Northeast Equine Sanctuary

09/14/2025

Calling all horse lovers--we have an OPEN HOUSE today! Stop by to meet some of our 40+ rescued horses and learn how you can help us help horses here in Maine. 🐴🐴🐴

Northeast Equine Sanctuary
222 Barnes Road, Albion, Maine
Open House: Sep. 14th 1pm - 3pm

Hope to see you soon!!!

08/28/2025

Our End of Summer 2025 Newsletter just dropped and it is a must-read!

Our little team at Northeast Equine and Peace Ridge Sanctuary is always busting it out on the frontlines and behind the scenes, working tirelessly for animals. Often we're working on complicated legal cruelty cases that we can't talk about, because our number one priority is keeping animals safe, seeking justice for them, and stopping their abusers from harming others. This means that we often have a backlog of things we want to tell you, but can't.

Well, today, in the wake of one of the big cases we're working on hitting the news, we're breaking our silence. So, click on the link in the comments below to learn more about our ongoing efforts to demand justice for the Ingraham horses... And then keep reading for a story that is almost too crazy (and certainly too infuriating) to believe about another animal cruelty case we got tangled up in earlier this year!!!

08/28/2025

Six long months, and finally the cat's out of the bag.

We have the horses (not just the nine mentioned in the story, but another seven we’ve since saved from this case), and all but one survived.

We are looking forward to finally seeing an end to the decades-long chaos, suffering, and madness created by this woman.

Shelters having can't continue to carry this burden for another two decades. One family, so much abuse, so many public resources spent.

(If you do business with people like her, you ARE a part of the problem.)

We weren’t able to talk about the details of the case or share all our photos because of the active investigation and prosecution we are assisting with. We need to make sure justice is finally served in this case.

But as we’ve kept quiet to protect the case, our expenses have been piling up. We’ve already spent well over $50,000 rehabilitating these poor horses.

So, now that the story has hit the news, we’re breaking our silence. We’re sending out our email newsletter later today (we’ll copy a link here too) with more details, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, if you’re able to donate to help with this complicated, expensive, and desperately needed rescue, we’d be so grateful. Thank you!

Click here to watch newstory: https://tinyurl.com/67bbrn9s

PayPal:
Venmo: -Ridge-Sanctuary
https://donorbox.org/prs-northeast_equine

A Burnham woman charged with animal cruelty made a brief appearance before a judge Tuesday.
Story: https://tinyurl.com/67bbrn9s

08/17/2025

Love horses? Want to see how you can help?

Open house today at 222 Barnes Rd. Albion, Maine. From 1-3.

07/30/2025

This handsome horse just arrived at Northeast Equine Sanctuary. Given the insulting racing name “Ima Nuisance,” this 15 year old boy spent years racing and earned his owners $159,640 in prize money (he ran 205 races, coming in 1st 30 times, second 21 times, and 3rd 24 times)… only to end up discarded when he couldn’t race (or couldn’t win) anymore. His father and both grandfathers made his owners MILLIONS of dollars.

His story is similar to so many racehorses who start racing young before their bones are fully developed, leading to injuries and future mobility problems. Even though their bones aren’t done growing until they are six, horses in the racing industry often start intensive training at only a year and a half old and start racing at two. This is incredibly taxing on their developing bodies, leading to injuries and degenerative joint and bone problems. Because of the intense demands put on their bodies, drugging and doping horses is common to keep them running and brining in the money.

Each year, roughly two thousand horses die on racetracks here in the US (https://horseracingwrongs.org/killed-in-action/) due to severe, painful injuries, cardiovascular collapse, and other medical emergencies. For those who can no longer perform up to par, they often get passed around and end up in bad situations, or they end up getting slaughtered. Even though horse slaughter was technically outlawed in the U.S. in 2007, tens of thousands of U.S. horses are still being shipped to slaughter in Canada and Mexico each year (https://awionline.org/content/horse-slaughter-statistics) meeting a brutal and terrifying death. The racetrack-slaughterhouse pipeline is part of the dark side of horse racing.

We’re working hard to build a safety net for vulnerable equines here in Maine. Whether they are coming from state cruelty seizures, local starvation cases, or are former workhorses and racehorses destined for slaughter when their bodies give out, here, everyone is valued for who they are, not what they can do for us. Everyone here is retired. No more working for people. It’s a freedom place.

We’re the largest equine shelter in Maine (44 horses and 30 donkeys), and one of the largest in New England, but not enough people know about our work yet. Please help us spread the word about our work and if you’re able to donate to help us fix up this sweet boy (who is waiting for the perfect new name), we would be forever grateful. Thank you!

PayPal:
Venmo: -Ridge-Sanctuary

06/22/2025

It was great to see old friends and make new ones today at our Open House! ❤️🐴❤️

📸 Gunny, Sonny, and Reuben—three of our 43 horse friends 😍

06/22/2025

We hope you will come visit today!

It looks the the morning rain is going to clear up just in time for today’s Open House at Northeast Equine Sanctuary! Stop by to see some of the 40+ horses at our beautiful shelter! Visiting hours today (Sunday, June 22) are from 1pm-3pm and the best address to find us is 222 Barnes Road, Albion, ME.

We also have visiting time at Little River Farm in Belfast again today—so come get some animal love and vegan treats! Our hours in Belfast are 10am-4pm on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays and the address is 67 Perkins Road, Belfast, ME.

For more information on visiting, see the link the comments below. ❤️

05/11/2025

Happy Mother’s Day! 🌷🌷🌷

Honey arrived at the sanctuary skinny and pregnant along with several other horses from a recent, big cruelty case.

While we can’t share specifics about this case yet, we’re thrilled to announce that Mama Honey recently gave birth to a healthy baby boy named Frit!

If you want to make a special Mother’s Day donation for Honey and Frit, we’d be so grateful. Want to make the donation in honor of a special mom (or mother figure) you know? Tag them in the comments and let them know you are thinking about them and made the gift in their honor!

Happy Mother’s Day to Honey and all the other mothers out there! ❤️❤️❤️

PayPal:
Venmo: -Ridge-Sanctuary

03/02/2025

Arwynn and Ariel, mother daughter duo ♥️

Together forever because sanctuary means we try hard not to break up such special bonds!

02/28/2025

Sonny and his little pint size pal Ruben arrived midwinter. We don't know very much about them besides that they were living in dire straits. When we got the call that they were found skinny and in need of medical attention, we made room even when we didn't think we could.

They love each other and they are so closely bonded. We're so happy they get to stay together!

With some recent dental work and some attention to their feet, as well as to their nutrition and these boys seem to be feeling as good as they look!

And they have matching ducky coats! 😀

02/25/2025

We're excited to announce that Northeast Equine Sanctuary and Peace Ridge Sanctuary's Little River shelters are now officially accredited through the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS), joining our Brooks shelters as part of the GFAS cohort of accredited sanctuaries!

Unfortunately, the term "sanctuary" isn't regulated and there are a shocking number of places calling themselves sanctuaries that cause more harm than good--we've taken in hundreds of animals from these types of places over the years and see accreditation as one of the ways we can stand with like-minded organizations to ensure that the very highest standards for animal care and nonprofit management are upheld for the benefit of the animals, the movement, and our supporters.

You can read the full announcement by following the shared link, but we wanted to highlight why we're always stretching to do as much as we can for animals with this quote from our Founder, Daniella.

"The name of the game at Peace Ridge has always been to do as much as humanly possible, to save as many animals as possible, and to do so in as cost-efficient a way as possible, while working to high standards. We have a team of people who work from the heart and that has allowed us to reach our goals. It's enabled us to stretch our resources to the point that we're now operating four accredited shelter sanctuaries. We are grateful for everything we are given. It literally means the difference between saving a life and not being able to.”

🐇🐈🐓🐐🐕🦃🐖🐏🐄🐂🫏🪿🦆

February 25, 2025 (Freedom, ME) – The Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS), the only globally recognized organization providing standards for identifying legitimate animal sanctuaries, awarded Accredited status to Northeast Equine Sanctuary and Little River Farm by Peace Ridge Sanctuary ...

02/19/2025

Northeast Equine Sanctuary was given the opportunity to build and open this horse shelter because there is great need. It's been a wonderful opportunity and we've taken advantage of every second of it. We work very hard to do as much as we can.

However, because we are not a riding facility and we're not adopting out riding horses, we've definitely received less support than most horse shelters seem to enjoy.

Our phones are ringing off the hook. But before we can help anyone else, including the blind horse we were recently called about, we need to find our horses some monthly sponsorships.

Could you please consider becoming a monthly sponsor for our program?. Right now we have two monthly sponsors. It would be SO helpful to have each and every one of our horses at the facility sponsored! That would give us some breathing room to be able to consider the emergencies from our waitlist. We have 30 horses, and we're hoping to find 28 monthly sponsors of any amount by the end of this month.

Could you help us reach our goal!?

Any amount is so very appreciated. We really hope to get this program supported so that we can continue our work- they need us! They need you too!

(Pictured here is Ariel. Ariel came in with her daughter from a state case which was an emergency. She needs to stay with us because she has some medical issues that need to be maintained. She's grateful for this wonderful change in her life, being here is the chance of a lifetime for a horse like her).
https://donorbox.org/prs-northeast_equine