About Beauty’s Haven
Theresa Batchelor and Beauty
Beauty’s Haven Farm & Equine Rescue, Inc. is a grassroots 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that was established in 2006. Our mission is to rescue, rehabilitate and re-home equine in need, to educate the public about proper horse care, to provide information regarding the steps that must be taken when one encounters an equine that is being abused or neglected, to provide assistance, when possible, to horse owners experiencing a short period of financial hardship and to help humans through helping horses. We try to get youth involved as they are the horse owners of tomorrow. We believe that awareness and education are paramount in helping our equine friends.
We welcome horses that are no longer needed, wanted or are useful to their owners and we place them in loving, forever homes. We do not believe that horses are ‘unwanted,’ but rather that they are merely, ‘misplaced.’ Working together with other organizations, we try to find placement for as many equines as possible before they end up in the slaughter pipeline where they would be at a high risk of being sold to kill buyers, then trucked across the borders where they would be brutally slaughtered for human consumption.
At Beauty’s Haven, horses that have been neglected, abused, and/or abandoned are given a second chance at life, a life without pain and worry, a life with dignity and respect.
We accept equines into our program that other rescues may refuse due to the time consuming and/or costly rehabilitation needs of the horse. We have taken in horses with birth defects, broken bones, mutilations, cancer, blindness, COPD, Cushing’s disease, as well as equines that are extremely emaciated and have other serious diseases. We have taken in babies as young as two hours old, pregnant mares and senior horses – our oldest rescue was 43 yrs old! We offer sanctuary to a limited number of equine with special needs regardless of age or breed.
Quality of life is always a factor in determining the future of each equine. We are pro-life. We do not euthanize any equine to make room for another. We have an excellent care team that includes professionals in both traditional and holistic medicines, dentistry and equine podiatry. A horse will be humanely euthanized, however, when they appear to be experiencing more pain than pleasure, are terminally ill or critically injured and all courses of treatment have been thoroughly explored. We will never permit an animal to suffer.
Beauty’s Haven Farm and Equine Rescue is the culmination of a lifelong dream that came true for Theresa Batchelor, President and one of the founders. Theresa grew up with horses and always wanted to help those horses that were less fortunate, horses that would never be given a chance by others. In 1997, Theresa became an incomplete quadriplegic and was informed by her doctors that she would never walk again. Through sheer determination, hard work, faith and support from her family, she did regain use of her limbs, although she has no sensation or feeling below her neck. Theresa went through a very dark period as she was attempting to adjust to her physical limitations. But then, she discovered Beauty, a discarded and abused Arabian filly, who not only helped Theresa and her family to heal, but was the inspiration for fulfilling Theresa’s dream of helping horses and helping people! It is the dream known as Beauty’s Haven Farm and Equine Rescue, where “Life Begins, Again!”
Theresa is the proud winner of the 2017 Eagle Rare Life Award for Heroism! This article pretty much explains how Beauty’s Haven came to be.
