FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Jennifer Williams, PhD
Executive Director, Bluebonnet Equine Humane Society
888 542 5163
jenn@bluebonnetequine.org
Bluebonnet Equine Humane Society Celebrates ASPCA Help A Horse Day with Events in College Station
Community support needed to give the rescue a chance to win up to $25,000 from the ASPCA to help save more horses
(College Station, Texas: April 2016) – Bluebonnet Equine Humane Society (BEHS) will be celebrating the ASPCA® (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals®) national Help A Horse Day and competing with rescues across the country for a chance to win up to $25,000 in prizes to assist with their efforts to protect horses. Founded in 2005, Bluebonnet has rescued 804 abandoned, abused, and neglected equines. BEHS’ Bluebonnet in Bloom celebrates the organization’s horses and volunteers with at least four events in College Station in April. The rescue kicks off the month-long celebration with a presentation to the A&M Consolidated High School FFA about rescue work. They then follow with informational booths at Texas A&M Veterinary School’s Open House on April 16 from 9am-4pm, Kyle Field Day on April 23 from noon to 4pm, and the College Station Tractor Supply Company on April 23 from 9:30am-2pm. You can stop by any of the booths to learn more what the rescue does, to see photos of horses available for adoption, and to learn how you can get involved.
The goal of the nationwide Help a Horse Day’s competition is for local rescues to raise awareness about the lifesaving work they do year-round to care for at-risk horses in their community who have often been abused or neglected. Horses have been central to the ASPCA’s work since its founding 150 years ago, when Henry Bergh stopped a cart driver from beating his horse, resulting in the first successful arrest for the mistreatment of a horse on April 26, 1866.
Funds raised by Bluebonnet in Bloom will be used locally to help law enforcement agencies in Texas investigate reports of neglect or abuse, remove abused, neglected, and abandoned horses and other equines, and to provide food, medical care, and foster homes to rehabilitate those equines. None of the funds raised at Bluebonnet in Bloom events go to the ASPCA® or other organizations.
“This will be our first year competing in the Help a Horse event. I hope the community comes out to support our horses, volunteers, and organization. The more people who attend our events during April and greater the number of new volunteers and funds we raise, the better the chance we have of winning one of the prizes from the ASPCA®. Those funds will allow us to help even more horses this year,” said Dr. Jennifer Williams, Executive Director of Bluebonnet Equine Humane Society.
Other Bluebonnet in Bloom events include:
• Informational booths in Houston, La Grange, New Braunfels, Temple, and Waco throughout April
• An online photo event featuring a photo competition and featuring individual rescue horse’s stories (April 23-24)
• Silent auction and horses to meet the public at the Navasota Tractor Supply (April 23)
• Benefit trail ride, silent auction, and Bluebonnet horses available to meet the public in Sisterdale (Boerne area) (April 23)
• Low-cost equine vaccination clinic in La Grange (April 23)
• 25% off of adoption fees for any horse adopted in the month of April.
For a complete list of Bluebonnet in Bloom events, visit our website http://www.bluebonnetequine.org/index.php/news/future-events. Bluebonnet is still looking for other venues for events in April. If you are an event organizer and would like to include Bluebonnet in your event, please contact the rescue.
When you attend a Bluebonnet in Bloom event, donate, or volunteer, you help horses like Maggie Mae. Maggie Mae came to Bluebonnet from a neglect case, and her foster “mom” Ann tells her story best, “She arrived on a cold, damp, windy day early in January. When the trailer door opened, her legs were trembling. She backed out of the trailer off-balance but didn’t fall. She was bones covered by skin covered by long hair caked with mud. She had big, dark, kind eyes. I named her Maggie Mae. During the first two weeks, I worried Maggie would get sick eating too much too fast for her shrunken stomach and gut to handle. So I fed her small portions of grain and hay four times a day and left hay for an overnight snack. Having an ample, reliable food supply was the basic reassurance she needed. People rehabbing neglected horses get their reward from small but significant events. One morning Maggie snickered when she saw me bringing food. In February, Maggie was strong enough to trot for the first time – head and tail up, naturally collected. A few weeks later she cantered a serpentine toward the barn—doing flying lead changes! One evening early in March, while I was brushing her, Maggie turned her head, gently nudged my arm with her nose and then, when I turned toward her, rested her forehead on my chest. Maggie Mae is going to be ok.”
For more information about Bluebonnet Equine Humane Society and Bluebonnet in Bloom, please visit http://www.bluebonnetequine.org or http://www.facebook.com/BluebonnetEquineHumaneSociety or call (888) 542 5163.
