Wild Horse Sanctuary Trail Rides & Cattle Drives

Since it's inception in 1978, the Wild Horse Sanctuary has served as a safe haven for over a thousand wild horses that other wise would have been destroyed simply for living on public land. The sanctuary was in danger of losing the 4,000 acres of leased land which served as home for these horses.

Part of the goal of our Capital Campaign to purchase this land and establish permanent deed restrictions and conservation easements to insure that wild horses always have a safe place to live wild and free has been realized!

We Succeeded
Thanks to a gift from the James Family Foundation of San Francisco and a multitude of individual donors, the Sanctuary was able to purchase 1023 acres. The escrow closed on that purchase June 16, 2003. The wild horses and the Wild Horse Sanctuary now own their permanent home! With that purchase, the first phase of our Capital Campaign was realized.

More great news! In June of 2004 the Sanctuary realized a portion of Phase Two of our Capital Campaign when we were able to purchase an additional 662 acres of our leased land. Then, In November 2004 negotiations began on another 768 acres of leased land.

The latest negotiations were successful and made possible due to a donor who wishes to remain anonymous though she is willing to "partner" with WHS on this parcel of land.

This Success Means:
Our youth programs that give troubled teens, school groups, and disadvantaged children the opportunity to learn about the animals and another way of life through hands-on experience will continue.

Our adoption program which has placed hundreds of wild-born foals into grateful, loving homes will continue.

The Sanctuary will remain a working, replicable model for proper management of wild horses in their natural habitat.

Our pioneering efforts on behlaf of wild horses will continue. Since the mid-1980's the Sanctuary has served as a unique natural environment for on-going studies, such as infertility studies in partnership with U.C. Davis which have led to the development of safe and reliable population control solutions now used worldwide.

The last phase of our capital campaign:

We continue to lease a portion of our grazing lands and the need to raise funds for this purchase continues!

EVERYDAY CAPITAL NEEDS

The Horses

In order to "manage" the wild horse populations in the Western United States, wild horses are rounded up annually by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and made available for public adoption. More horses have been taken from their home on the public land than there are people willing or able to provide homes for them. Thousands have been removed from the range and held in crowded holding areas where they serve life sentences, waiting to die, unless someone adopts them. The Wild Horse Sanctuary provides a home for displaced wild horses where they can live free in their natural bands.

The Sanctuary

The horses share the four thousand acres of rocky range pasture with black bears, mountain lions, deer, bobcats, foxes, and many other small game animals as well as eagles, hawks, and 150 varieties of song birds. The land ecosystem varies from open meadows strewn with lava rock and shaded by oak trees, to areas thick with brush and pine trees. Two seasonal creeks run through the property, and year-round water is available to the horses through natural springs. The elevation varies from 1300 to 3000 feet.

The Wild Horse Sanctuary makes possible public viewing opportunities and provides a natural learning environment for the general public. We also offer two-day and three-day pack trips for observation and photography of the wild horses. At the end of each day spent riding the wild horse trails, guests relax at our base camp with frontier-style sleeping cabins, a cookhouse, hearty meals, educational lectures, and of course, a campfire. All proceeds go toward the non-profit sanctuary.

Please, we need your assistance in keeping a good home for these wild horses. Any and all help that you can afford will be much appreciated. You can help by Sponsoring a Horse today.

Matching Fund Program
Thanks to the generosity of Arthur and Elena Court of Arthur Court Design and A&E Court Nature Watch Conservancy, we have a matching gift program. If you would like to double your donation, you can make your check payable to "A&E Court Nature Watch Conservancy".

The Courts have so graciously agreed to match any check up to $1000.00. But, please mail it to the Wild Horse Sanctuary at P.O. Box 30, Shingletown, CA 96088, and we will forward it to them.