The (semi) short story:

Like many little girls, ponies became my passion at a very young age. And their well-being became a top priority of mine along the way. But I’ve always asked myself “how can I help these majestic creatures?” I’m just one person, with a big dream. So I bought a big piece of land with all my savings, I’ve worked tirelessly on budgets, financial plans, 5-year plans, 10-year plans and a 35-year plan, and I have found a way to get enough funds to build the majority of the necessary buildings. But the majority is not enough, and then there’s all the equipment and installations. So I’m turning to you all to get the last funds to kick-off my project, and let’s build an amazing center with a capacity of 50 rescue-horses! The goal is to be able to house 100 rescue horses at a time, which will end up in 250 horses a year approximately.

The project in itself - as soon as it’s kicked off is very sustainable on its own IF I commercialize a part of it: Rent out a part of the stables, and offer horse-owners from outside to gain access to the installations against a fee. Because I live I the Saint-Émilion area of Bordeaux, France, and here the vineyards are top-priority, so the land I bought is/was actually destined to grow vines - I offended a lot of people by choosing to put horses on it! So we don’t have a lot of horse-installations here (Installations like stables, riding-arenas, recovery center etc.) but we do have horse-crazies like everywhere in the world. And the horse-crazies are more than willing to pay to have their horses in a stable with necessary installations in the middle of the vineyards. The fact that their money supports the good cause of saving other horses is just an added bonus. But now we have a refuge that never needs to ask for help again.

I already have 3 horses of my own, and they are the ones who showed me that these horses are worth a second chance, and even a third, a fourth and a fifth – They are amazing horses! But I’d like to rescue more. Do more. Quit my job and only save and reform horses - Horses that were on their way to the slaughterhouse from the race-track.

I’d put them in lush green fields on my property for a few months, to let them calm down and breathe again after a stressful life of racing. Then they will be re-educated/reformed for a new discipline that suits them, and when they’re ready sold as great sport- or pet-horses. The ones with injuries (50-80%) will be seen by the vet and their recovery-program will be personalized and completed before their reformation.

For this project we will need: An indoor riding arena (huge), 2 outdoor riding arenas, 2 separate barns, a recovery center with swimming pools for the injured horses, an automatic walker for re-education after injuries, tons of wood to build strong fences and shelters in the paddocks, and all the necessary equipment to take care of them and work with them.

The whole property will have solar-panels on the roofs, partially to be green and only consume our own energy, but also to finance the buildings partially by selling the energy of the rest of the panels for 30 years.

This center will be all happy-hippie-green because doing my part for the environment is a top priority. All machines and equipment will be electric, even the tractor - All rain-water will be collected and used on the property – All lighting will be LED – All horse manure will be sold to the neighboring winemakers – All rubber/plastic (for the horses comfort and safety) will 100% be coming from recycled tires - A huge greenhouse will ensure organic carrots for the horses all year round.

Now, you might think: What do you need the money for, if you have a solar-investor and financial aid from the government?

Answer: Because this project is HUGE, the solar-power-investor pays for about half of the total investment needed, the governments help is great, but it barely covers the tractor. So here I am with funds for partial buildings and most of a tractor, asking for your support in this huge project. Horses and their well-being have always been, and will always be my biggest passion, but I already spent all my savings on the land, and the banks do not offer credits this size for horse-structures.

But why invest so much from the beginning, why not start small, and grow over time?

Answer: Racehorse rescue structures are not money-making structures; on the contrary it is often a loss-making business. So if you don't already have an existing structure, you have to build it. And if you don't want to spend your time chasing customers and fixing the structure, you have to build something safe and of average or good quality.

So here I am with funds for partial buildings and most of a tractor, asking for your support in this huge project. Horses and their welfare have always been and always will be my greatest passion, but I have already spent all my savings in the land, and banks do not offer loans of this size for equestrian structures. I would need € 860,000 for the rest of the construction, but I can apply for a loan from the bank for a small part of it. I would of course prefer to be able to launch this project without being in debt, because in order to be able to save as many horses as possible, I need all the cash flow possible. A loan to be repaid asks me either to take more horses from paying clients in board, or to save fewer horses.

Racehorses are rarely given away for free, they often cost the “Price of the Meat” which can be 300-600 €.

All expenses and investments, other than the ones covered by the investor, will be listed on the future gofundme page listed in the attached file.

The Long story:

Every day a frightening number of horses go straight from the race-tracks to the slaughterhouse.

In France 17.000 horses are bred every year with the sole purpose of racing. Some earn a lot of money for its owners by being high-level athletes with all the pressure and stress that comes with the title.

Then there are the real annual numbers; 230.000 horses are registered for racing every year, but only 18.000 end up actually racing. That includes horses for trot aged 2-10 years, and horses for gallop aged 2-6 but they are often taken out at 4 due to injuries. And in these numbers are also imported horses from breeders all around the world.

Any and all of these 230.000 horses per year are at risk of ending up in the slaughter house if; they get injured, they don’t have the mentality or they’re simply not fast enough. It is a multibillion industry but the fate of the actual athletes if they don’t live up to the expectations can be quite cruel.

So where do these remaining 212.000 horses go? Some go back to their breeder to continue the bloodline and live a happy life after a successful carrier, very few get sold directly to loving families that are able to take on a horse as unbalanced as a thoroughbred that’s fresh off the track, but the vast majority get slaughtered and end up in minute-meals, and processed food where they don’t specify 100% of the meat.

I am aware that I cannot take on hundreds of thousands of horses, and I will not have the time to convert them all to a new life. But just putting them on a big green field, and checking on them, spending time with them, being around them for a few months’ works wonders! These horses are by nature very loving. But the racing world has stressed, pushed and pressured them into uptight, frivolous and anxious beings.

I took on my first 2 horses together, they came from the same stables, but they didn’t know each other. Their names are Enricoeur (My big baby boy) and Envy (My smart girl) they were the exact same age, with just 2 days apart. When they arrived, none of them knew what a carrot was! I left them 2 full buckets of carrots and they went untouched for 4 days! They only ate them when I presented them in their grains/rations in the beginning – but today they are of course very aware of the yumminess of the carrot and the apple. But this just shows that these horses are not pets, not partners –They are athletes! And 95% of all racehorses have ulcers due to this hard lifestyle. Don’t get me wrong, as long as they deliver what is expected of them, racehorses are VERY well cared for, top grains, state of the art stables, seen by the best health-professionals in the business. But they are disposable – As soon as they stop delivering on the track, or they get an injury, it’s out of the good care, and into a truck going anywhere. (If you repeated "going anywhere" in a melodic way in your head, and now you have "Don't stop believin'" stuck in your head, you just won a gold star in my book)

In the beginning there was no going near my horses when they ate, they didn’t enjoy the company of humans they fled them and they were scared of every little sound. But after just 3 months of calmness and daily love they were unrecognizable – They started to approach me willingly, they started to appreciate the cuddles, the scratches, the carrots (OMG the carrots!!) And my smart girl accepted me without any hick-ups on her back, and didn’t even bat eye when I tried it for the first time. Enricoeur on the other hand came in with a huge case of tendinitis, it will take a miracle for him to be ridden again someday, so I bought him just to be my snuggle horse. Envy was in great shape except for her skin condition, and the fact that she cannot jump a bar to save her life. But she is the smartest horse I have ever met, and that gives her great potential to be a show-horse or dressage horse, but it also makes her a trouble-maker! I had my work cut out with these two. Well all this just to tell you these horses just need to calm down, feel the love and eat lots of carrots, and they will follow you anywhere and become amazing sport-riding-horses in no time!

Today I have 3 horses – the 2 I already told you about, and a grandma horse that I’ve taken in, because I found her in a yard a few villages away, pretty emaciated, in poor condition and alone, so I negotiated with the owner who handed her over in about an hour. She’s 26 and her name is Isabelle, she has taken on more weight in 3 months than my 2 babies have in a year – but she also has issues on her legs.

So these 3 horses have inspired me to go out and find a piece of land way bigger than the initial one, and begin to take in more horses. But not horses I will keep for very long. The goal is to have them for 4-8 months if they are not injured.

If the horses I take in are injured, I will not let go of them until they are at 100% capacity, because I will build a huge recovery center. Not huge as in state of the art, but huge in capacity to heal horses. It will have 2 swimming pools; 1 with a depth of 70cm/2-3 feet of very cold saltwater, and another at 170cm/6 feet depth in a cold-lukewarm temperature, but built as a round corridor for the horse to swim laps/workout while being weightless in the water. These 2 pools will help with all the leg-injuries, muscle-injuries and fatigues. A closed off little stable will have an aroma-therapy machine, solarium and a saltwater air-machine to ensure some happy SPA-time while having the muscles warmed up. The rest of the area will be dedicated for all types of therapy and massages.

When the horses are calmed down, in good physical and mental health I will start to ride them and teach them the basic. I will have them try different disciplines like jumping, dressage, cross-country, horse-ball, vaulting and show.

This will show which discipline the horse prefers, and is best suited for. Then I will work on the adapted discipline with the horse until it is sold as a champion in the making.

All horses will be sold under contract to never get slaughtered or return to the races. And all with injuries will have a lifetime of free care in the recovery-center.

There are hick-ups to this project (of course) – The financial one, which is why I’m asking for your help – And the basic one for the use of the land.

In France land is divided in 3 types that all have a number of sub-categories: Constructible land, Agricultural land and Natural land.  I live in the greater “Saint-Émilion” area in the Bordeaux region of France, so 99,9% of all agricultural land around here is for vines/winemaking.

The land I bought is a partial agricultural land and Natural land, which is great, because it means I can build buildings on the agricultural part, if the buildings are for agricultural purposes. But “agricultural purposes” does not include “refuge” or “recovery center” – I need to breed for it to be agricultural. And since I’m against the over-breading of thoroughbreds, I have decided to use the mares I take in from the race-track as surrogates! I will buy the best embryos and semen that I can afford, and inseminate a mare of mine with it. The success-rate is significantly lower than the normal way, and it is very expensive in veterinary-bills, but it’s the best solution to get a grade A foal, that can guarantee my money back on my investment, without having to reproduce a horse that’s already over-produced and inbred. The surrogate mom will not know that it’s not her foal, and they will stay together for 2 years, where the mother will continue to educate “her” foal while she’s being ridden, and continues to develop her skills in her discipline. The foal will be “broken in” at the age of 4-5 in a soft and respectful manner.

The financial hick-up is not just the initial investment (although it’s a big part); it’s also the daily running of this structure. Which I will finance by offering rental of homes for the horses (boxes/stables and prairies) but also by offering access to the recovery-center against a fee, or a SPA-vacation for horses depending on the time I have to take care of other horses.

My education is in finance and law, so I’m not worried about the viability of my project, I will crunch the numbers and make sure it is sustainable. But what I also need to be fully equipped for this project is education in agriculture, and extra courses in different types of therapy. My agricultural education starts November 4^th 2020, and the courses in the diverse types of therapy are sporadically placed along September 2020 to March 2021.

I would like to start building the structures in March 2021, and be done in October 2021. Then when I get my degree in agriculture March 12^th 2021, it gives me access to some public funds for young agricultural entrepreneurs, which can amount to 29.000€ (YAY!!).

So this center will be 100% solar-powered. And since we are so green in energy, I can’t have tractors that consume fossil fuels; so all the engines are also going to be electric-powered. Weidemann makes a 100% electric tractor which is perfect! – The eHoftrac 1160. To move around on the property I’ll get a 100% electric ATV with a small trailer.

Good for you for sticking to it, and reading the long story, you’re a badass! I appreciate it, really!

All supporters will be offered something – (Of course!) all you need to do is send me a proof of your donation to donations@harasdesilots.com and I’ll send it to you March 2021 (and give you the possible dates for your stay/visit):

Private:

• Donations 0-20€ - A warn thank you on a social media of your choosing
• Donations 20-50€ - A keychain, a pen and a visit of the property when it’s done
• Donations 50-200€ - All of the above and a plaque in the new riding-hall with name and everything!
• Donations 200-5000€ - All of the above and Long-distance adoption of a horse; You’ll get photos, videos, live-chat (with me and the horse – nothing weird), updates, you’ll get to make choices for him/her, and you’ll get to give them their sports-alias/second name… And a t-shirt ;-)
• Donations 5000€+ : A 5-day stay for 4 people with visits to chateaux’s and vineyards, unlimited acces to the property and the horses, some horseback riding in the vineyards, all meals (cooked by yours truly – Which is worth the investment alone!) and stay included.

Companies:

• Donations 1000-7000€ - Company logo/publicity on an obstacle/jump, and on the side of the riding arena, mention/profile on website + all social media, and a plaque in the riding hall.
• Donations 7000+€ - all of the above + Company trip for up to 8 people 3 days, around the horses, with visits to the chateaux’s of the area (Saint-Émilion/Bordeaux) with all meals and stay included