The three Rs. When I was a kid, that referred to Readin,’ `Ritin,’ and `Rithmetic.
Today we’ll learn about a different set of Rs that are being applied to the world of horses: Rescue, Rehabilitate, and Re-home. Those are the goals of a remarkable enterprise that is helping to save and benefit horses in rural Kansas.
Karen Everhart is executive director of the non-profit organization Rainbow Meadows Equine Rescue & Retirement, which she co-founded with her husband Dave. Karen and Dave are from the Wichita area originally. Everhart said she was the proverbial “horse-crazy girl” who spent summers with horses on her family’s farm in southeast Kansas.
She met and married Dave who spent 38 years in military service. Everhart became a medical administrator but never forgot her love of horses.
In 1981, she purchased the first horse of her own: A golden Palomino mare named Rainbow. Over time, she added to her horse herd. In 2005, she retired from her health administrator position and purchased a ranch in Chautauqua County.
“People would contact me about some horse that was abandoned or in a kill pen and say, `Could you help this horse?’” Everhart said. Within four months, her horse herd doubled from 10 to 20. It was clear there was a need.
