Out to Pasture

Any retiree can relate to the feeling, the little workplace clues that foretell it is time to leave a job you loved for most of your life.  The place where you felt needed, wanted, and valued.  Where your contributions made a real difference.  

​Imagine yourself a working draft horse, an animal known for its strength and work ethic.  Day after day, you pulled a plow, hauled a load, made a farm productive, or showed off your regal height, girth, and mighty form in a local parade.  Your temperament was docile, your demands minimal.  You lived to work.  For 15 to 20 years, you showed up to work whenever called upon, proud to help with the tasks an animal of your size was built to perform.  After many years, you notice you are called to the field less and less.  The snug feeling of that harness is fading.

​One day, your owner coaxes you into a cramped trailer (not your favorite way to get around) and begins a drive to a new and unfamiliar place.  What will your job be here?  How can you serve on this new farm?  Will your owner introduce you to these new workers milling about their tiny corrals?  Unloading from the trailer, you begin to take a closer look.  There is an unhappy vibe on this farm.  Panic sets in when you see the man you have worked with - side by side for 20 years, close the trailer door with a bang and drive away.

​This new and unfamiliar place doesn’t seem to want to put you to work.  Day after day you mill about with the other unhappy residents.  The food isn’t very good here.  Not much of it, and you begin to lose weight.  What is everyone waiting for?  Your new friends begin to disappear and never return.  You are in a state of confusion.  Feeling depressed.  When is your owner coming back?

​This sad and lonely place is a kill lot.  The place many working draft horses are sent when they have expended their “useful life.”  With a potential life span of 25-30 years, these faithful workers are abandoned when they can no longer perform the duties they have done for so many years.

Enter Pasture Time Equine Rescue, https://pasturetime.org based in Fredericksburg, TX. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Pasture Time rescues unwanted equines, giving them a safe and loving home. According to Randy Hanshaw, founder of Pasture Time, the sight of these majestic animals roaming freely together in a Texas Hill Country pasture, flips the equation of a working horse abandoned and cast off, to one who has found a happy home among other animals who faced a similar fate.

Pasture Time is committed to treating these equines with utmost care and kindness. But this kind of care is costly. Feed, veterinary care, and general maintenance are expensive and intensive. If you are an animal lover, especially one who loves horses, can we count on you to help maintain Pasture Time as a haven for unwanted working horses? Donate today. Your donation of any size helps ensure that “out to pasture,” means a happy retirement for horses who have spent their life giving their all to their employer.