Looking for the one that got away?

You all know that I've been working on HorseReunions.com for awhile now - a site designed to help reunite horses with former owners, breeders, or others who care about them and want to be contacted if the horse needs help. I'm happy to announce we've pretty much completed the "beta" phase - the site is going strong and ready for you to use!

http://www.horsereunions.com

Check out the information on how to use the site. It's pretty simple - just sign up and then you can log in and use the "add a horse" feature or use "browse horses" or "find a horse" to see if any horses have been uploaded that you know. Broadly crafted searches will return the best results - a simple search for, for example, black Arabian, will work best. You don't have to fill out all the fields.

The site is for anyone who would like to find a horse. It can be used to find information on your childhood horses, or horses you bred or sold, or horses you rode and wished you could have bought at the time. Rescuers, please post all of your horses - there may be someone out there looking for that horse. Duplicate listings of the same horse by multiple people interested in the horse are just fine. Use the comments section to describe your situation - do you have the horse or are you looking for the horse? What can you tell us about what you do know about the horse?

Even if you've already added yourself to the breeders' list, I highly recommend adding your individual horses to the site. That will greatly improve the chances that you will be contacted if one is in need. For you rescuers, please be sure to bookmark the breeder's list and check it when you get a new horse in who has his papers with him! These breeders are willing and able to step up to help that horse and that opens up the space for you to help another.

We will continue to refine and improve the site, so suggestions are welcomed. I know we've had a thread here about horses you'd like to find but now you have a permanent place to put that information and it's 100% free to use, so please check it out!

As always, please check out any new home before placing a horse - even if it's the horse's breeder. Anyone may put up a listing and we cannot verify how good of a home it is. I have written up some tips on finding a good home that may help. The main page has a variety of other articles on topics I've been asked to repeat here, so look there for tips on things like tattoo research, feeding senior horses, or buying a horse from an auction. More to come!

Also, check out our first sponsor, the Northwest Equine Stewardship Center. This is a great new charity designed to help rescued horses with top-notch veterinary care. Check out their rescue stories to see some of the equines they have already helped.

I'm having fun just browsing the horses who are already there. Remember, if it's a registered horse, there are many of us who can search the registry and see who the horse is registered to today (except of course for Thoroughbreds, which don't transfer through a registry). Just ask on the message board and someone will be happy to help!