Celebrating 25 Years of Hope at The Horse Shelter and Its Impact on Lives in New Mexico

The Horse Shelter's overarching goal of is to extend our help to as many horses as possible who are in desperate need.

Vesuvius, a palomino Peruvian Paso, was surrendered by his owner

The Horse Shelter rescues, rehabilitates, trains and rehomes abused, abandoned and neglected horses throughout New Mexico and was founded in 2000. We receive horses mostly from the NM Livestock Board after found as estray and also after cruelty seizure disposition by the courts. We also admit owner surrenders on a case-to-case basis, mostly in hardship situations. Our ranch is located in Cerrillos, NM on 129 acres and we have a total capacity of 100 horses at this time. For the last year we have been averaging 95 horses onsite.

With the help of experienced staff, farrier, and veterinarians we safely refeed and give the necessary veterinary care (vaccinations, worming, dental, gelding and other more specific medical interventions.) We train the horses to have good groundwork skills, to be safe around humans and, if appropriate, we train them as riding horses. During rehabilitation and training we assess the horses for their personality, behavior and training status to determine their adoptability. The Horse Shelter endeavors to help as many horses as possible and provide our community the opportunity to adopt safe and well-behaved companion (non-riding) and riding horses. The more horses we are able to rehome, the more we can admit and help.

The Horse Shelter is located in Cerrillos, NM on 129 acres and has a total capacity of 100 horses at this time.

In 2023, we admitted 69 horses and adopted 43 into new homes, this was due to a major increase in the amount of horses needing rescue, so they would not be sold for slaughter. Thirty of these horses were found free-roaming by the NM Livestock Board and had never been handled before. Their ages ranged from 1 to 9 years old. Unhandled horses require much more training time and skills, as the process of socialization - for them to begin to trust and approach people - to halter training, to groundwork training and then finally saddle training can easily take a year, or more. As horses can live to be well over 30 years of age, the investment in training these young horses is well justified. 

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Creating good equine citizens at The Horse Shelter

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Odie and Rico on the right. Check out sponsoring Rico today.

Creating good equine citizens not only ensures that the horses are valued members of the horse community and will stay in their homes, but also ensures the safety of the future handlers and adopters.

Some of the horses we take in will remain in sanctuary at The Horse Shelter for the rest of their life due to their age or medical condition.

The Horse Shelter also has a very successful, award-winning, volunteer program, with currently 82 active volunteers. Our volunteers are able to learn horse handling skills by taking part in our onsite training classes, as well as our online training video modules. As they progress through our program, they learn how to take care of horses, be safe around them and acquire groundwork skills from beginner to advanced.

An excellent video about The Horse Shelter

We are accredited with the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS) and have the Candid Platinum Seal of Transparency. We work closely with the NM Livestock Board and other law enforcement agencies throughout the state, including Pueblo law enforcement and animal control.

As we celebrate our 25th year as a horse rescue, we are proud that we have grown from a very small organization that started with three rescue horses, to a formidable presence in the New Mexico horse community and the largest equine rescue in the state. We will continue to expand our programming and services to help more horses in need and create a better standard of care for the horses in New Mexico. 

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Rescuing and rehabilitating abused, abandoned and neglected horses since 2000.

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The Horse Shelter Resale Store is the premier resale store in Santa Fe. We sell art, jewelry, apparel, housewares, furniture, saddles, tack, horse supplies, and much more.

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Volunteer at The Horse Shelter

You do not need to have any horse experience to volunteer for us. We will safely train you to be around our horses and you will be able to progress through our online and onsite training classes at your own speed.

Learn About Volunteering at The Horse Shelter

EquuStyle Art & Advocacy Magazine extends sincere appreciation for Executive Director,  Susan Hemmerle's contribution to the Summer 2025 issue. The Horse Shelter and its staff, volunteers, and supporters are doing a remarkable job of making a significant difference in the lives of horses in New Mexico. Please share this article with other equestrians to support rehoming and adoption of rescued horses.

All images Copyright The Horse Shelter, and Evalyn Bemis Photography (evalynbemisphotography.com) -all rights reserved. Cannot be reproduced for any purpose without permission from The Horse Shelter or Evalyn Bemis Photography.

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