Fletcher Farms Amarillo

We did it! They are both SAFE!!! 🎉

Thanks to every single one of you who shared, donated, and rooted for them the senior Percheron mare and the Belgian Draft horse are officially SAFE.

Bail is paid, the arrangements are made, and tomorrow they take that trailer ride out of the kill pen and toward home.

No more shipping lists. No more counting down the days. Just soft hay, slow mashes, and a herd waiting to welcome them in.

These two spent their whole lives working for someone else. Tomorrow, that changes for good.

Thank you for being the reason they get to just be horses again. 🐴💛

Want to be here for what's next? www.bighooffoundation.org

Two more souls need a soft place to land. 💔🐴

At the McLean kill pen right now, there's a senior Percheron mare and a senior Belgian Draft horse, both underweight, both tired, both out of time. They've likely spent their whole lives working for someone else, and now they're just numbers on a shipping list unless we step in.

They deserve better than a slaughter truck. They friends, a slow mash to fatten up on, and people who will let them just be horses for the rest of their days.

We're working to get them bailed and bring them home, where our senior and medically fragile horses get exactly that — sanctuary, and just rest.

Can you help us bring these two home? Every dollar gets them closer to the trailer ride to safety.

👉 www.bighooffoundation.org

Sometimes you make a decision believing it's the right one and then life hands you a reason to change course.

Last week, we announced we were pausing new intakes. We meant it. But this week, we got a call about a 2-3 month old draft cross foal who had gone through the auction ring alone, without his mother, headed straight for the kill pen and, eventually, a slaughter-bound trailer.

How could we call ourselves a rescue and turn our back on an orphaned baby who never asked for any of this? There was no version of "pausing intakes" that included looking away from this situation. Thanks to some incredible people who rallied together, we were able to cover most of his bail but we still need help closing the gap, plus getting him safely transported home.
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At the same lot is a Brabant gelding in his upper teens, tired and out of options, needing a soft place to land for whatever years he has left. We're bringing him home too

So here's where we've landed: our intake pause isn't gone, but it isn't absolute either. Moving forward, we'll evaluate new intakes on a case-by-case basis because sometimes the plan you made last week isn't the plan this week needs.

Right now, these two need us to finish what we started.
Can you help us cover the remaining bail and transport costs to bring them home?

Details to the fundraiser are at www.bighooffoundation.org

This isn't a decision we have made lightly...

For as long as Big Hoof Foundation has existed, our answer has always been yes. Yes to the next call for help, the next horse or donkey who had nowhere else to go. Saying no to that instinct has been one of the hardest things we've had to do. But we've reached a point where loving these animals means pausing new intakes so we can pour everything we have into the herd already here.
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We owe them that much. Every one of these lives depends on us feeding them properly, building the shelters and infrastructure they need, and giving them all the care they require. Honestly, that takes everything we have. We'd rather show up fully for the 200+ animals already counting on us than spread ourselves so thin we fail them.
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We've applied for grants along the way, hoping for a little help carrying this weight. So far, none have come through. Those dollars seem to find their way to bigger, more established organizations. So we're turning to you, the people who've walked this journey with us and believed in what we're building.
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We also get asked a lot why we don't adopt these horses out. The truth is tender: most of them have worked hard their whole lives, and their bodies carry that history old injuries, chronic conditions, things that need daily, careful management. Some of them may have years left in them. Some came to us for a matter of weeks. Some for only hours, so they wouldn't have to face their last moments alone. Every one of them deserves to live out whatever time they have safe, fed, and loved not handed off to an uncertain future.
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That's what your support makes possible. Feed. Farrier care. Vet visits. The infrastructure that keeps this whole place standing. None of that stops just because we've paused taking in new lives.
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We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and every donation is tax deductible. (EIN # 92-0618011)
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We've saved so many lives already. Now we're asking you to help us keep taking care of them.
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This pause isn't forever. Once we're caught up, the infrastructure is funded, built and we're standing on solid ground instead of stretched thin we'll open our arms again. There will always be more horses and donkeys who need us, and we intend to be ready for them. For now, our full attention belongs to the ones already here.
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None of what we've built would exist without you. Every donation, every share, every kind word left on a post — it all adds up to the safety and care this herd has today. We are endlessly grateful for the people who show up for these animals again and again, especially when the road gets hard. Thank you for standing with us.

All the details to our fundraiser are at www.bighooffoundation.org