The Horse Protection League (HPL) is a solid non-profit that is focused on the support and care of abused and neglected horse, ponies, donkeys and mules. One proof point for HPL's dedication to these animals is the number of volunteers who continue to provide support to the animals year end and year out with many providing years of continuing volunteer hours.
The organization is largely supported by volunteer hours with only the barn manager receiving a small salary. All other activities to maintain the organization are provided by volunteers which include leadership, accounting, fund raising, feeding, mucking, maintenance and more.
Another metric that supports the validity of The Horse Protection League is that HPL is called upon by the ASPCA, the Humane Society of the United States and The Cloud Foundation to help them by placing neglected or unwanted horses in our care. which have all have been in need.
I have been a volunteer for approximately one year and will continue on through the years, increasing my volunteer hours, as this is an organization to support and fund with time and dollars.
Lark Birdsong
Review from Guidestar
I have been a regular volunteer at HPL for the past four years, and am serving on the board for 2011. There are a half dozen or more horse rescues along the Front Range here in Colorado, and I have heard few complaints about any of them. I chose to stick with HPL for three reasons:
1) Size: Having a maximum of 26 horses means that all horses can get individual attention on a regular basis from qualified volunteers. It also means that we can take on horses with special needs that larger rescues do not have the separate facilities for. It also means that even on horrible snowy blizzard days, the barn manager and feeders can realistically ensure each horse is thoroughly looked over at least three times a day.
2) Stability and Transparency : HPL has been around for almost 20 years, and is run by an elected board of volunteers. We have a significant nest egg, but raise enough to keep everything going without tapping into it. If all our supporters dropped off the face of the Earth tomorrow, we could continue caring for our animal for about two years before we would start running low on money, and I think that's a really key part of HPL's overall success. We fund-raise like crazy and pretend our nest egg doesn't exist, ensuring our long-term financial stability.
3) Soul: I have worked with many non-profits in the past, and I know that there will always be some level of bickering and politics. What matters is that everyone is looking out for the best interests of those we serve; in this case, the horses. I have no doubts that the well-being of our horses is everyone's #1 priority. One indicator of this, I believe, is our involved adoption process. To adopt a horse from HPL, we will first ask you to come spend time with that horse in the presence of an adoption committee member. It takes a lot of our time an energy to meet with potential adopters on evenings and weekends, but it's the best way for us to ensure that it's a good match both personality and ability wise. We will then do a site visit, check references, and call your current or past vets. If it all looks great, then we'll come visit again a couple of times over the next year to make sure you're taking good care of your new horse. If we see neglect or abuse, the horse comes back with us. Again, it's time-consuming for us, as volunteers, to keep up with all our adopted horses, but we want to do everything in our power to ensure that our rescue horses get amazing lives!
My main point of pride is how much progress we have made recently: I joined the board to push for more training for volunteers who want it, and more consistency in how our horses are handled. We have many volunteers with lots of horse experience, but training and handling techniques from all over the place. Everyone wanted to do right by the horses, but we clearly needed to come up with a way to make sure the same, approved methods would be used for all horses. In July we had our first "horse handler" training clinic, with the second in early August and the third on its way. After class one, volunteers will be able to halter, groom, and lead most of our horses safely. We will then offer class 2, then class 3, etc so volunteers have an opportunity to learn respectful, trust-based horsemanship and more of our horses can get worked on a regular basis! Just like with horses, we want to "re-start" our volunteers and make sure any gaps in their training are filled, and that they understand and respect the training methods we use.
In this short time, the horses are already easier to handle AND are getting worked more regularly thanks to the increased number of "approved" and capable volunteers! I hope that by this time next year, most of our regular volunteers with have a regular horse "project" that is appropriate for both horse and handler (IE "Take Bailey, the ancient blind pony, for a ten minute walk every Wednesday and Friday").