Jamie has always had a tendency to take in animals that just need new, loving homes: The 3- week-old kitten found outside the screened porch; the dog who waited in the shelter for four years to get a new home; the old horse whose owner just didn’t have time for him and wanted to give him to whoever would take him. But Jamie never really thought of herself as “rescuing” until November 2016.
That month, Jamie was perusing a Facebook page devoted to horses about to go through the New Holland Auction, a famous horse sale that ends in many horses heading to Mexico or Canada to be slaughtered for human consumption, along with 140,000 other horses each year. Jamie noticed a video of a warmblood gelding standing in one of the pens at New Holland. A teenage girl posted a comment to the video: “OMG! That’s Radar! I learned to ride on him!” She followed up with several photos of herself on the horse. She was frantic: “Someone please buy him!! He’s something like 28 or 29 years old, and they gave him to a retirement farm a few months ago.” Well, Jamie couldn’t stand it. She PM’d the woman whose facebook page it was and asked her to bid on the horse. At the end of the night, Jamie owned her first rescue, “Under the Radar.”
Things have continued apace in the years since. Jamie has five horses she went purposefully looking to buy to become members of her own family; thirteen other horses are benefiting from the loving care our farm offers.
In 2018, Jamie began to consider how to introduce more people to horses. The numbers of young people engaging with them has declined precipitously in recent years, leaving many horses with no homes and no future. One thing led to another, and in early 2020, Jamie discovered the Equine Experiential Education Association (E3A). The organization marries the two things Jamie loves most: experiential education and horses. She will complete her E3A certification in late August 2020 and will begin offering programs shortly thereafter. Clients are expected to comprise nonprofit leaders and volunteers; small business leaders and employees; and individuals seeking opportunities to improve their lives and their relationships.