Every Dollar Here Has a Horse Attached to It
Ten horses, twenty-five acres, and a bloodline the Livestock Conservancy lists as Critical. Here is what it costs and how you can stand with it.
Donate NowConservation Breeding Does Not Pay for Itself
Not at the volume we work at. We breed two or three foals a year, test before every pairing, and place horses into homes we have vetted rather than selling to whoever answers first. Those are the decisions that make the program worth funding, and they are also the decisions that guarantee it will never turn a profit.
The recurring cost of keeping the herd starts around nineteen thousand dollars a year — about fifty-two dollars a day for hay, grain, veterinary wellness care, and pasture seed. Hay is the line to watch. Virginia is in a historic drought, hay yields across the Commonwealth came in at a fraction of normal this year, and what we pay per bale now is at the low end of what we expect going forward. That figure does not include fencing, equipment, fuel, or the emergencies. The full ledger is published on our organization page, line by line, because a number you can't check isn't worth printing.
Tree of Life Hollow is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so gifts are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. But the reason to give here is narrower than tax treatment: there are fewer than five hundred of these horses left in the world, and ten of them are standing in a field in Surry County waiting on their hay.
Three Ways to Stand With the Work
The Winter Hay Fund
On September 16 the Governor declared a state of emergency over Virginia's hay shortage. Our pastures gave out in summer, we started on winter hay early, and as our stores stand today they last into January at best. February, March, and April still have to be fed before our local hay farmers cut again in May.
Our mares are nursing this spring's two foals and carrying next year's. The youngstock are still building the frame they will carry for life. Our goal is $4,860 by November 15, which gives us time to buy and haul hay before we run short. Every dollar goes toward hay for the winter.
Your Gift Counts Twice
A generous $1,000 matching grant will double every gift to the Winter Hay Fund until November 1. Meeting that matching grant will get us to 79 percent of the goal, with two weeks still left to close the rest!
Have hay to spare, a lead on a source, or a truck and trailer? That helps as much as money right now. Let us know.
The Rapha Fund
A veterinary reserve named for the first foal born here, who did not survive his first day. It exists because his death showed us how unprepared we were for the emergency that hadn't happened yet — and this year that emergency arrived as a sixteen-year-old gelding with a fractured hind leg. We emptied the fund to save him.
We meant to spend this fall rebuilding it. The hay shortage moved that back, and we won't run two appeals at once. The baseline goal is still $2,650, one year of wellness care for every horse on this farm, and the full appeal opens once the barn is stocked. Gifts made in the meantime are tracked separately and spent only on veterinary care.
Give to the Rapha FundTime, Hands, and Hay
Some of the most useful help this farm has ever had did not involve money. A second pair of eyes on a foaling watch. Somebody who can drive a trailer. An afternoon on fence line. A photographer who knows how to make a dark bay look like something other than a silhouette.
In-kind gifts count too — hay, seed, panels, lumber, fencing. So does grant research, which is real work and in short supply.
Tell Us What You Can DoWhat Your Gift Actually Buys
We do not use round numbers pulled out of the air. Every amount below is something we actually pay for.
| $265 | One horse's veterinary wellness care for a full year — exam, vaccinations, dental, coggins. |
| $22/mo | The same thing, twelve payments at a time. Recurring gifts are what let us plan instead of react. |
| $52 | Feed and maintain all ten horses for one day. |
| Any amount | Whatever is right for you. Small recurring gifts are worth more to this program than large occasional ones. |
What We Won't Sell You
Naming rights. We do not sell the right to name a foal, at any amount. A name here comes from a bloodline, from the Choctaw language, or from the circumstances a horse arrived under. What a horse is called is too important to auction, and a program that sells names has quietly decided its donors matter more than its horses.
Ownership by increment. Sponsoring a horse's care does not make you a part owner, does not create a claim on a foal, and does not put you in the breeding decisions. Those decisions are made on the basis of what the strain needs. We would rather say that out loud than let anyone give under a misunderstanding.
A story we can't back up. Every figure on this page is a real invoice. When we miss a goal we will say so in the February report, and when a number changes we will say why.
Every February we publish a report: fund balances, what they covered, which horses are current on care by name, whether the reserve was drawn on and why, and an honest statement if we missed a goal. Alongside it, a roll call — how many horses live here, how many foals were born, how many were placed, and where the strain's numbers stand.
The first report publishes February 2027. Governance, board, and the full operating ledger are on our organization page.
Keep Something Rare Alive
Nobody saves a critically endangered breed alone. That is the entire reason this page exists.
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Tree of Life Hollow is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.