YODER, Colo. (KOAA) — During the peak of the Aspen Acres Fire, News5 viewers generously donated to the Scripps Howard Fund to help people and organizations impacted by the wildfire across Southern Colorado.
One of the organizations receiving support is the Colorado Horse Rescue Network, a nonprofit based in Yoder that says it is the only open-admission horse shelter in Colorado.
For more than a decade, the organization has taken in horses regardless of the circumstances that brought them there.
“The Colorado Horse Rescue Network is an organization that started about 12 years ago with a group of friends that my mom had,” Addison Barrett with the Colorado Horse Rescue Network said. “They decided that horses needed some better place to be.”
The rescue takes in horses through owner surrenders and auctions. It also operates a buyout program intended to keep horses from going to auction.
“This year we’re going to have our 3,000th horse cross our database,” Barrett said. “Almost every day we are taking in a horse.”
When the Aspen Acres Fire forced evacuations, the Colorado Horse Rescue Network stepped in.
“We personally took in 21 horses from the Aspen Acres Fire between going to evacuation centers and getting horses that people...they realized they didn’t have a place to go back to,” Barrett said.
Barrett says the organization also delivered 250 bales of hay and more than 1,000 pounds of hay pellets to help during the fire.
Some horses displaced by the Aspen Acres Fire remain in the organization's care.
For Barrett and her family, helping animals during disasters is not new.
“My mom helped with the Waldo Canyon Fire, she helped with the Black Forest Fire,” Barrett said. “She knows what happens when they don’t have somewhere to go.”
Now, Barrett says donations made by News5 viewers through the Scripps Howard Fund will help the Colorado Horse Rescue Network with the rehabilitation and care of horses impacted by the Aspen Acres Fire.
“It makes my heart happy,” Barrett said.
Email Senior Reporter Meghan Glova at meghan.glova@koaa.com.
Follow Meghan Glova KOAA on Facebook.
Right to Hunt and Fish? Amendment 83
____
Watch KOAA News5 on your time, anytime with our free streaming app available for your Roku, FireTV, AppleTV and Android TV. Just search KOAA News5, download and start watching.
