The Unwanted Horse Coalition
(UHC) has published a handbook entitled Best Practices: How
Your Organization Can Help Unwanted Horses. The handbook is
part of the UHC’s continuing effort to get the horse community
more involved in solving the problem of unwanted horses. If
the horse community is to succeed in lessening the problem
of unwanted horses, more organizations and more events, large
and small, regardless of their breed or discipline, must institute
activities and programs to deal with their horses after their
active lives are over or when their owners are no longer able
to care for them.
Many equine organizations, events and service
providers have already instituted programs to help ensure
that no horse becomes unwanted. The Best Practices Handbook
lists many of these activities and other initiatives that
those in the horse industry can undertake. The handbook includes
sections on administration, continuing education, fundraising,
support of equine care facilities, matchmaking, direct assistance,
breeding control, and euthanasia.
The Best Practices Handbook outlines various
examples of successful programs and activities already in
place with other organizations. There are thousands of associations,
events, activities, service providers, commercial suppliers,
meetings, trail rides, etc. in the horse community. Regardless
of whether you are involved with a large organization, a small
show, a racetrack, or a veterinary clinic, there are ideas
in this booklet that can be adopted and put into place. If
each gets involved in some fashion, the industry can go a
long way toward solving the problem of excess horses.
“The more educated our industry becomes in
regard to unwanted horses and the more effort that we put
into it, the more we can do to help our horses,” said UHC
Chairman, Dr. Tom Lenz. “We hope the Best Practices Handbook
will give everyone some ideas to pursue. If each organization
gets involved, even with a single activity, the industry can
go a long way toward solving this problem.”
The UHC is distributing its Best Practices
Handbook to organizations and facilities around the country.
The handbook is also available for download on the UHC’s website:
www.unwantedhorsecoalition.org.
For more information about the UHC or the
Best Practices Handbook please contact Ericka Caslin, UHC
Director, at ecaslin@horsecouncil.org
or by calling 202-296-4031.
