Espiritu de Equus Sur (Spirit of the Southern Horse)
We are in the process of becoming a 501-c3 non-profit (division of Equus Sur) called Espiritu de Equus Sur, to better support our community-based efforts in Rescue and Rehabilitation along the Southern Pacific Coast in Baja California Sur, Mexico. At the moment we work with a fiscal sponsor, All Seated In A Barn (ASIAB), based in the United States so that we can offer tax-deductible donations and even corporate matches for those able to support Baja Sur large animal rescue services.
At our new facility in Todos Santos, we operate a two-acre regenerative farm where we provide sanctuary to animals and animal owners in need, and provide long-term rehabilitation. We respond to field emergencies and provide triage to horses in distress. We also provide shelter and surgical support for emergency.
As part of our Preventative Care Clinic Program we host regular meet-ups with community members to understand their needs and collaborate on solutions with a well-respected, surgical-grade veterinarian. We provide portable emergency Wound Care Kits (free of charge) and teach how and when to use everything inside of them. Dr. Mauricio Ritchie MVZ leads our clinic series to empower local ranchers and horse owners to provide quality care to their horses to ensure they live long, healthy and fulfilling lives. We are now also providing ferrier clinics with our barefoot trimmer Yayo to make sure horses and horse owners have a place to dialogue on hoof health.
We also support the community through our Halters Not Neck Ropes Program. In Baja, most horses are turned out to graze and have a lead rope around their necks to show they are “owned”. This can be dangerous as the horses get tangled and sometimes strangled by ropes, stuck on debris as they range, or worse, trapped. We provide halters, “free-of-charge” to any horse at risk.
Last but not least is a newly launched geriatrics and abandoned horse program to encourage horse owners to turn over geriatric horses to sanctuary rather than abandon them in the desert.
We are working on two new community programs this year, to subsidize feed during the driest, hottest, and most expensive parts of the year & manage wild (or feral) horse migration along the coast so that animals are not trapped or injured in dangerous places like construction sites, landfills, etc. The goal with both of these programs is to attend to injuries and nutrition needs.
If you would like to help, click on buttons below. Any amount helps!
Our Herd
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Rubí is our newest rescue, she came in from a call from a concerned community member that a deeply emaciated horse was standing near the military installation on the highway near the Cabo airport. We unfortunately see underweight horses nearly every day, but when images of Rubí arrived to us, we realized this was truly dire. The military told us someone had abandoned her near them over a year ago, and she had spent the year slowly starving.
They signed her over to us and after a bit of a battle to get her in the trailer, Rubí came home. She is aged at about 19 years old, and in using a weight tape she weighs about 380 lbs. She is weak enough that she can’t receive a full dose of wormer, so every two weeks she receives a quarter dose. She is comfortable, just starting to lay down and just starting to gain the slightest bit of weight. She loves being brushed, is scared of small children but loves adults, and will likely live out the rest of her days at Equus or with an Equus community member. We expect it will take about a year for her rehabilitation to feel tangible
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Before entering our program, Galliano spent three summer months living tied up on the highway alone. We don’t know anything about his history prior to those months he spent on the highway, but what we do know is Galli will never have to wonder when his next meal is. Galliano is a senior horse who has a newfound love for the body he has built while living at Equus. He splits his time between working with our youngest and special needs students–ever the sagely and quiet partner that these kids need–and trail riding and doing hunter paces with our older students. Gall has two speeds: walking or running! And we love to see the way this older gent joyfully inhabits his body.
Galli quick facts!
Favorite snack: Watermelon
Favorite activity: Rolling after a big ride
Favorite spot for scritches and rubs: Forehead
Barn superlative: Most likely to win a race
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Trickster is an OTTB from Texas who was sent to Mexico on the slaughter pipeline. Luckily, a local rancher in Mexico saw how beautiful she is and pulled her off the slaughter truck to be used as a broodmare at his ranch. Trickster is missing an eye, has two bowed tendons and hip dysplasia–all results from her time training to race. Trickster was Suez’s first rescue and rehabilitation horse in Baja, Suez was drawn to her beautiful conformation and wild spirit. After four years of intensive rehabilitation work, Trickster is an all-around star at our barn. From gently carting young students over their first cross rail to flying over 4ft jumps with our advanced students, Trickster is happiest when she is in the arena working (and her one eye doesn’t hold her back in the slightest). When she isn’t finding the perfect distances to jumps, she is making everyone laugh with her mare stare and spice.
Tricky quick facts!
Favorite snack: Carrots
Favorite activity: Jumping high
Favorite spot for scritches and rubs: Croup/rump for those hips!
Barn superlative: Most likely to start a riot
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When we brought Indio into our program, he was a nervous wreck. A young horse with an eager-to-please attitude, he sustained some sort of head trauma in his former home that resulted in fluid retention over his eyes, a substantial part of his tongue missing, and a habit for grinding his teeth so hard that he cracks and breaks them. Much of Indio’s rehabilitation work has centered around emotional healing–allowing him to explore and grow into his body and learn that physical punishment is a thing of his past. Indio has become a star teacher, the king of a steady and forward trot that allows young students to learn how to post. His earnest, eager-to-please personality remains and has only grown in his four years at the barn.
Indio quick facts!
Favorite snack: Bananas
Favorite activity: Hanging in the back pasture with his buddy Galliano
Favorite spot for scritches and rubs: neck
Barn superlative: Most earnest
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Max is the baby of our herd, and this big ol’ Lusitano has a personality most comparable to Clifford the Big Red Dog. Max was rescued out of a barn where he was being taught to “dance” by using whips and spurs on his soft belly and flanks. When he arrived at Equus, he needed time just to let the open wounds heal over. Max is now the king of the back pasture and beginning his training as a dressage horse. Anyone who rides him immediately falls in love with his personality and his smooth canter.
Max quick facts!
Favorite snack: Mangoes
Favorite activity: Doing anything and everything with his human mom, Suez
Favorite spot for scritches and rubs: shoulder/neck
Barn superlative: Best kisser
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Cholla joined our herd in the autumn of 2022 after spending the majority of her life as a broodmare. Cholla was one of the local free-ranging horses we often see while riding around Todos Santos, left to forage for her own feed while pregnant. Cholla is our most reliable trail horse, she’s seen it all and nothing shakes her. Her rehabilitation here at the barn has been twofold: on the physical side, Cholla needed help building up her strength. Her body and health have come a long way since she arrived. On the mental side, Cholla is still working on being trustful of people. She has a quick and decisive temper and never backs down from a confrontation. But more and more, we hear her nicker as we enter the barn and see her ears perked up as she watches the comings and goings of the barnyard.
Cholla quick facts!
Favorite snack: Corn Pops cereal or any other human food
Favorite activity: Trail riding, especially in new places
Favorite spot for scritches and rubs: neck and chest
Barn superlative: Most bombproof
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Oaxaca, now known appropriately as “Lucky,” was one of our barn’s most memorable rescues. In the autumn of 2021 we received a call that a mare had fallen through a cattle grate in town, trapping her two back legs. The Equus Sur Pony Club responded with all their first aid and rescue knowledge, and after a dramatic rescue involving a rope-pully system and the hands of many kind strangers, Oaxaca was free. However, in the process, she shore off her left front knee joint capsule in the process; her front leg bulging with blood, ligaments and bones exposed. She had major infections. We were able to triage her injuries for seven days before a vet could arrive. We spent the next eight months rehabbing her—first managing the injuries, then helping restore her spirit and trust in people.
Miss Lucky now lives in a new home with a loving owner and a new herd. Her leg is completely healed and she is sound. Last we heard, she had a new baby and was living life fat and happy.
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Kiwi arrived at our barn as a temporary rescue when she was just 20 days old. She had gotten tangled in her mothers rope and had deep rope burns all around her flanks that soon became festering and infected. Her owner brought her to us so that we could help the burns heal and Kiwi and Estrella could be somewhere safe while she healed. It was a highly successful and relatively simple temporary rescue, and she left our facility after six weeks. Kiwi and Estrella ended up joining a free-ranging herd in town, and we often saw them as we were riding or driving.
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Frankie came to us at just a few days old, born to a member of a feral herd (who we affectionately named Mama Mo) because a concerned community member saw she was having trouble walking and her legs were very swollen. We tracked down her owner, received consent to bring her to our facility, and slowly limped Frankie and Mo to Equus. Frankie had septic arthritis. Mauricio arrived and gave her a 30% chance of survival—the sepsis was in all four legs, and each leg would need multiple lavage procedures to clean out the joints of the infection.
In a horse stall, using baling twine to hold up the anesthesia and saline bags, we started the long road of trying to fix Frankie. She received five lavage procedures and her chance of survival went up from 30% to 80% by her last procedure. In a gutting turn of fate, the roller on the bag of anesthesia slipped and released its contents during her final lavage treatment. After 30 minutes of trying to resuscitate her, we had to admit defeat. Much of our ambition to build the veterinary area of our new barn is because of Frankie—because doing a surgical procedure out of a horse stall with baling twine and only natural light made it so much harder to get it all right.
“Our herd inspires our motto Restoration of Spirit. They are overcoming emotional, spiritual and physical wounds to become healthy and fabulous athletes with purpose.”
— Equus Sur