Equine Advocates was founded in 1996. Eight years later, our dream came true when we opened our horse sanctuary in upstate New York. Safe Home Equine Rescue & Sanctuary is a beautiful 140-acre farm and is currently home to 68 rescued equines, including horses, ponies, donkeys & mules …plus two alpacas and a goat named Herbert! Visit the residents of Safe Home and read their stories.

We feel that Safe Home is a wonderful example of how horses should live. Every horse here has a stall, either in the Main Barn or in one of the many 2- or 3-stall barn structures located in our paddocks and pastures. The horses in the Main Barn mostly have physical issues or other special needs. Each horse has the ability to enter and leave the stall at will, except at feeding time when we need to be sure they get their own particular meal and supplements and don’t get any help from their pasture mates (who would be more than happy to dine on their cuisine!) Our Feed Room is organized for the specialized meals the horses receive every day. There is water available at all times for the horses with heaters in all the troughs for use during the winter months. Veterinarians, farriers (blacksmiths) and the equine dentist come to the sanctuary on a regular basis to make sure our horses stay healthy.

We are very proud of the way we have designed the paddocks so that many can be connected by opening and interlocking gates, giving our horses the opportunity to do what horses love to do …run and socialize with their friends! The herd can be as many as 30 horses on more than 40 acres of open pasture! Not only is this a vision to see and a lovely sound to hear, but you can feel the earth move under your feet as they take off all at once!

We have an outdoor arena where our staff and volunteers work with the horses. Most of the horses cannot be ridden due to physical and emotional scars from their prior lives, but being in the arena gets them used to being around people and being handled. The outdoor arena is also used for our Education Program.

In 2006, we opened our Education Center on the sanctuary grounds. Since then we have welcomed groups of all ages, from young children to seniors, for seminars on equine protection and equine issues. We have also hosted symposiums for law enforcement on how to recognize equine abuse and neglect and how to enforce the cruelty laws. In our outdoor arena, we hold demonstrations on natural horsemanship. All visitors get to meet our remarkable equine residents!

Behind the Education Center and adjacent to some of the paddocks we have a lovely pond and picnic area where scheduled groups can have lunch and just relax. Afterwards, they can walk the entire sanctuary and along the way can read our graphics which have photos of the horses and their stories. This makes for a much more personalized experience.