Gentle Spirit Horses Rescue & Sanctuary ASPCA Help a Horse Day Event

Additional Information

Gentle Spirit Horses Rescue & Sanctuary, located just north of Sioux Falls, is participating in the 2015 ASPCA Help a Horse celebration by holding an educational and fun event that will include seminars, fundraising items, a focus on education about GSH, and introduction to several of our horses. The financial goal of the event is to raise $10,000 in addition to increased awareness. Gentle Spirit Horses Rescue & Sanctuary also meets the qualifications to enter into the ASPCA’s Help a Horse contest post-event with the chance to win an additional $10,000 grant. Community support and participation is a big part of the judging criteria.

GSH is currently one of the only 501(c)3 horse rescues in the state that is actively involved in rescue and rehoming. Our mission is to provide assistance to neglected, abused and unwanted horses, and through outreach and education, promote responsible horse ownership. We currently care for 24 horses in South Dakota, with an additional 8 in Iowa. We hope to continue to expand our operations and be able to provide help to law enforcement and individuals throughout the state.

The event will be held April 26, 2015 at the American Legion Hall in Renner, SD, where GSH is located. The event will include a silent auction, tack and bake sale, children’s activities including a Stick Horse Rodeo where children can decorate their own stick horse mount and then compete for fun prizes, a kid’s activity center including cupcake/cookie decoration and arts & crafts, a kissing booth featuring Permanent Resident horses, and other fun activities to be determined. All activities will be on a free-will donation basis, with the exception of the silent auction and bake/tack sale. Additionally, GSH will present four educational seminars throughout the day. They will include:

Intro to GSH: this will introduce GSH and our mission, and discuss our activities and needs.
Equine Chiropractic Demonstration: a demonstration and explanation of equine chiropractic treatments on a GSH horse
Equine Dental Health Seminar: a discussion of equine dental health and needs by an area equine veterinarian
Farrier Seminar: a discussion and demonstration of necessary farrier work by a local farrier

GSH will setup various educational displays throughout the day. For example, GSH will use resident senior horse Sammy’s story of recovery from starvation while in his mid-upper 30s, to discuss nutritional needs of senior horses. A visual display of a month’s supply of feed for a senior horse, as well as a “guess the weight” setup of one day of feed for Sam will be held. If weather permits, 3-4 of GSH’s current adoptable horses will be on location to meet people and information about our adoption program will be provided.

An additional program that GSH has implemented is the Broken Blanket Program, which involves accepting donations of horse blankets in any condition to start a blanket bank for the area. GSH volunteers are able to clean and mend blankets that are fixable, and maintain a bank of blankets that can be loaned out to area horses in need. Any blankets that are unrepairable will be stripped of their hardware and donated to the Oglala Pet Project for use as kennel blankets. There will be a drop off point for blankets for this program at our event.