May 2008 — For the past two and a half years, we have anxiously awaited the day we would write this entry. The horses at Knightsbridge Farm are moving!!! On May 27th The Ark Watch Foundation, in partnership with the Roberts Foundation, provided the Humane Society of the United States with a grant to purchase 1120 acres near the town of Roseburg in western Oregon. On May 30th the sale closed and HSUS took possession of the property. After spending thousands of hours screening hundreds of ranches, we are thrilled to have actually completed the process which began for us in September 2005.

The Duchess Sanctuary as it will be known is named after Ark Watch Foundation founder and president Celine Myers’ first horse, and in honor of the mother of Black Beauty in Anna Sewell’s famous novel. This equine oasis will be a sister facility to Cleveland Amory’s Black Beauty Ranch, a 1300 acre sanctuary in Murchison, TX operated by HSUS and the Fund for Animals.

The Duchess Sanctuary is located about an hour south of Eugene, OR. Lush native grasses blanket 1120 acres of rolling pasture dotted with timber and nine ponds, including a four and a half acre lake. We are most excited about the water sources on the property since it can not be overstated just how much our horses love to splash and play in the water. Finding a property with ponds and lakes was very high on our priority list. We were also looking for a location with a more temperate climate. Many of our mares are quite old and the severity of the cold Alberta winters was becoming increasingly difficult for them to tolerate. The Sanctuary will be managed to provide appropriate habitat for both horses and the abundance of native wildlife that live on the property.

The first residents of the Duchess Sanctuary will leave from Knightsbridge Farm on June 16th and arrive in Oregon on June 17th. The weather is forecast to be sunny and a pleasant 72 degrees. The moving process will take several weeks if not months but we look forward to completing the task and settling in to our new home very soon!

We are very grateful to HSUS president, Wayne Pacelle, the HSUS Board of Directors and most especially to HSUS vice president in charge of animal care facilities, Kay Liscomb, for their commitment and dedication to this project.

To read more about the Duchess Sanctuary in the joint Press Release issued by HSUS and the Ark Watch Foundation, click here.

To make a donation to the Duchess Sanctuary, click here.

To read Wayne Pacelle’s Blog entry about the Duchess Sanctuary, click here.

August 2007 — The Ark Watch Foundation is pleased to announce we are partnering with The Humane Society of the United States and The Fund for Animals to start a new horse sanctuary in the U.S. The model for the Sanctuary will be one that provides a free range environment for the horses, preserves the habitat of native species and uses ecologically responsible land management practices. We are currently scouting possible locations in the western U.S. More information will be added as it becomes available.