Welcome to the Sugar Shack Horses. We were established in July of 2018, when we bought a very special mare out of the Sunnyside WA. kill pen. We had no idea she was bred at the kill pen, turns out she was kept with three different studs in what's called a refeed pen. This pen is where horses go to get fatten up to ship to slaughter. Once we got her home and realized she was carrying a feedlot surprise (baby) we then realized that they ship pregnant mommas to slaughter. It then became our mission to rescue pregnant mares out of the kill pen. Giving them a safe place foal and an education and new forever homes.
Over the years our place has become a sanctuary for some of the senior pregnant mommas that are too unhandled or abused from past interactions with humans. To pass these mares along would be unjust to them and putting them at risk to end up back in the slaughter pipeline. So, these sweet mammas will live out their days here, either becoming foster mommas to orphans or a pasture mentor to weanlings and yearlings that are waiting for their forever home.
In 2022 we became an orphanage to the Yakama Rez foals, as they thin the overpopulated herds. We were asked to help with the babies, some come in just hours old. We along with our vet graft these sweet babies onto new mares providing the foal with a new four-legged momma and constant milk. The foals old enough to drink milk from buckets are bucket trained and adopted out fairly quickly to approved homes with contracts.
Mid 2023 catching wild horses was shut down on the Yakama Rez so now the foals that come in are owner surrender off of private farmland. Unfortunately, the wild horse bans are coming onto private farmland causing the landowners to take action of their own by running the herds off and the day-old babies cannot keep up. We are just grateful they are giving us the opportunity to help them, so they do not become coyote and cougar bate or starve from losing their moms.
We do have a Facebook page and I'm new at this website so please bear with me as I work on it in my spare time. I'm excited to share with you the stories of our beautiful mammas and babies.