Brenda Fehr of Dare to Dream Horse Rescue wants people to know that many horses being sold at auction for meat are perfectly good animals. “There’s nothing wrong with them,” she said. “They’re not old, crippled or mean garbage; they’re amazing, well-bred, healthy horses.”
Brenda, 61, one of the finalists for Horse Canada’s 2017 Heroes of the Horse Award, and her husband, Henry, run Dare to Dream out of their 160-acre farm in Langdon, about a half-hour southeast of Calgary. There, they focus on saving and rehabilitating younger animals, “the ones that need a chance at life.”
Brenda was encouraged to start the venture by Paul Mitchell, who, for many years ran a large rescue of his own in the southern Alberta town of Vulcan. Brenda and Paul became acquainted when she bought a couple of horses from him. “When I called him for the next horse, he said to me, ‘Why don’t you start your own rescue?’ It’s all his fault,” she laughed.