The American Saddlebred Legacy Foundation Inc

Ultimately, we wish to promote the American Saddlebred as a viable, versatile option for more people, prevent the need for rescue by being a proactive resource to repurpose them into fitting jobs and preserve a legacy that the industry will be proud of for generations to come.

ASLF understands one of the larger problems facing organizations that assist equines in transition today is getting the horses matched and moved to appropriate new homes. ASLF created and has focused on developing our Direct Placement Program as an innovative way to boost horse adoptions and placements to tackle this challenging area. It is a program that could easily be replicated across breeds and organizations, and is a much more effective and affordable way for rescue and repurpose groups to manage horse adoptions financially, by reducing the costs of housing and holding equines. By collaboratively networking with trainers, breeders, owners, Mennonite/Amish, dealers or anyone who asks for our help, we are able to become a proactive resource, therefore, preventing the need for rescue later. After spending close to five years personally attending auctions on all levels, tracking prices, cycles, monitoring broker owned programs and meeting with trainers, breeders and owners, we have identified significant patterns that occur leaving a horse at risk and in transition. Our current process involves receiving calls and requests from trainers, breeders and owners to assist with networking their horses. We take initial information over the phone, or at a brief meeting. First, we get basic horse information (age, sex, height, level of rider or driver, bad habits, medical history, why are they moving the horse, what is their timeline, anything else remarkable). The next step is to meet the horse. We make arrangements when it is convenient for the caretaker, and plan for thirty minutes to one hour. If we are unable geographically to go, we have developed a network of volunteers in our higher traffic locations who we have trained on completing the evaluation we need to assist. We then use our network to share and network the horse for placement directly from it's place of need to a new home. We have seen less returns and have been able to the support equine industry and it's residual service providers (farriers, shavings, veterinarians, etc.) even more.

We rely heavily on our loyal donors, nationwide and our very special grantmakers. We also have very active, passionate board members, donors and horse lovers across the country who pull together to tackle challenges and improve the lives of Saddlebreds when they are in need.

Since starting in late September of 2015 we are on track to help our 300th horse in just 30 months. Every year as our organizational name and program have grown through affordable grassroots efforts, word of mouth and plain old hard work, we are confident we are not just band aiding the problem for horses in transition anymore. When we attend sales, we have people four and five deep waiting to talk to us to ask for help with their horses. People we have helped tell other people and share our phone number, and we have a waiting list right now of six horses just since the beginning of this week that people want us to come see and help with. Right now our current limitations are mostly financial in nature and our second factor effecting better outcomes is finding the right complete, local team to conduct the evaluations in newer areas.

We have consistently grown each year with donors through relationship, always striving to uncover new homes. We consider a horse to be a successful repurpose once it transitions from a place of need to a successful match. The process can happen by the owner choosing to donate or surrender, a new owner could direct purchase from where the horse is in need, or sometimes we have to purchase the horse, continue rehab and then place. The ultimate goal is to put that horse back in to a place of function in the industry while ensuring a responsible choice was made in the best interest of the welfare of the horse. In 2015, we repurposed 52 horses, in 2016 we repurposed 98 horses, in 2017 we repurposed 93 horses. We have 46 currently active on our roster, 18 at our farm in Eminence, 5 in training, 4 in quarantine, 19 in foster or rise (growing) spots, waiting for training or evaluation.