Our Story!
About The Founders
We wish to take this time to introduce ourselves to and thank you for coming to our website and finding out more about who we are and what we do.
I (Elsa) has been a animal lover as long as I can remember. My mother used to say that when I was just 2 and riding on her lap in the car, remember it was legal then. That if I saw a horse I would just get all excited and wanted to get out of the car. Mom thought as the years went by that I would find something else to get involved in. But hence that did not happen, and when I was just 9 I saved and scrapped up the $20.00 half of the cost of my first pony "Gypsy" a small little dun Shetland Pony. My mom paid for the other half, though dad did not know nothing about this, we broke the news to him over supper. I remember he was not happy, but somehow mom smoothed things over. And Gypsy came home.
My next pony was "Dusty" who I got just months after getting Gypsy, Dusty belonged to a friend of mine and she had 2 wonderful American Saddlebred horses that we used to ride together all the time, little Dusty and Patches. And one morning in the summer they got out of their pasture and ran across the highway and patches was killed. Dusty was left alone and was getting picked on by Star and Banner. I felt bad for him and my big brother bought him for me. Boy was dad unimpressed. Here he was building a barn for the first pony and now had to enlarge it to fit 2 ponies.
My life was fulfilled and happy as a little girl with 2 ponies whom I could love and play with. I showed those 2 for many years and in time selling them to a neighbour down the road for his 2 daughters when I finally outgrew them.
I spent many years working with horses I worked at a Thoroughbred Farm and also worked as a Wrangler at a Dude Ranch for many years. Showing, riding others horses and wishing I could have my own. Then I got married and finally ended up buying back my first 2 ponies Gypsy and Dusty, though very old, my kids at the time were just 3 and 4 years old and loved having something to groom and pet. At that same time I bought my first horse, she was a 6 month old Registered Appaloosa named "Twisty's Mint" she had a accident and could not be sold as sound. She had one of her eyes torn out by getting it caught in a fence that had a piece of wood hanging down. I bought her for a dollar.
I learned all about training horses through respect and trust and I trained her so well that she would let no one ride her but me, the time came for her to move on and I gave her to a home that used her for breeding wonderful babies, being she had a wonderful and excellent pedigree. As I think about this Twisty would be about 20 years old now, and if I could find her I would give her a home to finish her time. That would be the greatest thing I could imagine.
And Second Chance Farm Horse Rescue was born
The picture below is what we have grown to today!
Well my love for horses just grew from there. And on this one day in April 2003 Rob and I found out about Kitchener Livestock Exchange, and decided to go and see what it was all about. Walking through the loud and busy pens we came upon a little black mini that we found out later was a stallion. He was penned next to a very large Belgian and he was just telling this big guy that he was the boss of the area. I remember I said "Boy he sure has a lot of Spirit for a little guy", walked off thinking about him.
We went into the auction area and watched horse after horse come in and be sold, when the little black stallion came in, we watched as he was sold. I asked a man sitting next to me what "Lot #4" meant, he said: "the meat man bought him". I was shocked and got upset and my outside voice came out and I got angry. Rob went and spoke to the man who was the "MeatMan" and told him that I was upset and that if he was going to live with me for the rest of his life that there had to be some way that he could sell him the "Little Black Stallion". With a little coxing he agreed and we now owned this little man who we named "Spirit".
So here we were with a little pony and no barn or farm
to speak of. We found a place for him to go stay at and within 3 weeks we
had found a barn to rent and built stalls and brought him home, but the day
he came home we went back to see if we could help another pony or horse what
ever the case would be. We found Bailey and Brandy, 2 very neglected and sad
looking ponies.
And we have never looked back rescue and education is our mission.
Elsa's Story
How humble beginnings and a
love of equines has bloomed into a life of
rescue and compassion.
News
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Contact
Second Chance Farm
Horse Rescue
elsa@secondchancefarm.ca