MURCHISON, Texas — The Doris Day Equine Center at the Black Beauty Ranch was established in 2011 with a $250,000 donation from the Doris Day Animal Foundation. The organization continues to help support the facility’s operations as they give these horses the care they deserve.
“We currently have probably close to 50 to 75 of our special needs horses that live here, and these are in addition to the other 450 horses and donkeys here at Black Beauty Ranch," Ranch director Noelle Almrud said."
The facility is the home to horses in need that require more intensive care.
“They've come to us from various situations of cruelty, neglect, abandonment, seizure, really all these animals came to us because nobody else wanted them and they had no other place to go,” Almrud said.
Even though these horses are past their prime, that does not change how Black Beauty Ranch gives them the attention they need.
“A lot of these horses don’t look as pretty as people expect you can tell they’ve got some physical limitation," Almrud said. "It doesn’t affect their quality of life, but they just don’t look like pretty show horses anymore and to us, that doesn’t matter. As long as they’re comfortable and happy and enjoying life they can stay here as long as they can.”
This safe haven's mission are made possible in part by continued contributions from the Doris Day Animal Foundation.
“The Doris Day Animal Foundation’s assistance is invaluable because they are providing money to care for the animals that we've rescued," Almrud said. "They provide money for our forever foundation program, which is a program where we go out to animal rescues all over the United States and help them learn how to train their horses so that they can have higher adoption rates and more successful equine adoptions.”
Doris Day is no longer with us but her passion for animals survives her through her foundation and the programs it supports.
“While I never met Doris Day I have a tremendous amount of respect for her and the work that she did," Almrud said. "She was fundamental in not only starting her Foundation but inspiring others to follow in her work or to support her work.”
That work, Almrud says is something these animals deserve.
“We owe it to these animals," Almrud said." These animals are here because nobody else wanted them and probably would have been euthanized early on if we couldn't have taken them. So we owe it to these animals to provide them the dignity and respect in high quality of life for as long as we can.”
For more information on the Black Beauty Ranch such as how you can donate, or take one of their twice a month tours, you can visit their website.