AULT, Colo. — A Weld County woman is doing whatever she can to save three likely pregnant horses from an otherwise unknown fate, but she says the price to rescue these animals is high.
Morgan Ryan is a horse lover through and through. She recently turned her love into making a difference by creating a horse rescue called MoJo Acres, which is in Ault just outside of Greeley.
Her most recent mission is saving these three Mustang mares, which she found on a kill pen website in Oklahoma.
“For some reason these girls really stood out needing help,” she said, adding a horse will sometimes end up at a kill pen if their owner can’t take care of them anymore.
"It’s illegal to slaughter and consume horses in the U.S., so a kill pen will either ship their horses to Mexico or Canada where it is legal unless someone steps in before that happens,” said Ryan.“There are some kill pens that will list them on their site saying, "Hey, this horse has three days, this is their fee. If you want to pay it, you can come take this horse off our hands and save it.""
That’s where Ryan says her angel donor came in. Clare Staples of Skydog Sanctuary, which is based in Oregon, paid $875 for each horse to get them out of the kill pen and into quarantine in Kansas for a few weeks before they’re sent to Ryan’s rescue.
“Nothing actually feels better than messaging a kill pen and getting three in this case, more horses out of this situation where these horses get so sick,” said Staples.
Ryan says she wouldn’t have been able to do this without Staples’ help.
“She really was an angel. No questions asked and they were safe,” said Ryan.
The challenge Ryan says she’s up against now is paying thousands of dollars for their expenses while they’re in quarantine, transporting them to Colorado and caring for them once they arrive at her rescue. That's why she started a GoFundMe goal of $4,500 to help ease the burden.
“Having a little bit more to help them through their pregnancies and vet bills and that sort of thing; we don’t know what kind of condition they’re going to be in and we want to do what we can and any (provide any) little help for these guys,” said Ryan.
Help to get the three Mustang mares happy and healthy before they’re adopted out to a good home.
Ryan says her hope is to get the horses to her rescue in Colorado in a few weeks.
