Current Horses

  • Bjorn - Adoption Pending

    This thick, gorgeous boy is ready for his new home! Bjorn is an approximately 10 year old Halflinger/Mustang cross who came to us only because his owner needed to rehome him and wanted to ensure that he found a good home. He has a nice level head, very curious and calm demeanor overall, though he is also looky and will do a small startle under saddle.

    Bjorn is nicely green broke walk/trot/canter, a very flowy, comfortable trot. He seems a little less comfortable at the transition into a canter, but once he settles in, it is also a smooth gait. He is mostly just inexperienced and needs more time under saddle and some confident direction to help him grow into his full potential. He would be best suited for a confident intermediate rider or above. Could potentially work for an active, confident beginner riding with a trainer/instructor, that would need to be considered on an individual basis under the instructor's evaluation.

    He was comfortable messing around bareback, and responded very softly to a simple sidepull. This guy will be an incredible partner for the right, confident person who will give him some time and focus! The only real quirk we can name is not truly his fault, and that is just that his new owner will need to be very careful with saddle fitting. This boy is a wide guy with a very short back, so he will need some careful choices to ensure that he is comfortable in the long run.

  • Rusty - Adoption Pending

    16 years old - is a small mini with a huge heart! He is extremely sweet and friendly, as well as being just a lovely, calm presence. He has some misshaping on his front left hoof. Our farrier is working to improve the angle and shape some, but it may always be slightly off balance. It will definitely need a good, consistent trimming schedule to keep it on track.

  • Marissa - available for adoption $400

    Marissa - 25 years old - arrived with horribly overgrown hooves. She has been through over a year of trimming rehab and has made incredible progress! Our wonderful farrier just gave us the thumbs up that she is no longer needing a specific rehab trim, consistent maintenance trims will successfully finish the last touch ups, so she is ready to find her new home! She is sweet with no vices, but she was very timid when she arrived, and she can take a short amount of time to warm up. In a family barn with consistent people and interaction, we have no doubt she would become cuddly in no time

  • Douglas - Available for Adoption $400

    Douglas - 14 years old - arrived with horribly overgrown hooves. He has been through over a year of trimming rehab and has made incredible progress! Our wonderful farrier just gave us the thumbs up that he is no longer needing a specific rehab trim, consistent maintenance trims will successfully finish the last touch ups, so he is ready to find his new home! He is sweet with no vices, but he was very timid when he arrived, and he can take a short amount of time to warm up. In a family barn with consistent people and interaction, we have no doubt he would become cuddly in no time

  • OZZIE - AVAILABLE FOR ADOPTION $800

    Ozzie is an approximately 15 year old grade gelding standing about 15.2 hands. He is a friendly, energetic guy with a lot of potential but he will definitely need someone who can work with him to get him to that place.
    Ozzie has had some poor experiences in his past that have lead him to have some high anxiety and a lot of insecurity. He needs someone who doesn't just understand training, but also has some understanding of equine psychology and can offer him kind, consistent boundaries and a productive way to release his anxiety while working through a reset and restart to help him find his comfort back with working and riding.
    He responds very well to a calm, confident individual who can offer him guidance, and the more he works with someone and sees their consistency, the better he becomes with them.
    Unfortunately Ozzie does have some arthritic bone changes in his front left fetlock, our vets believe due to an old injury, that requires proper maintenance and management. We ran a loading dose of Adequan which improved him, he gets an oral arthritis supplement, and per our vets' recommendations he gets daily Equioxx if he is being exercised regularly. However, under that he should still have lots of exciting adventures left doing lower impact disciplines w/t/c - no jumping or heavy turning. After his slow restart, he would be suited for trails, sports and showing involving straight, mostly natural movements, or basic western or English riding all under proper monitoring and management.
    Ozzie would do best in a personal home or quiet stable situation, and he is not at all comfortable being stalled. We will be continuing to work with him on his anxiety and his restart, and hope to see him make good progress. We will update this post as he improves, but this is where he is at this moment and what he needs from a potential adopter now.

  • Hunter - available for adoption - $1,000

    Hunter is now available for adoption as a project horse or a companion.

    $1000 - Fee to increase with his ongoing training

    Hunter is a drop dead gorgeous, healthy, easy keeper, 20 year old Quarter Horse gelding with a friendly, in your pocket personality. On the ground he is well trained and good for the vet and farrier, but he does require a handler with some confidence as he sometimes needs solid boundaries set.

    Hunter was not started under saddle in his previous life, and we have begun that process with him now. He is extremely level headed and laid back, and has had no concerns so far with initial introductions of pad and saddle. We will continue his training as long as he is with us, and his fee will increase along with his training level, but we expect him to be a relatively easy study and could certainly finish his training with any qualified individual if someone was looking for a fun, straightforward project.

    If you have interest in Hunter, please get in touch and we will be happy to talk to you about him and his current stage of training.

  • Chloe - available for adoption

    Fee waived to an appropriate home.
    Sweet Chloe is looking for her hero!
    Chloe is a beautiful, 21 year old Quarter Horse with a silly streak and an adorable and expressive face. She has had a tough life in the years prior to coming to Horse North rescue, living with a muscular condition that was not being properly managed and we suspect pushed into some hard riding in her youth, while still battling the pain of her condition, which amounts to something similar to muscular dystrophy in humans.
    As a result, Chloe has an old injury and arthritis in her left front fetlock, which sadly has retired this girl from riding in her golden years. However, with proper management, our vet feels she still has quality of life enjoying her days in a pasture and she still has so much love to give to the right person.
    If you have the ability to give this girl a family, we are certain she will give you something special in return, as has been the case with all of our beloved older horses, whether they were able to continue under saddle or not (just talk to Shelby Road Stables about Lilly Charlotte if you want to hear about the joy that can come from an older pasture pet!!)
    Chloe's management is for a condition called PSSM, which is an inability of the muscles to properly process glycogen. It cannot be cured, only managed. She requires low starch and sugar feed, constant turnout (absolutely no stalling), good nutrition, specific supplementation of particularly magnesium and vitamin E, daily Equioxx for her arthritis, and warm blanketing in the cooler months to keep those muscles comfortable. We will have further detailed information regarding Chloe's management for any potential adopters.
    If you are interested at all in Chloe, get in touch and come meet her, we promise she will touch your heart.

  • ROHAN: NOT AVAILABLE YET

    Beautiful Rohan is a lovely, well-built grade mare. She came to us essentially unhandled and with feet in rough shape. Her hooves are now shaping up well and just about finished with their rehab, and she has really warmed up to people and interactions. She still has a lot of training to go to be settled into life in the human world and also learn to ride, but she has a very cool, down to earth personality and a very confident, independent spirit. She never gets overly attached to other horses and is always happy to wander off to do her own thing. She will make someone a fine trail horse someday!

  • atira - wound rehab

    Atira is a lovely little POA mare, approximately 10 years old and 13 hands tall. She came to us to finish rehabbing a nasty wound above her withers, that happened after a fence malfunction at her former owners. When they found her and her pasture mates, Atira had two deep punctures on either side of her withers.
    Her former owners nursed her for several months through a nasty infection, but were unable to continue, and so they contacted us. Her wound has made excellent progress so far! But she will certainly be with us until it is fully healed.
    She is a sweet, spunky little lady who loves scratches and rolling.

  • Phoenix - Not yet available

    This beautiful Arabian lady came to us through the efforts of a private intervention and rescue situation of a large herd of horses. Though she is a grade Arabian, she has very nice breeding and is built beautifully.

    Phoenix was completely unhandled, however, prior to her arrival, and we are slowly gaining her trust. She has a healthy curiosity and once she is comfortable among humans, she will really excel in further training! Keep an eye on this gorgeous girl!

  • Sassy - Not Yet Available

    Sassy is a darling, pretty, petite, 14 year old mare. She is a bit of an experiment, having traveled up to Horse North from Mississippi! She was struggling with allergies made worse by heat and humidity in the south, and her vet suggested that she might do better in a northern climate with different allergen profiles. Her former owner desperately wanted her to have a better life, and sent her up to us to see if she would do better up here. She is a lovely, sweet, sure-footed trail girl, and will be available once we have had a chance to check how her allergies do up here and figure out any management that she might need.

  • Cayenne - Not yet available

    Cayenne, a super cute little Spanish Mustang, who is still wary of humans and needs a little more concentrated time and training in a smaller environment. She certainly has some fears, and we will be putting some time into training her before she will be available for adoption

  • ZOE & BELLA - NOT YET AVAILABLE

    Bella (left) and Zoe (right)

    Both of these girls are here to get issues with IR under control and go through a period of hoof rehab, so they will not be available for adoption for some time going forward, they will definitely be a longer term rehab.

    We have found them to be super sweet, kind, in your pocket girls. They have been nothing but gentle on the ground, and were both so willing while loading in the trailer despite neither girl having ridden on a trailer since they were a yearling.

    We expect them to be lovely horses for a lucky new owner once they have completed their rehab, training, and evaluation.

Our adoption process

 

ONE

Download and fill out the application, and mail it, along with a $25 application fee, to Horse North Rescue, P. O. Box 7143, Traverse City, MI 49696. If you wish to email your application after filling it out, you may send the $25 application fee via PayPal. (If you use PayPal, please make a note that the donation is for an adoption application fee.)

 

FOUR

After your references have been approved, we will call or text you to schedule a Meet & Greet session with the horse in which you are interested. During the meet & greet session, our trainer will ask you to catch, halter, saddle, and ride the horse to see if you and the horse are compatible. In the case of a pasture pet, you will catch and handle the animal. 

Two

Either before or after your Meet & Greet session, we will schedule a site visit at your barn, to make sure it is safe and comfortable for one of our horses.

 

FIVE

Once your adoption application is approved and your facility passes the site inspection, your application is good for two years, and it is not horse-specific. 

THREE

Please be sure to notify all of your references that someone from Horse North Rescue will be calling, especially your veterinarian, since they cannot give out any of your information without your permission. If you don’t currently own equines, please give us the name and contact information for your small animal veterinarian.  Please note that you may use only one relative as a reference.

 

NOTE

The HNR contract will transfer to the new owner as these horses are on a contract for life. All HNR horses are adopted out on a “right to first refusal contract,” meaning if you cannot or should no longer wish to own the horse, HNR must be contacted prior to the horse being advertised or transferred to another home.


THINKING OF ADOPTING? HERE ARE OUR HOUSING REQUIREMENTS.