What I think as a former volunteer:
One of the worst places to volunteer, by far. Likely to be harrassed, asked to do far more than you are comfortable with, will be chased off if you question the owner. Many volunteers come here with love & determination to get the work done & so many more are scared off because the owner/founder rarely, if ever, shows gratitude & only asks for more. One of the owner's biggest pet peeves is people showing up unannounced, so the fact Equine Voices was made a public attraction speaks volumes of her inconsistent behavior & attitude.
What I think as a former employee:
Horrible place to work, sickened by the fact the owner/founder has said (many times, in front of volunteers, employees, trainers, etc) that working the ranch, with the horses, mucking "is not her job" & she should not have to do it. This attitude for a rescue is the WRONG attitude. I have never seen a successful ranch where the owner does not participate in the daily work at least a few times a week.
It was exhausting not knowing what version of the owner I would encounter; one day she would fly off the handle, screaming about a minor error/overlook (ie a water trough in an empty stall being mostly empty), the next, say something along the lines of "why can't people come to me when something breaks, I think I'm an approachable person!", then a day or so later, say something along the lines of, "I'm hiring an operations manager because I know I'm not great with people & not the best at management".
What I think as a former donor:
I personally saw the owner/founder taking donated items & attempting to use them for herself. One shirt purchased was never recorded in the books when the money was handed to the owner. A garage donated by a former board member for ranch use had been used to house horse feed & extra bedding yet was "repurposed" as a garage for the owner's FOURTH personal car & all ranch items were moved to multiple, less accessible locations.
(Don't get me wrong, it's fine to make money off animals. It's the deceit that bothers me; the owner is really in it for the money. She puts on a big show, but won't even take care of her own horses hoof cankers, an extremely painful condition which needs medical attention multiple times a day.)
What I think as a horse care professional:
I believe the horses at Equine Voices are getting their basic needs met, but when it comes to care, what they receive is minimal at best. Recently, a horse known for colic passed away after days of not eating. Her name was Helen. At least three days of Helen not eating passed before a vet was called and sadly, by then, she was so impacted, there was nothing they could do. This poor mare not only had a tragic, unfair start to life as a premarin mare, but she also experienced an extremely painful, drawn out, totally preventable death.
Multiple horses that have multiple donors giving $50 a month were injured severely enough I wished to call a vet. I was denied all but a handful of times, being told "it's not in the budget".
The owner talks about how they need your donations so they can expand & take on more horses. Meanwhile, organizations of half this size and twice this size are doing more & successfully adopting out more equine than this organization & in my opinion the reason is simple; the more horses under Equine Voices care, the more grant money the owner makes.
What I think of EV as an advocate for the abused:
I believe the owner/founder is a bully; she fired a weekend ranch manager by screaming (in front of a group of volunteers), saying that she was a "fucking imbecile" & "needs to get the fuck off property immediately". Two of the volunteers who witnessed this felt terrible & took the woman out to coffee where she cried for over two hours; her husband had just divorced her and she lost almost everything except her cat and the camper-trailer she was living in.
The owner/founder also attempted to talk an out-of-state visitor into taking a neighbor's beloved family dog to her out-of-state home when said dog came to "visit" Equine Voices property, as she was known to do occasionally.
So to sum it up, are the horses abused or beaten? No. Are the horses being cared for & actively loved like the owner makes it sound like? Absolutely not. Plus, the owner dishonestly represents the ranch in the news regularly; recently stating something crazy like 500 horses have "spent time recouperating" at Equine Voices when the real number for horses that have been on the property does not exceed 200. This gross exaggeration of over twice the amount of equines is exactly the kind of thing the owner does regularly. I feel Equine Voices should not be supported, that more people need to speak up & be honest about the horrible treatment they have recieved while at Equine Voices, & I believe the organization needs to be thoroughly investigated, starting with the owner/founder herself. read more