Mane Characters started, like most things at the farm, with a single horse. His name was Lislea Harry, twenty-seven years old when he came to us, slow-moving, full of opinions, descendant of a stallion that stood at the farm in the 1890s. He stayed with us for fifteen months. He's why this exists.
The farm itself is older than us by a century. The sanctuary has been raising, training, or resting horses in some form since the 1890s. The fencing is original in places. The barn was built before either of us were born. When we took it over in 2023, we already knew what we wanted to do.
Our work is simple, when you write it out: we take in horses at the end of their working lives and let them be horses for whatever's left. Some came from racing. Some pulled buggies. One was on the brink of going to auction the day we got the call. Most arrive thin, suspicious, and quiet; most leave that behind in a season. Some find new homes. Some stay forever. A few cross the rainbow bridge and become eternal characters in our care.
Three goals.
Everything we do at Mane Characters fits into one of three pillars: retirement, care, and support. Retirement means a long, comfortable end-of-life for horses who've earned it. Care means the vet, the farrier, the slow rehab work for the ones who arrive needing it. Support means the community of sponsors and supporters who make this all possible, and the stories we send back to them.