Across the state of Colorado and surrounding states, trainers, horse rescues, and fans are getting excited for the fifth annual Equine Comeback Challenge, a multi-class competition that showcases the talents and abilities of rescue horses. A Home for Every Horse is pleased to continue its partnership with the Colorado Unwanted Horse Alliance to bring the event to the Rocky Mountain Horse Expo in March 2018. This partnership emerged from a shared aspiration to help improve the lives of rescue horses and bring attention to their continued usefulness, trainability, and role in the equine community.
The Colorado Unwanted Horse Alliance is a non-profit organization that works to reduce the number of abandoned horses. They collaborate with equine organizations and state agencies to promote awareness, education, and research, as well as provide funding to organizations to care for abandoned horses and increase their chances of being adopted. Learn more at counwantedhorse.org.
The 2018 Equine Comeback Challenge will exhibit up to 29 rescue horses from the Rocky Mountain Region who have worked with trainers for 90 days. This one-of-a-kind event will allow trainers to showcase the skills of their rescue horses across several different classes, including a working cattle class, trail, working ranch horse and a freestyle competition. The 2018 challenge will not only feature 26 trainers and 29 horses and will also award $15,000 total prize money to the top five trainers from the challenge.
Following the event, horses will be available at the Rocky Mountain Horse Expo Auction to pre-approved bidders only. The horses will all start at a minimum bid of $1,000; following the sale, the trainer and rescue will split the sale profits to allow rescues and trainers to bring in another horse and find forever homes for all of the Equine Comeback Challenge horses.
On December 1–2, 2017, Equine Comeback Challenge trainers and rescues congregated at Harmony Equine Center for the official event kickoff. There, trainers were able to select a rescue horse partner for the competition based on their individual training style. The Equine Comeback Challenge horses are all between 3 and 12 years old. To learn about this year’s trainers and horses, please visit: https://ahomeforeveryhorse.com/equine-comeback-challenge/trainers
A Home for Every Horse was founded in 2011 as a way for Equine.com—the World’s Largest Equine Marketplace—to develop a productive partnership with equine rescues all over the country and use their resources to help find forever homes for the more than 170,000 unwanted horses. At the beginning of 2014, Mariah Hammerschmidt, the Project Coordinator for A Home for Every Horse, realized there had to be a dynamic, compelling way to show the functionality and worth of horses previously listed as unwanted. The Equine Comeback Challenge was born.
A Home for Every Horse’s generous partners are on board to help with the Rocky Mountain Equine Comeback Challenge in a big way. Purina, Tractor Supply Company, Merck, WeatherBeeta, and Electrobraid will continue to support the training and placing of rescue horses around the country.
Equine.com and the Active Interest Media Equine Network have joined forces with the American Horse Council’s Unwanted Horse Coalition to launch A Home for Every Horse Project. If you want more information on rescue horses or you want to locate a rescue near you, please check out AHomeforEveryHorse.com.
This project helps find homes for America’s 170,000 to 200,000 horses in need of care and shelter. Here’s how it works: Begin the search for your next equine partner at Equine.com. You can search horses waiting for homes at nonprofit shelters across the country. Browse by rescue horse, or find a rescue organization in your area.
· Visit the site’s “services” section to learn about your local rescue organizations. Find out how you can volunteer, donate, or simply spread the word.
· Look for upcoming stories on AHomeforEveryHorse.com related to horse rescue.
If your 501(c)(3) rescue organization would like to join the A Home for Every Horse(SM) project please fill out the online application at AHomeforEveryHorse.com/join. Equine.com is part of the Active Interest Media Equine Network.
About the Equine Network
The Equine Network provides, creates, and distributes relevant content and services to passionate horse enthusiasts while connecting them to each other and the marketplace. The Equine Network is the publisher of award-winning magazines: Horse&Rider, EQUUS, Dressage Today, Team Roping Journal, and Practical Horseman. The Equine Network also publishes a proprietary line of books and DVDs for sale through its store, HorseBooksEtc.com. The Equine Network also provides emergency roadside assistance through USRider, and is home to several websites including: EquiSearch.com, Equine.com, MyHorseDaily.com, DiscoverHorses.com, AmericanCowboy.com, and Horse-Journal.com.
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