Ranshaw Ranch Horse Rescue

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Chester, VA
Ranshaw Ranch Horse Rescue

We are a non-profit horse rescue in the heart of Chester Virginia. We seek after horses in need of rescue, rehabilitation, and rehoming.

We cannot save them all but we are determined to save "the one". Ranshaw Ranch is the non-profit organization for Shoofly Farm Virginia, a farm located in the heart of Chester Virginia, and active in animal rescue. After Shoofly started rescuing horses, pigs, cats, and other animals and became an animal sanctuary we quickly realized that the demands for animal rescue, especially horses were enormo

us! With very little help out there, Shoofly Farm could not continue to swallow the entire cost if we wanted to expand our rescue efforts. Ranshaw Ranch was formed as a 501c3 (status pending) to help shoulder the financial burden and overall mission of Shoofly which is supplying animals in need with rest, rehabilitation, and forever homes while helping members of our community connect and heal as well as they interact with our very special animals. If you are not already familiar with Shoofly Farm we invite you to check us out, see for yourself what we are all about! www.shooflyfarmvirginia.com

07/11/2022

This morning at 6:30 a.m. we came out to the barn to see something no horse owner or rescue wants to see. It was a lifeless foal and it was Jazzy’s. We did not know she was pregnant. After vet examination it appears the loss of her foal was most likely due to her age, Jazzy is over 20, this is old for a mare to be pregnant, it would be comparable to a 60 year old woman being pregnant. They do not separate the mares and studs at kill pens and the gestation of the foal suggests Jazzy was bred a couple weeks to even days before we rescued her.

It was and remains a sad and somber shock to all of us here. Our hearts are broken for our Jazzy girl as she mourns deeply the loss of her baby. We named him Theo and laid him to rest beside our other rescue horse, Denali. This picture is her keeping watch over the spot where she gave birth to him. She did not want to leave this area even after we took baby Theo, she needed and still needs time to process this loss, all of us do.

Rescue work is hard, heartbreaking, maddening, devastating, disappointing but also amazing, exciting, joyful and fulfilling. These horses we are saving, are in turn changing and saving us, this work has meaning and purpose and even on dark days like today we feel grateful and privileged to be a part of this great and meaningful work.

07/10/2022

Our rescue horse Louie has taken a turn for the worse these last 2 days (why is it always the weekend when vet availability is limited 😢) Louie’s leg wound has been something we’ve been dealing with for 8 weeks now and it has been one complication and set back after another. We have worked closely with our amazing vets but yesterday, despite all our efforts he began limping on his back leg and this evening he doesn’t even want to put the leg down. This is a stressful and dangerous situation for a horse and we are worried for this sweet boy of ours. He will be seen by the vet tomorrow, with that expense and his continued dressing changes and supplies for wound care this leg wound is quickly racking up the bills. If you can help donate to Louie’s medical care please Venmo Shoofly Farms non-profit Ranshaw Ranch Horse Rescue, an official 501c3 dedicated to the rescue and rehabilitation of these slaughter-bound horses @ ranshawranch, Venmo picture included here, label your donation “Louie’s medical care.” We have a feeling Louie’s extensive injuries on his hind legs from when we first rescued him are complicating this injury. We’ve come so far with him and we can’t imagine losing him now. If you can’t donate please pray or send positive healing energy for our sweet boy. We will update as soon as we have a clear plan forward from our vet.

06/17/2022

A BIG thank you to our staff and boarders of Shoofly Farm for all of your help ensuring Jazzy girl stays cool. This is in the middle of installing a window AC unit for our sweet girl and as you can see she was eager to take advantage of that ice cold DRY air in her nostrils. This heat and humidity can kill our Jazzy girl. This should make her more comfortable and safe as the fans, misting system and alcohol baths just weren’t cutting it this time. Please continue to spread the word and help us get this girl to her forever somewhere in the mountains or anywhere with mild summer temps and little to no humidity! Or please donate in her name to our rescue so we can do more for her and other horses! Venmo or click on the link in our bio to donate.

02/22/2022

Jazzy- QH - Mare - 20 yo-RRR
Adoptable Status!!!: Our sweet Jazzy is looking for her forever home. We would actually keep her for our riding program here because she is the BEST with young beginner riders, in fact the second rider in this video is brand new and Jazzy follows an instructor beautifully without a lead. She is 14 hh, stands for the mount, farrier, loads and unloads on the trailer, trail rides, lesson pony and will hack out on her own. Rides beautifully in a hackamore or Bosal, no bit needed. No spook buck or bolt, she prefers her space but gets along with pasture mates just fine and LOVES attention from people! WTC but because of her health she should not canter long at all. Jazzy has an abnormal epiglottis so you can always hear her breathing ( we’ve nicknamed her Vader 😆) so riding should be limited to 45 minutes to an hour depending on weather with breaks in between. Her large abnormally shaped epiglottis traps hot air so Jazzy overheats easily! Her ideal home would be with a pond (she loves to swim in ours and it helps keep her cool) a private stall she can retreat to at will where she has a fan to keep her cool or even AC 😍. We would like to see her go up north or into the mountains for mild summers and zero humidity as this would be best for her health, like we said we’d love to keep her but Virginia summers are too hot and humid and she gets miserable! She would be perfect for a family with young beginner riders who just want to take it easy with pleasure rides and pamper their horse. DM Ranshaw Ranch if you are interested, price is very affordable!!!

02/14/2022

Jazzy - RRR - QH - Mare
We got the all clear on this sweet girl from the vet. She is healthy and ready for adoption❤️, we will be posting videos here soon along with what we think will work best for our Jazzy girl. For now though how cute is she as she snoozes and dreams of finding her forever family 🥰?!?

02/01/2022

This is Jazzy she is the most in your pocket mare ever and we love her fiercely around here. Today we have a very important vet visit for her. We will update here when we know more but for now we would appreciate prayers, positive energy and good vibes for this sweet girl and that the vets will get some clear answers today and a clear and positive path forward.

01/17/2022

Ranshaw Ranch would be honored to receive donations on behalf of the You can donate directly to Ranshaw Ranch through Venmo or PayPal, link in the comments. Please share this and help us raise more funds and get 2022 off to a great start for these horses, thank you!

01/04/2022

Diesel- 8- gelding - RR - Jazzy- 20 - mare - RR

Diesel and Jazzy coming out of the barn briefly during the snowstorm yesterday. Neither of them stayed out for long 🤣. Both continue to gain weight and improve.

Jazzy had shoes put on her front feet this last farrier visit and it seems to help her be more sound, any tripping while riding has stopped.

We got the green light from our vet and Diesel started his training the last week of December now that he has enough weight on him and he’s fully healed from his gelding procedure. He lunges beautifully in the round pen and we figured out that not only does he do just fine being separated from the herd and by himself for training sessions he actually THRIVES with no other horses around. He’s a different horse when he’s alone in the arena, he’s calm, attentive and obedient. Hard to believe when we picked him up over 4 months ago he could not be haltered and led onto the trailer, we had to load him by backing up to a shoot and driving him up and in. The place said they could not get a halter on him and thought he was an “unhandled stud”. Well stud yes but unhandled no, he just needed a safe environment to learn to trust people again and we’ve loved being that for him. He grows sweeter and calmer by the day and dare I say I think we have the makings of an “in your pocket gelding” ?!? The past few days he has chosen to sometimes follow me around the barnyard as I do chores. Him choosing to be close to a human is so huge, we are thrilled and confident he is going to make some family the perfect forever horse!

Jazzy’s nature is unchanged she’s still as sweet and obedient as ever, how we adore this 20 year old mare and want her to find the perfect home where they will dote on her and spoil her just like she deserves!

12/19/2021

Jazzy - RR - QH -18- Mare
Look at the video we were sent of our Jazzy girl by a family who recently visited! We used her as a Holiday Horse for our Holiday Ho-Ho-Hoedown and she was magnificent! She will make someone the BEST beginner horse or lesson horse for small children! She is so incredibly sweet, leads, loads, stands for the farrier, stands for the mount / dismount, rides in an arena or on the trail. Rides English, western or ba****ck, with a bit, hackamore or simply a halter, they don’t come more broke than miss Jazzabel! We would love nothing more than to keep her here with us and use her in our programs but for her health and comfort she needs to go up north where there are mild summers free of extreme heat and most of all humidity. Because Jazzy has an abnormal epiglottis she can not effectively cool herself when hot as one way horses expel heat from their bodies is by breathing out hot air. Jazzy’s epiglottis acts like a sail on a sailboat and traps a lot of her breath and therefore body heat. She also can overheat with too much exercise so she is a walk-trot horse only! We plan to continue to use her over the winter to ensure we aren’t mistaken with her health prognosis (our vet has never seen an epiglottis like hers, nor have other vets they sent her scope images to) so we are in foreign waters with predicting her future however she has truly blossomed here and is a proven fighter and we feel confident she is meant to be a beautiful addition to someone’s family and receive her well deserved forever home!

12/17/2021

Diesel - RR - Spotted Saddle - 8 - Gelding
Diesel has finally gained enough weight for us to start working him. We’ve been doing basic stuff like catching him, haltering him, letting us lift his feet ( not there just yet but making progress) This was Diesels first walk over to the Ranch to use the round pen. He did beautifully on the walk and lunging in the pen. After about 2 weeks of ground work we will put a saddle on Diesel and see how much work he needs under saddle. We are so excited to see Diesel progressing and getting closer to being adoptable!

11/20/2021

Missing this great one tonight. It’s been 8 days since we laid Denali to rest and though I showed stoic resolve in the days following because I knew we did the right thing for him each morning I wake up and he’s not here has made my heart a little heavier until today I came across this picture and I just broke down. Denali was the BEST horse. He’d do anything we’d ask, he was a gentle giant and had a quiet strength about him. He was the first horse we saved from slaughter and he was so incredibly worth it. Despite all the vet bills and time consuming care during his time with us I’d rescue him 100 times again. In 2020 over 36k US horses were shipped across our boarders for slaughter. It is a cruel, inhumane and horrifying fate and rescues like us cannot save them all, our facilities, finances and hearts are maxed out and yet we want to, no, feel driven to save them all. Please consider taking the time to copy and paste or click the link below and fill out a form by the ASPCA asking Congress to pass the S.A.F.E. Act ( Saving America’s Forgotten Equines) which would ban shipping horses across our boarders for slaughter. Denali was one of the lucky ones. Not only was he loved by all who knew him, when it was time and the pain was too great instead of being sold to a kill buyer for a few hundred dollars at auction we gave him a humane and honorable death, one deserving of a great one. Help us help more great ones like Denali, spread the word, fill out the form. If you’d like to donate to future rescue efforts please do so in Denalis name by Venmo’ing our non profit or Shoofly or follow the link in our bio ranshawranch.org and click the donate button by PayPal. Thank you!
Here is the link to the Safe act form

https://secure.aspca.org/action/safe-act

11/16/2021

Diesel - 8 yr - Spotted Saddle - GELDING! -RR
That’s right this past weekend Diesel went from Stud to Gelding and snored through the entire process. As you can see he has recovered well but that side eye look tells us he may have not forgiven us just yet but he seems to be coming around a little more each day as he recovers😉
At Ranshaw Ranch we believe in adoption over breeding, Diesel is a great example of why. In 2020 over 36,000 American horses were trucked over our boarders to Canada and Mexico to be inhumanly slaughtered, that number doesn’t even touch the other countless horses neglected abused and killed by owners who simply did not have time for them, ran out of finances to care for them and the list goes on. In our societies quest to breed the perfect horse we leave far too many of the “rejects” in dire, heartbreaking and dangerous conditions. Diesel had one last hope before he was loaded onto that long and grueling trailer ride down to Mexico. Ranshaw Ranch stepped in at his 11th hour saving him but his rescue will not stop there, it can’t. Diesel will need to be adopted to a loving, and patient forever home. We ask that when considering an equine companion for any reason or discipline that people look first to adoption. There are so many incredible horses out there. Look into your local horse rescues, we promise they are there and they just might have the perfect horse for you and if not we are a vast and unified network in our desire to get these rescues safely homed so if we don’t have your ideal horse let us help you locate them within the realm of horse rescue and adoption. Diesel can no longer make baby Diesels but his value is tied to him alone and not if he can sire the next perfect horse, HE can be the next perfect horse if only given the chance.

10/28/2021

Officially adopted! We are so excited Memphis has earned triple R status and that he has his forever with the Lowery’s. He still has room to grow but now he gets to do that with his very devoted and loving family. We have loved his sweet and inquisitive personality he’s a fantastic horse with only good things ahead of him.

10/20/2021

Diesel - 8yr - Stud - Spotted Saddle
Diesel has been here 70 days and can we just say PROGRESS! Swipe for pics of the day he arrived. We still have a ways to go with his weight and we haven’t even tried a saddle on his back (waiting for his top line to fill in) but he has settled in nicely, is very friendly and the other horses here help him be brave and he now willingly comes up to us in the pasture, no chasing required. Amazing what can be accomplished with time, patience and love!

10/02/2021

Jazzy - RR
2 weeks post surgery and finally looking better like the incision may actually stay closed, we are so pleased! Jazzy is a sweet girl but also a proven fighter.

09/20/2021

Jazzy - 22yo- QH-Mare - RR
Our poor Jazzy girl. What we thought would be a simple procedure to close and fix the drain hole in her neck where we were trying to drain the large mass turned into a 1.5 hour surgery. The vet removed as much of the mass as she could. They still have no idea what is in Jazzy’s neck, upon examination her best guess is scar tissue. So back on stall rest Jazzy went until we flooded her stall yesterday at which point we had to move her to a small paddock while we changed the bedding. We came back to find Jazzy with labored breathing and covered in hives. She had an allergic reaction (most likely to bug bites ) so she was given an emergency injection and cold water hosed followed by a topical tea tree and peppermint shampoo treatment to help cool her skin as it was extremely hot. Please continue to pray for this sweet mare. We believe we are starting to get an idea of what plagues her abnormally inflamed epiglottis and it looks like it’s her immune system. We will run some blood work in October once she’s completed all the medication she is on and see if that gives us any more clues to this puzzle. In the meantime we continue to absolutely love our time with her here, she is so gentle and sweet with us. Yesterday as we spent over 45 minutes hosing her down and treating her skin she would reach back and gently touch her nose to us as if to say “thank you”, it was heart wrenching and warming at the same time. We don’t know her past but only that before coming to us she had the left over stickers of 3 different kill lots, she was skinny, sick and miserable. BUT this mare wants to live and she deserves a chance. Please consider helping us out with Jazzy’s continually growing vet and care bills. Venmo us or visit our landing page at Ranshawranch.org and click the donate button. Every dollar helps!

09/14/2021

Diesel - 8 yo- Spotted Saddle - Stud (but not for long 😉) - RR
Diesel has decided his new best friend is Louie and is often so close they are touching. What’s so cute about this is Louie, a fellow slaughter truck rescue, was the same way when he showed up here, he was constantly looking for a friend and quickly annoyed each horse over time except Memphis, another Ranshaw Ranch rescue. There seems to be an understanding between these fellow rescue horses and they are willing to help each other through the healing process, it is such a heart warming and inspiring thing to see.

09/12/2021

Jazzy - Approx 22 yo - Quarter Horse - Mare -RR
Jazzy continues to improve! We have made a lot of progress draining the abscess on her neck and her breathing is so much better. You can still hear her but the labored tummy breathing is gone. We still do not know what her future holds. Once she’s healed a bit more the vet will visit again and we will discuss the possible implications of her abnormal epiglottis on her quality of life. As long as she is comfortable we don’t see why Jazzy Girl can’t live another 10 or even 15 years!
She ‘s an in your pocket, broke broke, sweet, lovable 14.2hh girl. She loves to be groomed and will follow you off lead all over (if there is no food to distract her) in fact to take this first picture we had to halter and tie her because she wouldn’t stay back enough to let us get a shot of her. She’d be the perfect beginner horse for a young girl who wants to learn how to ride but make sure her mount looks good doing it because Jazzy will stand there all day as long as she’s getting attention from a human. How we love our Jazz-ebel, look out she’ll capture your heart and convince you to keep her 😉

Address

Chester, VA
23831

Telephone

+18048401229

Website

http://ranshawranch.org/

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