My Nonprofit Reviews

True Innocents Equine Rescue is heaven on earth. Not because it is luxurious, but because it is spare. Not because there is no hardship, but because the hardship is being overcome—one day at a time, one horse at a time. When the abused mustang “Chino” finally allowed a human to touch him, that was a victory. When Annabelle the donkey was able to walk again, after the farrier trimmed off eight inches from her overgrown hooves, that was a victory too.

Volunteering at TIER, knowing the stories of unspeakable abuse and inhuman neglect that the horses suffered at the hands of their prior “caretakers,” is sometimes almost too much to bear. I walk onto the TIER property, and my first emotion is blood-boiling anger when I see a new arrival that is so emaciated, it looks like a skeleton, or I see a mare that Animal Control just rejected and carted over, who has gaping, open wounds on her back.

But there is no time for the luxury of anger. There is work to be done; manure to be shoveled, fences to be mended, and horses to be loved. When I focus on these tasks, the hours slip away and my fury fades into a sense of satisfaction. At TIER, I can do more good in the space of an afternoon than I can ever do at my salaried work.

So in the end, I benefit from my labor at TIER far more than the horses do. My perspective shifts; the petty nuisances of the daily grind become meaningless. I am better at saving my worries for things that are actual problems, and I discovered that there are far fewer “problems” in my life when I think about those horses, and about Gail’s daily struggle for the very existence of TIER.

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