Dear Friends,
Thank you to the more than 425 wild horse supporters who contributed to our April hay drive. We raised $52,009 toward our feed bill — more than $33,000 of that on the final weekend!
We often say that each and every donation is important. That’s especially true when $5 equals more than 25 pounds of hay, and you have 540 wild horses and burros to feed.
That said, we’d like to give a special thanks to the Carlson family, who stepped up and generously matched $20,000 in donations, dollar for dollar. If the Carlson name sounds familiar it’s because Steven and Leslie, along with Steven’s brother Richard, are part of RTF’s Wild Horse Conservator program where RTF operates a 2,000-acre satellite sanctuary on their ranch in San Luis Obispo.
Making this feed bill payment is a big step forward to catching up and allows us to resume delivery of quality hay. We still need to sustain our monthly feed responsibilities which total an average of $20,000 a month. This includes the pasture lease for 120 Gila horses!
Our ability to have high-quality hay delivered by the semi-tractor trailer-load will be essential this year. Although the hills and pastures at the sanctuary are turning green, the drier-than-usual winter means that the grass is woefully short. Last year at this time, the grass stood almost chest-deep on our wild horses in places; this year, the blades range from stubble to barely knee-deep, with a long, dry summer looming as we continue to haul water in.
Gratefully,