventually place the horses in forever homes and some keep the horses for their rest of the horses lives. While private rescuers can accept donations they cannot give a receipt for tax deduction so donors most often give to nonprofit organizations. Additionally, many private rescuers intentionally keep a low profile. We applaud the efforts of these dedicated folks who often strain their own budgets to help in-crisis horses. One such rescuer had a mare who was bitten by a rattlesnake this past spring. The mare was bitten just above her nostrils and fortunately the bite did not cut off her breathing. However, snake bites can be full of bacteria (snakes survive on eating rodents) and result in tenacious infections. Rattlesnake venom, while seldom enough to kill a horse, can affect the horses heart muscle. The Sanctuary paid for the mares veterinary care and she recovered quickly. Another privately rescued horse has dealt with a lifetime of difficulty from a wound she received when she became caught in barbed wire as a filly. The damage to her leg tissue has caused ever-increasing lack of circulation. Her exceptionally dedicated family have continued to help her lead a happy, normal life with her small herd. The Sanctuary provided funds for veterinary care, antibiotics and supplements to help support ongoing treatment of the leg injury. Like so many horses, despite her health struggles, she is a happy, sociable horse who is deeply loved. Support to nonprofit horse rescues and sanctuaries: $3,350 in 2023The primary focus of our support to nonprofits is to help them become more self-sustaining. This program is still developing but we are encouraged by the results we are already seeing. We previously gave grants to other nonprofits for things like hay and veterinary care and while those are necessary and vital costs, we feel we can best help our fellow organzations succeed by helping them achieve better sustainability. The first step for many organizations is to file a full 990 which is the reporting form all nonprofits submit annually to the IRS. If an organization makes less than $55,000 in donations they can file a postcard but this tells their donors and potential donors nothing about how the money is spent, nor does it provide an annual report like the one you are reading in our full 990. Foundations that give substantial grants in the thousands of dollars usually want to see the details provided in a full 990 which has been prepared by a third-party accounting firm. Big donors want to know that the money is carefully managed and well-spent, and the 990 is a good way to ascertain this. All nonprofit financials are public information, by law. We have given grants to several nonprofits to hire a third-party, qualified accounting firm to do their first 990 to help them get the ball rolling on their fundraising, grantwriting potential. Those organizations who are doing full 990s will be qualified to apply for grants to attend fundraising and grantwriting classes, again to increase their likelihood of survival.An unusual grant we gave to a nonprofit was given to a horse rescue which took all the proper steps to dissolve. Sadly, unforeseen circumstances and life changes happened for a Montana rescue group and they had to make the heartbreaking decision to end their mission. The Sanctuary has provided them with assistance to pay for placing horses in new homes, boarding horses, a training grant for a mustang so that she can find a great forever placement next year, and other costs associated with ending their organization. Supported adoptees $27,200 in 2023The Sanctuary pays all costs of care for its supported adoptees. This program began when we realized there are many experienced horse people who would keep more horses if they had the funds to do so. At the same time we had a number of older pasture pals who needed a forever home. The match was made! As of November 2024, we support 9 elder horses in their forever homes around the state.Support to law enforcement: $1,228 in 20232023 and 2024 have been light years in terms of support to law enforcement which is a relief but we know its unlikely to last. Support was primarily to a herd of horses seized in Ravalli County in 2023 and included feed, boarding, veterinary and farrier care. Our educational program is expanding in new directions: In early winter 2023, we were approached by a local riding and horsemanship instructor who noticed that more and more people were moving to Montana and buying horses with little or no prior education about horse care. She proposed teaching a course to help people first decide if horse ownership was the right answer for them and if so, how to go about buying a horse and creating a horse-safe facility. The first class was held in spring 2024. Leslie Nalls of Victor taught the class which we sponsored and advertised. We received great feedback from the participants and will offer it again in 2025. Leslie is already working on the next levels in this series for new horse owners.We have also teamed up with Pony Club and 4-H to provide support to them so they can train young horse owners. We provided a grant to the Hardin 4-Hers for a weekend class with riding instructor/horse trainer Tricia Purcell of Broadus, MT. In fall 2024 we teamed up with Pony Club in the Bitterroot to offer the members a chance to watch a horse undergoing an endoscopic exam to determine if the mare had ulcers. The mare in fact did have ulcers and the event was tremendously informative. Some veterinarians estimate that as many as 93% of all horses will suffer from ulcers at least once in their lifetimes. The vet who did the procedure, Dr. Anne Hutton of Tammany Veterinary Clinic near Corvallis, MT, narrated what she was seeing while she did the procedure then answered numerous questions afterward. Helping the veterinarians of the Army ReserveAgain in 2023 we provided funds (this time of $2,000) to the US Army Reserve veterinarians who did a community servic