Great Ideas!
Using Your Talents to Help Horse Rescues
By Diana Tuorto
I first started volunteering with a horse
rescue named Mylestone Equine Rescue in 1995.
At the time, I was only 15 years old and lived over
90 minutes away, so I was constantly looking for
ways to help without physically caring for their
horses. I had always loved writing and had got-
ten my first computer, so it seemed like the best
way for me to participate would be through Pub-
lic Relations/Marketing efforts.
Public Relations/Marketing
At this time, Mylestone Equine Rescue, like many
rescues, didn’t have a website, so they relied
solely on brochures and print materials to gain
sponsors, homes, and volunteers. I was sponsor-
ing a horse and carefully followed the monthly
updates. I decided to create flyers that included
descriptions of their current horses.
Every week, I went to several local tack shops to
drop flyers off, and the next week, I returned to
find them completely or mostly cleared out. At
the same time, I attended horse shows and fairs
on the weekends, distributing flyers and collect-
ing donations in a can for the horses.
Web Design
In the summer of 1998, I was about to move
away to college. I felt guilty that I could no longer
continue my fund raising efforts on a local level,
so I turned to the internet. That August, I cre-
ated Horse Welfare Organizations, now hosted
at www.horse-welfare.org. My goal was to link
as many horse rescue sites to one source as pos-
sible, making it easier for the public to locate
them. When I first launched the site, it contained
only five horse rescue links.
Now 12 years later, Horse Welfare Organizations
hosts over 500 horse rescues from across the
United States, Canada, and abroad. I’ve also ex-
panded the site to include a Rescue Events Cal-
endar, Horse of the Month, and other features.
Novels Helping Horses
Throughout this time, I was working on a series
of children’s novels told from different horses’
22 Equine•Connections - the magazine for global equine stewardship - www.equineconnection.org
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