We don’t often take time to stop and think about things like this, but November 2014 will mark nine years since the inception of Save a Forgotten Equine as an independent rescue organization. Over the past nine years, we’ve seen a lot of horses come and go, and while the basic things we do — equine rescue, rehab, training, and rehoming — have remained essentially the same, the organization itself has grown and become stronger in remarkable ways over the years. We may have started as a handful of people with good intentions, but what we have developed into is a solid, professional nonprofit organization with sustainability, strong leadership, a working infrastructure, and an amazing group of hard working individuals who make it all happen. We still have a long way to go to develop SAFE into the nonprofit that it’s capable of being, but we’ve made great progress and we have great ideas for the future.

Recently, as part of our efforts in strategic planning, we took a look at the mission statement that SAFE has been using since its inception in 2005. We realized that it didn’t quite capture the essence of this organization’s purpose in the way that a good mission statement ought to. So we sat back and took a long look at what it is that SAFE is here to do, and set about crafting those ideas into a succinct statement to convey our mission. Along the way, we clarified some of those ideas for ourselves, which turned out to be a very useful and fulfilling exercise. We acknowledged that SAFE exists to rescue horses who are suffering from — or at risk of suffering from — situations of neglect, starvation, abuse, or death. We agreed that one major pillar of our rescue program is providing veterinary care, both rehabilitative, routine, and emergency; and that another pillar is the training of these rescue horses to create “good equine citizens” with a solid chance for future success. And we recognized that the third pillar of our program was careful and responsible rehoming, including annual follow ups and continued interest and involvement in each horse’s future well being. 

That’s a lot of information to compress into a single sentence, but we hope you’ll agree that our new mission statement does just that: 

OUR MISSION:
To rescue, rehabilitate, and retrain horses facing neglect or abuse, and provide them with the best opportunity for a permanent home and a lifetime of safety.

Revising our mission statement was important to us, so we wanted to take a moment to share this achievement with our supporters. We are sincerely grateful to each and every one of you whose hard work and dedication has not only let us carry out this mission for nearly nine years. Together we have done some important work for a lot of amazing equines, and that is something to celebrate! So if you’re part of this organization, as a volunteer, an adopter, a foster, a donor, or even just an advocate for our cause, congratulations and thank you!