Adoption Frequently Asked Questions
What costs are involved in adopting a horse or pony through Second Chance?
For every adoption, regardless of the size, age, suitable uses etc of our horses there is a standard $300 adoption fee. This fee goes directly back into the organisation to help cover our administration costs. Also, you as an adoptive owner are required to take care of any and all costs involved in 'owning' and caring for a horse or pony from the day your Adoption Contract begins until the day it is terminated. If you come to the end of your Adoption Contract timeframe and wish to keep the animal, therefore extending your Adoption, there is no additional fee to do this.
Can I trial a horse or pony before committing to an Adoption Contract to ensure it is suitable for me?
Second Chance allows a trial period with its Adoptions. The Adoption Contract must be signed and all fees paid before the animal can come to you. We allow 28 days from the date of the Contract being signed as a trial period. If you are happy with your Adoptive animal, the Adoption continues. If you decide that the animal is not working out for you, you may return it to us before the 28 days is up and we will refund half the Adoption Fee to you.
We ask that you come and spend time with your Adoptive horse and visit and handle it several times before committing to an Adoption so that everyone can be sure you suit each other.
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Can I Adopt more than one horse or pony?
Yes you can! Providing you are able to comfortably house and care for more than one of our rescues, you are welcome to adopt more than one horse or pony at a time. Separate Adoption Contracts will be written out and specified for each animal however we can combine visitations if you Adopt more than one of our horses or ponies.
Do your horses come with any gear?
No, Second Chance cannot afford to send out gear on loan with our adoptions. It is up to you to buy and have gear correctly fitted to your adoptive horse. Naturally if or when the animal comes back to us, your gear still remains with you.
What equipment do I need to have before adopting?
You will need the basic equipment for equine care prior to taking a horse or pony home from us. You will need float-boots, a halter and lead-rope, grooming equipment, feed buckets and a First Aid Kit prior to taking home one of our animals. Other equipment such as rugs, saddles, bridles etc must be fitted to an individual to provide maximum comfort so these can be left until you have your horse or pony at home and can measure and fit these at your convenience.
Do you check up on your rescues out on Adoption?
Yes we do. Firstly we will check out the property you wish to keep your adoptive horse or pony at before the adoption begins to ensure that the fencing and shelter etc. is safe and secure. Once you have commenced an adoption, we reserve the rights to visitation which means one of Second Chance’s trained field officers will visit you and your adoptive horse once a month for the first three months, quarterly for the rest of that first year and then every six months after that. If you adopt for over two years, we will most likely drop our visitations to once a year. Visitations include the field officer coming out to see how well you and your adoptive horse are going. We ask to check your health record (supplied on the day you collect your horse) and we chat with you to make sure you’re not facing any problems and we offer help and assistance if you are concerned about something to do with your horse.
Why do you not sell your rescues? And what if I have put many hours of education into a horse or have Adopted it for a certain period of time?
We do not sell our rescue horses and ponies on for one main reason. The horse or pony’s welfare is paramount over all else. In our experience, most rescue cases are horses and ponies that are not worth a great deal monetarily. Unfortunately human nature dictates that most people are reluctant to properly look after something if it isn’t worth a great deal and prior to Second Chance existing, many of us rescued and rehabilitated privately. It was heartbreaking to find that so many of our horses we sold on wound up in just as bad or worse a position than they were rescued from in the first place within a very few short years after passing out of our hands. What’s more, just because a horse is worth a good sum monetarily, it doesn’t mean it will be well cared for. Often people fall into seeing such animals as machines to do their bidding or money-making tools and therefore the compassion, patience and understanding that rescues require their whole lives disappears which can result in some awful living conditions for these animals. This is also why we do not allow our animals to go for commercial purposes such as competitive racing. These animals were rescued – some from appalling lives or circumstances and they deserve to spend the rest of their days being loved and cared for as individuals. We also do not sell because once ownership passes out of our organisation, we have no control over who may own the horse in the future and unfortunately there are a great many people whose definition of good horse care is far below what we class as good care. To eliminate the risk to the horse, we have decided to retain full ownership of our animals.
We always aim to find a forever home for our rescues, where they will be loved and cared for as individuals and not as business prospects. Second Chance volunteers and carers put in countless hours of hard work and specialised training into many of the horses for the reward of giving them a better chance to find a good home. Uneducated horses are hard to home, well mannered agreeable horses with under saddle education find homes easily. We appreciate that you may be spending hours of your own time educating and raising the value of a horse. However all Adopters understand - as do our Foster Carers and Committee - that the work and education benefits the horse, not the person. And that is what our organisation is all about, providing the best chance for the horse to find a good home after all it may have suffered. We are in it for the horses, not for ourselves.
If I adopt a mare, can I breed from her?
No, Second Chance Horse Rescue Inc. retains a strict no breeding policy. The reasons behind this are because not only is it very difficult legally in regards to the ownership of the foal, there are already far too many surplus horses and ponies in existence which is one of the main reasons we need to rescue them in the first place. What’s more, we find that 90% of rescue horses are unsuitable for breeding quality foals due to being poorly bred themselves, unregistered and untraceable in terms of lineage or are too old and even have complications such as being infertile or having suffered neglect that would put a mare at risk of future illness and stress on the body should she carry a foal. Again, their welfare is paramount and we won’t allow anything that could put the mare at risk as well as allowing more unregisterable or poorly bred foals on the market.