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Help Pegasus Soar!
~donations will be doubled~
As you know, The Pegasus Project is changing lives every day for horses and humans by fulfilling our mission to rescue, rehabilitate, retrain and rehome neglected, abused and abandoned horses throughout Texas. To continue this work, we depend upon the ongoing generosity of our supporters. To assist us in our fundraising goals, Communities Foundation of Texas (CFT) is sponsoring North Texas Giving Day on Thursday, September 17th. Each donation of $25 or more made to The Pegasus Project on September 17th will help us receive extra bonus funds from CFT for our work with the horses. More than $2 million in bonus funds are available for qualifying nonprofits!
In addition, every donation made to The Pegasus Project through the North Texas Giving Day website on September 17th helps our chances of winning prizes given throughout the day, ranging from $100 to $10,000! With more than 150 total prizes being awarded, our chances to maximize your gift are great.
Members of the Pegasus board of directors and other generous donors will be providing matching funds for gifts made in connection with North Texas Giving Day. With the bonus funds from CFT and these matching funds, your gift of $100 will turn into more than $200! So, please mark your calendar for September 17th, save your pennies, and plan to donate generously! By visiting the North Texas Giving Day Pegasus link between 6am and midnight (Central Time) on September 17th and donating $25 or more, you will make a tremendous impact on the work Pegasus can do. You can give securely from your computer, smart phone or mobile device. With your help, we WILL reach our $80,000 fundraising goal on North Texas Giving Day! These funds will go directly to the care, support and training of the forty rescued equine currently residing at the Pegasus ranch.
Want to schedule your donation early? No problem! Beginning at 8am on September 1st and continuing through midnight on September 16th, donors can log on to the Pegasus link on the North Texas Giving Day website and schedule their gifts to The Pegasus Project, which will then be processed on September 17th.
For the 30 days leading up to North Texas Giving Day, we will do a special promotion on our social media pages. Please follow us on Facebook and Instagram so you can share in the excitement and remember to give between September 1st and September 17th! You can read all about North Texas Giving Day here: NTGD
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~Cassidy~
On The Mend
Cassidy is a gorgeous nine-year old mare, and she needs your help. Cassidy was born here after we rescued her pregnant mother, Reese, and her father, Sundance, as part of the Jacksonville Herd in 2011. We raised and trained Cassidy and adopted her out to a wonderful woman in 2014 as a three-year-old. Cassidy moved to Colorado and then to New Mexico with her adopter. We kept up with their adventures, but we never expected to get Cassidy back. Unfortunately, her adopter became seriously ill and had to return Cassidy to Pegasus in 2018.
Cassidy arrived back at the Pegasus ranch in August 2018. Now seven years old, she was in excellent shape and better than ever! We were excited to get her tuned up and ready for a new adopter. But in October of 2018, Cassidy injured her left front foot on the rail of her pen. Despite intensive veterinary care and multiple attempts at rehabilitation, Cassidy remained intermittently lame. Ultimately MRIs revealed a significant tear to her deep digital flexor tendon with extension into the bursa of the navicular space. After struggling with her lameness issues for almost two years, we took Cassidy to equine orthopedic specialist Dr. Cliff Honnas at Texas Equine Hospital in Bryan, Texas. After reviewing Cassidy's medical records, multiple MRI films and x-rays, he informed us that without surgery, Cassidy would always be lame. She is such a well-trained, lovely, young horse that we could not allow that to happen without a fight. On August 3rd, Dr. Honnas conducted the arthroscopic surgery, which he describes as going "perfectly." We will follow the surgery with a series of stem cell injections to enhance her healing and improve her chances of a full recovery. While there is no guarantee that Cassidy will be perfectly sound, her chances are very good. It is our policy at Pegasus to give every horse the best chance to live her life to the fullest. The arthroscopic surgery and initial hospitalization cost $2800. The stem cell therapy will cost an additional $2700. We will also incur approximately $1500 in transportation costs in our travels to and from Bryan, Texas. We are expecting to make that 6 hour round trip at least seven times! As a result, we are looking at a total of $7000. To cover these expenses, Pegasus trainer, Anthony LaSpina, initiated a birthday fundraiser on Facebook in July thereby raising $3300 for Cassidy's surgery! Once we learned the total cost of treatment, Allyson started a supplemental fundraiser on Facebook and has raised $3000 to date. Combining these two fundraisers, we are only $700 short of the full cost of Cassidy's treatment. We are tremendously grateful to all who have contributed. If you would like to donate to this fund, please click here: CASSIDY FUNDRAISER. If you prefer not to go through the Facebook site, feel free to donate in whatever fashion you like and simply note that your gift is for Cassidy. We shall keep everyone posted on Cassidy's progress via this newsletter. Also, you can follow us on Facebook and Instagram for regular updates. You can review Cassidy's photo album and story on Facebook by clicking here: Cassidy
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~SLOANE~
One Hot Little Number
In October of 2015, Sloane came to The Pegasus Project as an orphaned foal. She was a mere three months old. Found nursing her dead mother, Sloane was reported to Mitzi Storey, a friend of Pegasus and Texas State Trooper. Mitzi convinced the owners to relinquish Sloane, along with another horse we named Anna. Sloane, her mother and Anna were all the victims of terrible neglect; neglect so severe that it resulted in the death of Sloane's mother from malnutrition. We saved Sloane and Anna in the nick of time. We rehabilitated and trained Anna, and she went on to be adopted. Now it's Sloane turn to find her forever home.
Prior to coming to our ranch, Sloane was living in a pen with a number of dogs and being fed bread. She was severely malnourished and full of intestinal parasites. Sloane's poor coat was covered in rain rot, and her little legs were crooked from malnutrition and overgrown hooves.
Due to stress, Sloane developed an ulcer, which we successfully treated. Sloane also suffered from an umbilical hernia, which Dr. Rob Thoni successfully repaired once Sloane was healthy enough to undergo surgery.
On the day of her arrival, we immediately started Sloane on milk replacement and an iron supplement, dewormed her, and began introducing coastal hay to her diet. We supplemented with milk pellets, and then gradually added in foal feed and alfalfa hay. Sloane needed to be fed four times per day to allow her body to adjust to proper nutrition. Sloane began thriving, and by February 2016, she was fully recovered and on her way to a normal life.
Once Sloane was strong enough to be with other horses, we had to carefully chose a pasture mate and teacher for her. As an orphan foal, it was important that she learn manners from another horse. People can only teach an orphan horse so much because they need to learn proper herd behavior from horses. We attempted Sloane with Allyson DeCanio's kind mule, Lily (who had also been an orphan), but Lily frightened Sloane. And then an angel named April appeared.
On January 27, 2016, we took in April, a severely emaciated mare. Once April was out of quarantine, we put her in a pen next to Sloane. They immediately took a shine to each other. After a couple of weeks side-by-side, we decided to try them together in a pasture. The results were perfect! April treated Sloane as if she were her own foal, and Sloane accepted April as her new mom. Problem solved!
Once Sloane turned three years old, we started her wearing a bareback pad and then a small saddle. We began ponying her around the ranch from mature horses. She loved it! She's gaited, and most likely a Paso Fino or Peruvian Paso, given the nature of her quickstep movement. She has a very long and thick mane and tail and she likes to GO! During her early training, she loved to be ponied off of Allyson's big Tennessee Walker because they could cover a lot of ground at a quick pace.
Pegasus trainer, Anthony LaSpina, started Sloane under saddle in 2018. She then spent four months in training with Bruce Logan before returning to Pegasus in early 2019. She has continued her saddle training here and is now being ridden by Anthony and a number of our assistant trainers. Sloane is spirited, opinionated and quite fancy. At just 14.1 hands, she's a tiny diva with a giant personality. Sloane will require a confident rider who is capable of advancing this strong-willed youngster. Sloane will keep you on your toes and giggling at her antics. We adore this little imp, and we know that her perfect person is out there searching for this awesome little dream horse.
Click the following link to view Sloane's full photo album: SLOANE
If you are interested in adopting Sloane, read all about our adoption process here: Adopt
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A Note from Allyson
I feel the need to apologize for being a bit out of touch with the Pegasus supporters. In these crazy times, we have been slightly overwhelmed and have not been able to get our monthly e-newsletter out over the past few months. The coronavirus and related troubles emerging from the pandemic have taken a bit of a toll on our normal operations. Rest assured that all is well, and I'll take this opportunity to fill you in on the most significant developments around the ranch.
As you know, due to the COVID restrictions, we were forced to cancel our annual Wings Over Pegasus aviation event in April and REIMAGINE it as an online event. All of our fantastic sponsors stuck with us, and our loyal donors really came through for the horses. Thanks to you, we managed to raise more than $66,000, which included sponsorship funds, straight donations, spring flower sales, Southwest Airline raffle ticket sales, online silent auction proceeds and Wings Over Pegasus REIMAGINED t-shirt sales. What an amazing result!! We are so grateful for everyone who helped make this possible.
Despite the pandemic, we have been fortunate to continue with adoptions. For my birthday in March, I fulfilled a longtime desire to adopt Sundance. When we rescued the Jacksonville Herd in June 2011, Sundance caught my eye and stole my heart. This beautiful guy was a challenging stallion at the time, but he has developed into such a lovely gelding. He has always been a Pegasus favorite. We adopted him out three times, and for different reasons, he was returned to us all three times. When he came back in January 2020, I finally listened to what he was telling me, "Allyson, I don't want to live anywhere else. I belong with you." Sundance has now joined my happy herd of geldings, and he shall be mine forever more!
In May our two sweet companion mares, Mattie and Joey, were adopted by the fabulous Calee and Emily Tilton. The Tilton family has a beautiful Texas ranch full of rescued animals. They previously adopted miniature horses, Mocha & Honey, from Pegasus and returned for these two beauties. We are thrilled that Mattie and Joey have landed in such a loving, forever home.
In June we were contacted by concerned citizens regarding a neglected pony in Ben Wheeler. After we tracked down the owner, she agreed to turn him over to Pegasus. We picked him up immediately and began his rehabilitation. The pony's name was George, but since he was such a fragile old man, we nicknamed him Poppy. After a month with steady improvement in his condition, we publicized Poppy's need for a forever home on our Facebook page. Melissa Hadley, a prior Pegasus adopter and founder of an animal sanctuary, contacted us and offered to adopt little Poppy. He is now a permanent resident of Golden Reward Sanctuary in Weatherford, Texas. Please follow their excellent work here: Golden Reward
In June, I was contacted by an old acquaintance regarding a sweet mare in need of a home. This pretty young horse had shown up at his ranch more than a year ago. Despite his efforts to find her owner, she remained unclaimed. Pegasus agreed to take her in. Scarlett was in good physical shape and just needed to be vetted and get her feet trimmed. Once we got her all fixed up, we began working on her training. Clearly, she had been saddled before, but she did not know much. She was a bit pushy and bracey, but she was willing and kind.
A few weeks into her initial training, we were contacted by an experienced rider looking for an amiable, green horse to advance. She wanted a smallish horse to develop and eventually use as her child's horse. Scarlett seemed to be the ticket. The two have met, all went well, and Scarlett is now adoption pending. If she gets along with the adopter's Thoroughbred gelding, we likely have a match! Stay tuned!
As these stories illustrate, life goes on at the Pegasus ranch despite the craziness occurring in the world. We are blessed beyond measure to have a safe, beautiful, outdoor space to enjoy our lives and be safe. We are so grateful for our supporters who have stayed with us in these uncertain times. We feel certain that if we just keep our heads down and continue to do the work, we will emerge on the other side of this mess stronger than ever.
Y'all stay safe and sane out there!
Allyson DeCanio
President, The Pegasus Project
For questions or comments, email: allyson@mypegasusproject.org
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October 31 - 9th Annual Ride for a Rescue
November (date TBD) - Bruce Logan Horsemanship Clinic
(click each event above for a link)
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PEGASUS PARTNERS
TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED DUE TO COVID 19
Monthly, fun, information-packed meetings for Pegasus supporters at various locations throughout the year. All Pegasus Partners at the $25/month level and higher are Happy Hour members. Membership includes a car decal, a Pegasus hat or t-shirt, a Pegasus logo wine glass and an open invitation to every meeting! Discuss the latest Pegasus news and connect with other like-minded horse fans. (Your wine glass is free, but the wine isn't! We know how much you drink!)
Click here to join:
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DO YOU LOVE
WHAT WE DO?
BECOME A
PEGASUS PARTNER!
Did you know Pegasus relies entirely on private donations? Our regular monthly donors, known as Pegasus Partners, are our most treasured assets. For as little as $10/month you can help provide us with a predictable source of income at a much lower cost than any other fundraising method.
While we are very appreciative of one-time donations, the monthly donations of our Pegasus Partners allow us to plan ahead.
Our ability to save these helpless horses, donkeys and mules depends on YOUR donations!
We cannot do this without you! Please consider making a monthly donation so we may continue to rescue horses that have no future without us.
Click here to join:
PEGASUS PARTNERS
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