Polo Pony Rescue

05/18/2026

Just putting gas in the minivan we use to haul hay bags around the property in California…sigh. PPR is broke after buying hay, so I had to pay for this. We will just call this one “why we are always asking for donations!”

05/12/2026

Here it comes! Enough hay to last our horses for the next four months. We won’t have to worry about this again until September! Thanks to all who donated!

05/12/2026

05/11/2026

We did it! Another one of these is now heading our way - but just by the skin of our teeth, ha ha.

Farrier is coming tomorrow so I need to wave my magic wand and make $1700 appear for him too...and then we can attack the balance on the credit card from having to buy feed store hay to tide us over...the fun of rescue never ends! 😀 But our horses are happy and never have to worry about food showing up and that's the only thing that matters.

Thank you Sus, Kerri and Laura for your donations today. ❤

05/11/2026

Good morning! It was a tough weekend. Not only did we get no additional donations toward hay, but since it was a holiday, we had no help with the horses. I was out doing chores until 11:15pm and did something to both shoulders so now I can’t figure out any position I could actually sleep in! Our best volunteer Irene came, of course, but that was it.  I need to specifically put out a request for volunteers just like us - neither of us has any family alive so we’re always available for holidays, and the same chores always need to be done on holidays.

Anyway, I was hoping I would wake up today to enough money to pay off the hay truck, but no such luck. We still need another $2300 to make it work. Any amount helps!

Pictured is Drangonfly, whose JC name was Lou’s African Queen. She is 22 this year. Here’s her story: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=778056027901183&id=100070903778509&mibextid=wwXIfr

Venmo -
Zelle - [email protected]
www.paypal.me/poloponyrescue

05/08/2026

Good morning!

My name is Pi***la and I am a 28 year old Argentine Thoroughbred. You might remember me from an unpleasant incident where I came back to the rescue 2 years ago looking like the poster child for he**in chic - not a good look for anybody, especially a horse!

This is how I look today and I greatly prefer my curves. As Mom says, ponies gotta eat! We all got some good news today - Mom told us that we got a $5,000 donation from the Yamani Family Foundation! This is so awesome and we're so grateful.

05/06/2026

When you live in the country, you get deliveries that aren't from Amazon...extra animals show up, ones you absolutely did NOT order. Those of you who remember the three kittens left in my driveway two years ago this month, well yeah, they're still here. Couldn't find indoor homes for them so their indoor home is my house. This one is Peanut, who was wreaking havoc under the printer cover designed to keep dust and hair OFF the printer... *sigh*

Show me in the comments the unrequested animals delivered to YOUR farm!

05/05/2026

If you've been following us a long time, you know about our one adoption that went bad - a horse named Monty, who very unfortunately was given to a nightmarish "rescue" called Villa Chardonnay by his adopters, in violation of their contract, when we tried to convince them to keep him and retire him at their own expense after having him as part of their family for several years. I learned a valuable lesson that if someone wants to return a horse, never ask questions, never try to change their mind, just go get the horse ASAP. After failing to successfully serve VC with a lawsuit for refusing to return him, I did get some "spies" on site and they confirmed that Monty was not on the premises. He would have been 28 so I think he just didn't survive very long, unfortunately. I will never get over any of that and it's a big reason I'm relieved that we are now a sanctuary and don't adopt out anymore.

As you may already know, Villa Chardonnay finally got all their animals seized last week. You may be reading from some of their supporters that this was just about money. It absolutely was not. It just took eight plus years of complaints as VC hopped from county to county, evading enforcement and getting evicted multiple times, until we got to this incredibly good day when they will not be allowed to harm one more animal, ever again.

Here's the story:

https://eastcountymagazine.org/hundreds-of-animals-under-care-of-san-diego-humane-society-after-raid-of-julian-animal-sanctuary/

Please donate to help San Diego Humane if you can. They are doing great work and deserve your support. https://sdhumane.org/

This is Chaplin, who almost went to VC in 2019. Thanks to a friend in polo, he was re-routed to us instead and he has been in a super happy home near us for the past 7 years. We cannot undo the past but we can learn from it. At least this one is safe.

P.S. If I say a rescue is a bad one - I know it for a fact. It's not "rescue infighting." It's not being petty. It's not being jealous. It's that the rescue is actively harming animals. They were actively harming animals in 2019 when I first talked about them. It took this long for the authorities to stop them.

05/03/2026

Every farm has one - a horse that sleeps in a way that always stops your heart early in the morning, before coffee, while you are feeding. You are absolutely convinced they died in some horrible, shocking fashion during the night and fell down that way.

Nope. This is just Pie. Sleeping. Weirdo. :D
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04/28/2026

We got some really great news today!

The USPA has decided to donate $2500 to us even though we were not one of the selected charities this year.

We greatly appreciate this donation and plan to set it aside along with another donation that we know we have coming in the near future from another foundation (not their fault but unfortunately the first check got stolen from them in Florida!) for that next semi load of hay. It looks like we're going to be able to make it happen!

I cannot stress enough how much we appreciate the support of each one of you reading this. We know it's a tough year. Nobody can donate money they don't have. A lot of you who do donate are definitely not among the 1% or even close. It means a lot to us that you believe in what we do and you care about these old polo ponies as much as we do!

Below, Prima and Chicky having a mutual grooming session this morning.