In June 2019, 36 Arabians were brought to the Dumb Friends League Harmony Equine Center in Franktown, Colo. for rehabilitation as the result of a law enforcement animal cruelty/neglect case from Westcliffe, Colo. The Harmony Equine Center is a private rehabilitation and adoption facility for abused and neglected horses, ponies, donkeys and mules.
The Center has been working on improving their health via deworming, floating teeth, trimming hooves and providing free choice grass hay. Once the horses were in good enough condition to go into training, the Harmony Equine Center trainers evaluated their training levels and started working with them to improve their adoptability by starting them under saddle as needed. They also gelded the colts/stallions again to improve their suitability for adoption.
This herd included mostly mares, young stock and some mares in foal. Many of the older horses were previously registered, but it appears that all the horses under nine years old were not registered. All of them are assumed to be of Egyptian-related breeding based on the pedigrees of the horses who are registered. While papers were not transferred on these horses when they came to Harmony Equine Center, AHA has confirmed that if we can definitively match a horse’s markings and DNA to its registration, then the adopter can apply for new registration papers. AHA has also said that they will support registering the younger horses if their parentage can be confirmed based on DNA testing.
So far, eight have been transferred to another Horse Rescue organization for placement and three have been adopted. Of the remaining 23, most are ready for adoption for $500. Please consider helping these Arabians find good homes.
Before the adoption process can begin, Harmony Equine Center asks that you to agree to the following:
-
You will not sell the animal for slaughter.
-
You will not use it for breeding purposes.
-
You will permit us to visit the facility where the animal will be maintained.
Harmony Equine Center believes in full transparency. They promise to represent their animals honestly, based on what they know of their past circumstances, what they observe and what they are able to accomplish while they are in their care.
Harmony has an amazing track record on rehabilitating horses and placing them in good homes. The average stay for horses at the Center is 146 days, and for law enforcement cases it is 164 days. This is based on the time it takes to get them back into good health and to provide training to make them more adoptable.
Please link to the Harmony Equine Center site for more information on these horses, harmonyequinecenter.org and help find all of these lovely Arabians new homes.
Author Debbie Helmick is a volunteer at Harmony Equine Center where she mainly cleans paddocks, washes buckets and forks and cleans the barn aisle. She is also an Arabian breeder and shows her horses in Western Pleasure, Hunter Pleasure and Halter as well as a board member of Colorado Arabian Breeders Alliance in charge of all the Breeders Challenge Nominations.
