Today's Horsewoman

Julie Seal, Horsewoman

• Rose Cushing

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Julie Seal is the coordinator for Heart for Horses through the Mississippi Horses rescue. She is an avid horsewoman and event producer. I  know you will enjoy learning more about her. 

Rose Cushing:

And one of my friends, Mary Miller Georgia, did an event called Heart of the Course. And I wasn't familiar with it, so I was anxious to find out more details. So I contacted Julie Seals, and she's our guest today, so we can learn it a lot about this great event. So, Julie, tell us a little bit about you, first of all.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, um I live in right outside of Jackson, Mississippi, and I've been the event coordinator for Mississippi Horses for about five years now. And part of that is um our Safe Horse Project events, which is part of Mississippi Horses, but we welcome other rescues to participate also, encourage them to participate in the Safe Horse events. And the Heart of the Horse is uh a new event for us that has been built on our old Safe Horse auction. So it is a trainer's challenge, um and it's designed to get rescue horses new homes, but also to develop the trainers in our area because we don't have enough good trainers uh for the public to be successful with our horses.

Rose Cushing:

That sounds like a really good event. Well, we're really proud of it. Yeah. What a good initiative to do with rescue horses, you know, so that they do have a second chance.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. And that's what the, you know, Mississippi horses, like most rescues, um, depends on our donors, but also upon uh the adoption fees from adoptable horses. And unfortunately, like most rescues, the large majority of our horses really are not adoptable at uh this point. They take a year or more because they have to be physically rehabilitated, mentally rehabilitated, and then trained.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

And we we don't adopt horses out uh other than as, you know, we do have some that we adopt out as companion-only horses, but even they require a certain amount of training to be safely handled.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

If they can't be safely handled and ridden, then they're not adoptable yet in our lives.

Rose Cushing:

Well, I totally agree with you because you know, if you if they don't have any ground manners, most people that adopt, I would imagine, are beginners. So they've got to be able to handle them. I mean, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. So that's that's part of our our our philosophy is not only to train the horses, but to train the people how to handle the horses uh when they adopt them, because we do use natural horsemanship methods. Um we use uh a program uh through uh um Host for Horses Coalition called Plan for Progress. And um it's based a lot on Court and Anderson type methods.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

Um but it is an online program that our adopters can go online and get videos and and do classes and challenges with their horse to learn how to uh handle their horse the way they've been trained.

Rose Cushing:

Now tell me about the heart of the horse. What what was that about?

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, the heart of the horse, we started out uh because it was our first year, we limited the applications to 30 trainers. And they were split between professional trainers, amateur trainers, and youth, because the youth is the future of our breeds.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean of of all horses, not just the breeds, but of all horses. And um so uh our professionals were welcome to participate in our clinic, but our amateur and youth were required to uh the amateurs were required to have a professional mentor, and the youth were required to have have a professional mentor and to participate in four clinics given by well-known clinicians um to develop their skills and to help them with training their horse for the trainer's challenge, and it was a four-month training challenge. So um that was that's where we depart from the usual training challenge was the addition of the uh clinics for the trainers for their development, and all of that was at no cost to the trainer, other than their expenses to get to the event. But um we covered everything that's uh housing for their horse and um the payment for the clinicians and all that.

Rose Cushing:

That's really nice. Now it's a four-month thing, and they have a mentor, so how does that work? Does the mentor like help them through videos or Zoom, or how does are they actually there four months?

SPEAKER_00:

Most of our our mentors um were local to the individual trainers. Um and our youth, uh some of our youth were with their mentors several times a week. Um some of them were just once or twice a month. But um all of them were required to work with the mentor to make sure that they were following all of the training steps and doing it safely because we didn't want anybody hurt.

Rose Cushing:

Right, right. So um who were were some of your mentors that were well known that we we would recognize?

SPEAKER_00:

Let's see. Well, Lauren Henney out of Alabama was you know, Lauren doesn't do anything in a small way. She mentored four. Nice. She did she did um three adult amateurs and a youth. And um they were you know we call them we call them the the the the fabulous Alabama crew. But but um there were there were five total trainers from Alabama and Lauren mentored uh two the SoPro and then uh she mentored the four others from Alabama. And uh our amateur reserve champion was one of those.

Rose Cushing:

Nice. Very nice. Yes. So you and then uh go ahead.

SPEAKER_00:

Um trying to think of some of our other mentors. Uh probably those Lauren is the best known because she's done Extreme Mustang Makeover and Right Um and she was the winner of our train our Safe Force Trainers Challenge in 2020. So um the others are were local pros in Mississippi.

Rose Cushing:

Well, um, name some of those people too, because it's good to to know, you know, for people that are listening, somebody that they can trust and go to.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. Well, we have Kaylee Rice, uh-huh, who is um she is the Mississippi horses trainer uh at our Mealshoe Sanctuary, and she mentored two youth. Um, and Kaylee is going into the Quentin Anderson Ambassador program in August.

SPEAKER_01:

Nice.

SPEAKER_00:

So we're really proud of her about that, that she's she's furthering her skills. Um and then um some folks from the Pascipino world. Um we had Tommy and Vicky Griffith from uh Mississippi also who um they have a they've kind of retired from showing in the passepino world, but they they have a a good youth uh program at their farm and they mentored one of our youth too. Um that about covers them.

Rose Cushing:

Now what did Mary do, Mary Miller Jordan?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh Mary was our judge. Um and we were thrilled to have her and uh Tom Livingston, who is also uh Extreme Mustang Makeover um past winner, and he just got through um working with the Extreme Mustang Makeover that was in Franklin, Tennessee this past weekend. He was one of our judges also.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

And he also did the opening clinic. Um when we had our trainer finish pickup in January. Uh Khan did a a one-day clinic at the pickup to um help the youth and the amateurs with their horses. Some of these horses weren't even off the birth yet.

Rose Cushing:

So tell us about some of your horses. That's very interesting.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, our horses came from a wide range of places. Uh some of them were already in uh Mississippi Horses Rescue uh system, had been there for a while uh in fiscal rehab. Uh some of them we bought from known horse traders that sell to the pipeline.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh we bought some at auction that feeds the pipeline. Um we had some owner surrenders. Uh so it was a it was a broad range of horses at uh a good good uh cross section of uh types of horses. We had skated horses, um, we had quarter horses, uh, we had some thoroughbreds, we had some, so uh we had several uh ponies.

Rose Cushing:

So we had a good good mix. Yeah, it sounds like it. Now what's required of somebody to adopt a horse from your program?

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, uh in order to adopt from the Heart of the Horse auction, you have to be an approved adopter from you have to go through the application process for Mississippi horses. Um and we require that you uh show the ability to care for the horse, have a good place to keep it, we verify our pictures of where the horse will be kept, uh veterinarian and barrier references. Um we ask for references of people that know you from uh uh other horse activities. Um because we all of our horses in the heart of the horse will probably have four months of training, we would not adopt any of them to a rank beginner because they're green.

Rose Cushing:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

So you have to have some horse experience to adopt from uh uh one of the challenge horses. But um at the rescue we will adopt two rank beginners if you will agree to work with us and learn how to handle your horse and take some lessons.

Rose Cushing:

Now tell me a little bit about your Mississippi Horses Rescue.

SPEAKER_00:

Um it okay, Mississippi Horses Rescue is run by Stephanie Stephanie Billingsley. It is uh I think they're in their 12th year now. And they have um a location right outside of Jackson, Mississippi, and Mississippi, um, that is the primary um public rescue. That's where people go to see horses that are up for adoption and uh to to work with horses there. And it's all volunteer driven. Right. Um uh and then they have a sanctuary in the Delta uh called Meal Shoe, and that's where we send our unadoptable horses or horses that just need time to decompress before they're worked with. Right. Um and a lot of times freak up some that have been through a lot of trauma, that's where they go is to to meal shoe to decompress, and they can stay there anywhere from six months to a year before we try to do anything with them other than feed them and give them basic care. How did you get involved with the program? How did I become involved with the program? Yeah. Um well totally by accident actually. Um I was uh I had been retired from training and breeding my own horses for several years and I was looking to get back into doing something that I I couldn't commit to a long-term uh involvement because I was caring for um a aging parent. But I happened to attend Mississippi Horses' very first safe horse event, and it was a great concept that I thought they needed some help. And I had experience doing large events. I had run three-day shows for the Papasino Association many times, and so I looked Stephanie up and told her that if she would like some help with her next Safe Force event, I would help coordinate it. And that's how I became involved. And so I'm I'm in large part a computer warrior. I do most of the things from home on my computer. Um I do the scheduling and the planning and the writing of the rules and the processes. Um I don't get to spend a lot of time at the actual rescue.

Rose Cushing:

But it's such a beautiful thing the way you're giving back. Uh that's one thing I really, really enjoy about being part of the horse industry is that the horse people give back in so many ways and and w expect nothing in return, which is really beautiful.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, it's it's um it's been something that I've really enjoyed. Um I unfortunately was so busy during the Heart of the Horse I didn't get to see many of the performances at the finals um until after the fact and I got to watch them in video, but I was in tears the whole time because I was so invested in the people and the animals.

Rose Cushing:

I'm sure. I'm sure. I produced expos for a long time and and it feels so funny now that I'm retired when I get to watch an event because I I I never got to see them. I was so busy like you. So it means a lot. That that's really exciting. Now you guys depend mostly on donations.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, we are we are 100% donor-driven.

Rose Cushing:

So tell us how people can donate to you.

SPEAKER_00:

Um well the heart of the horse uh or safe horse project, um we we um we'll accept donations to Mississippi Horses for the project or on each individual project. We'll put on Facebook where they can donate for that.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00:

Um Mississippi Horses, we uh you can we have a Facebook page, of course, and and a um web page.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

And you can donate um monthly or one-time donations through the web page or through Facebook. Um and um a large percentage of our um donations have actually been coming through Facebook the last couple of years. Now, with Facebook changing some of the other parameters, I don't know how long that's gonna last. So we're really trying to uh build our monthly donor space so that we know how much we've got coming in on a monthly basis.

Rose Cushing:

Do you have on your website like a specific horse that people can support on a monthly basis?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, we do. We have we have um several ways that you can you can take a horse to sponsor at Neel Shoes, uh huh. Um or or if we have a horse that's requiring special care, a lot of times you can you can say you're gonna sponsor that horse for a specific aspect aspect of its care. Um but um you know it's it's it's along with the uh we have horses on the website for adoption. Right. And um and then we have uh a list of the horses at the sanctuary and those those are the ones that um if someone wanted to long term support a horse, they could pick one of the sanctuary horses that you know will have those for the rest of their life in most cases.

Rose Cushing:

Right. Right. Now what is the name of your website?

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. Um the the safehorse project dot org um covers the projects that we do, um, including the heart of the horse and then um Mississippi Horses dot org.

Rose Cushing:

Okay, and the the Facebook page is what? Uh the Facebook pages are the Safe Horse Project and Mississippi Horses. Very good. Well, you guys out there listening, you know, if you're a trainer, what a beautiful way to give back. And you know, if you're just a person who loves horses and wants to do something good from your heart, check these folks out because I know that they are very good rescue and very legitimate and see what you can do to help them. So I really appreciate you being on the show today, Julie. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you very much. And trainers, if you'll start watching the website uh in about uh October or November, we will be announcing um solicitation of trainers for the 2024 event.

Rose Cushing:

Very nice. And Stephanie Billingsley will be a guest on our show in the future. So for more information. Information about how she got involved with the rescue. Stay tuned for a new episode with Steph with Stephanie. So thank you guys for listening as always. And thank you, Julie. Thank you very much. I hope you enjoyed today's show. Our souls wander in similar places. Even though we may not know each other, we touch the same wind, we walk under the same sky, and our hearts wander in the same dreams. We are one. Women, just like you and me. Thank you for listening.