Our newly launched Native American Welfare Initiative partners with two nationally respected charities.  This project will provide veterinary care in addition to farriery services and education to hard-to-reach animals like Winona, a saddle horse who lives far beyond paved roads and cell service.

When the Veterinary Experience Teaching and Service (RVETS) team visited Winona, she was three-legged lame with a draining wound in her hock. On examination, the news was devastating: the joint was open and chronically infected. In most circumstances, the prognosis would have been grave. Without access to a hospital, advanced imaging, or repeated surgical treatment, cases like this often end in prolonged suffering. 

Using the sterile supplies and medications they had transported across the prairie, the veterinary team anesthetized Winona, flushed the infected joint, and delivered high concentrations of antibiotics directly into her damaged tissues—an advanced technique rarely available in such remote settings. The team then showed Winona’s owner how to carefully bandage the leg and left him with injectable antibiotics, along with clear instructions for follow-up care.

Honestly, the odds were not in the horse’s favor. 

Yet Winona’s owner followed the treatment plan faithfully. In remote communities, a single horse can mean transportation, income, and independence. In these instances, a devoted owner with proper education and supplies becomes the ultimate caregiver. 

On their next visit, with more than a little dread, they asked about Winona—bracing for the outcome they had seen too many times before. 

Her owner grinned. “Been ropin’ on her, Doc. She’s doing great.” 

Winona was healed, with only a small scar to tell the story. 

Winona was saved because veterinary care reached a place most services never do—because sterile supplies, anesthesia, antibiotics, and professional expertise traveled across miles of open prairie to a family who otherwise had no access to them. 

This is what a donation to our Native American Welfare Initiative will provide: life-saving treatment delivered where it is needed most—no matter how far the road stretches. 

When veterinary care is accessible, animals don’t have to suffer simply because of geography. 

Thanks to the generosity of supporters, Brooke USA Foundation has raised more than $20,000 to support emergency relief efforts for working horses, donkeys, and mules impacted by catastrophic flooding in northern Colombia.

Relentless rains have created a humanitarian and animal welfare crisis. In Montería alone, 4,597 people have been displaced and are currently living in emergency shelters, many of which are operating at full capacity. Across the region, more than 5,500 animals have been affected, including horses, donkeys, and mules that families rely on for transportation, agriculture, and income.

Through support from Brooke USA, our partner Fundación Arrieros Colombia has deployed veterinary teams to the field, working alongside One Health Colombia to deliver urgent care. The first horses treated were those that had helped move cattle out of flooded farms during the emergency.

Among the cases already treated was a mare suffering from abortion and laminitis, who required intravenous fluids, anti-inflammatory medication, multivitamins, and a uterine lavage to stabilize her condition. Other horses were treated for hemoparasites, receiving supportive therapy and medication, while injured animals with deep wounds required sedation so veterinarians could properly clean, medicate, and bandage their injuries.

Floodwaters have left many equines standing for days in contaminated water, suffering from wounds, infections, exposure-related illnesses, and severe stress. With grazing land submerged and supplies limited, veterinary medications, wound care materials, feed, and clean water remain urgently needed.

Your support is already helping deliver life-saving treatment to animals who are essential to their families’ survival. Together, we are ensuring that veterinary teams can continue reaching working equines and the communities who depend on them during this ongoing disaster, because as we all know, recovery cannot happen without relief.

Thank you for helping bring hope, care, and relief when it is needed most.

Please see the video below showing the impact and the difference we are making together.