DRIFTER'S HEARTS OF HOPE INC

Our organization seeks to circumvent the slaughter pipeline through proactive intervention. There are many horses that are looking for new endeavors for a variety of reasons right here in Colorado. We intervene to assist, which is why we work directly with their current owners. These owners range from private individuals to guest ranches. In order to help these horses, we pull horses from auctions, accept owner surrenders, and founded our very own Annie Project. Our overall goal is to rescue, rehabilitate and rehome at-risk horses, giving them the opportunity for a life with a forever family.

Our strategies to make this happen include rehabilitation, training, and our Annie Project partnerships. For many of our horses, they require farrier and dental care, as well as a feed program suited to their needs. Once we restore the horses to good health, we begin working with them through our evaluation and training programs. Our training program is top-notch, and we only adopt out safe horses. From there, we are able to assess what kind of family would be the right fit for the horse. In addition to this, we are also the founders of the Annie Project, a program in which we partner with local dude and guest ranches to accept their retiring horses. These horses go through the same care as any others, and the majority go on to be cherished kid horses. These strategies also include marketing, fundraising, and event planning, as all of these endeavors require support from the community.

Our organization is capable to make positive change due to our community support. We are well supported by local ranches and rescues, as well as the general community. Through our close-knit family of passionate horse lovers, we are able to transform horses’ lives for the better. We have dedicated volunteers with decades of experience in the horse community, talented riders and trainers who assist in getting the horses ready for their forever homes, and a team of dentists, farriers, vets and chiropractors who help get our horses as healthy as possible. All of our efforts take an extensive amount of time and effort, but seeing the look on a child’s face as she gets to take her dream horse home from the rescue make the early mornings and late nights worthwhile.

We are incredibly proud of our Annie Project initiative, as we have been able to facilitate positive transitions for over 70 dude ranch horses. However, the accomplishments don’t come from the numbers, they come from the stories of happy adopters. Our adopters have said that their adopted horses are “a dream come true,” that adopting from a rescue was, “by far, one of the best, most life changing decisions I have ever made,” and that they are “the lucky family who received a fantastic new friend.” Each successful adoption creates room to change another horse’s life, and that empowers us to continue. We seek to expand our Annie Project to dude ranches across Colorado, and already have 9 on board. We also continue to partner with other organizations to be able to expand our reach, and have also added another rescue to our Annie Project team. We wish to have Drifter’s Hearts of Hope’s legacy of the Annie Project continue for decades to come, which is why we are laying the foundation of a true community between the ranches and the rescues. Helping another person bring happiness to another horse, and vice versa, that is always what will be next for us.