Since 2019, Toni’s Ponies horse rescue and sanctuary in Kingston has been taking in horses and caring for them until they find good homes. But with a deadline looming to either buy the property the rescue is located on or leave, owner Toni Houck is asking for the community’s help to raise the money to keep the nonprofit going.
Houck said she’s been renting her property for 17 years and had been told by the landlord she would have the first opportunity to purchase the property when it came time to sell it.
Houck said she was caught off guard, however, when her landlord informed her about two weeks ago that the property would be going up for sale, and that Houck had 90 days to either purchase the property or vacate it. The asking price for the property is $650,000, Houck said.
Photo courtesy of Toni's Ponies
So Houck is trying to raise the money within the 90 days to purchase the property, or to pay for relocation expenses if that isn’t possible — an effort made all the more difficult by the fact that she must continue caring for the rescue’s 18 horses, including some that are still completely wild, she said.
The rescue, which takes in both horses at risk for slaughter and wild horses, is holding a fundraising sale 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., March 31–April 3, at Kingston Mercantile & Marine in Kingston. The sale includes inventory donated from the mercantile, including clothing, camping gear, dishware, and more.
The rescue normally holds a sale in July to raise money for operating costs, Houck said, but decided to move the sale up this year since it’s on such a tight timeframe to purchase the property.
Additionally, Houck has set up a GoFundMe soliciting donations to go toward the purchase of the property. At the time of writing, approximately $16,000 had been raised of the $150,000 goal. Donations to the nonprofit are tax-deductible, Houck said.
“If we don’t end up staying here, it will help us get operating costs to get everything moved and try to move horses and rent a field somewhere and keep everybody together, because the last thing I’m going to do is abandon these animals,” she said. “I take them on until they’re placed or until they die. … I will not pawn them off on anybody."
Toni Houck of Toni's Ponies (Photo courtesy of Toni's Ponies)
Houck said that if necessary, she'll live on a trailer on a piece of property with the horses.
"I cannot emphasize enough that I will not leave these animals somewhere," she said. "They’re mine. I’ve taken charge of them and I’m their caregiver until either they get placed into a perfect home, or have gone onto greener pastures, if you will. So no matter what, it’s all going to be OK for the horses. It’s just ... [that] our future’s uncertain.”
Although relocating is an option, Houck said ideally she'd like to stay at the rescue's existing property.
"I’d just like to stay where I’m at, because we’ve put a lot of work into this place," she said. "We’re just hoping and praying we can pull out a Hail Mary and save the farm, or maybe somebody that has the money will buy it and let us operate out of here."
Houck said her children have expressed interest in taking over the rescue's operations after she retires. "We don’t know what the future brings," she said. "All we know is that we’ve got a bunch of horses now that need our help, and I’m not going to abandon them.”
Finding homes for horses can be more difficult than finding homes for smaller pets, not only because horses are so much larger, but also because they require larger properties and are more expensive to care for, Houck said.
As the rescue has begun advertising more, they've been receiving more calls and taking on more rescues, Houck said.
"There’s such a need for it," she said. "I get called probably five times a week from someone asking me to take on their horses that they can’t keep anymore, or horses that have medical problems and they can’t afford to take care of.”
Houck said she’s ridden and owned horses all her life. She participated in 4H, rodeo, barrel racing and FFA as she grew up.
“I raised my children, and we always had horses,” she said. “The kids moved out, and we’d rescue a horse here and there all along.” Three years ago, she decided to start a nonprofit horse rescue to help the horses pay for themselves and to facilitate a larger scale operation, she said.
“I’ve always rooted for the underdog,” she said. “Somebody always needs help and I chose horses to help. … They have no one as their voice and I want to be their voice to help them.”
Horses are smart animals, she said, and can "see into your soul."
"They also are healing — they heal people," she said. "They’re an amazing animal.”
Houck calls the rescue’s volunteers, who help take care of the animals, the “backbone” of the organization. That includes Boy Scouts and young girls and boys who come help, and families who come to help brush the horses.
“It’s therapy,” Houck said. “Right now, we’re working on teaching a couple horses to deal with wheelchairs so we can have wheelchair accessibility for people in wheelchairs to be safe and come up and brush horses and hang around them.”
Ultimately, the rescue has touched the lives of many people; in a sense, the horses rescue people just as much as the nonprofit's volunteers rescue the horses.
“I can give many, many testimonials of people that have come and experienced them, whereas they would not have ... had they not been able to come to Toni’s Ponies," Houck said.
The fundraising sale for Toni's Ponies is 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., March 31 - April 3, at Kingston Mercantile & Marine, 10943 NE State Highway 104, Kingston.
