Local horse rescue to close in early 2025

Redemption Road Rescue (RRR) is a place where horses and a few other animals have come to heal and live their best life before finding their forever home after having been abused, abandoned, neglected or mistreated some other way.

That effort started in February of 2009 when Lori Collins wanted to do something to help horses.

"There's a lot of horses in this state that are victims of cruelty, neglect, abandonment and abuse that needed a soft place to land once their owners had been terminated as their owners," Collins said. "And most of the time, it's not intentional cruelty because 90 percent of those who've owned horses and found themselves in that situation were simply good people in a bad situation.

"But the horses were still in bad shape and needed help if they didn't need to be put down."

So for the past 16 years, Collins, along with a group of volunteers that has grown to about 50 that work throughout the week in assigned shifts keeping RRR taken care of, has done the 24-hour, seven-day-a-week job of being in contact with sheriff's departments throughout the region and others who might surrender their animals to the rescue.

But that time is coming to an end. Collins sent a message to all the volunteers that it's time for her to turn a page in her life and focus on her family.

"I hate to do it. I really do," Collins said sitting at a picnic table at the front of the rescue on Cooper Anderson Road just inside Jackson city limits off Old Medina Road with tears welling up in her eyes. "But I've done this for 16 years and sacrificed time with my family.

"I've got an 18-year-old granddaughter in college now and a 15-year-old, and I remember bringing them out here with me when they were tiny, putting them in a play pen and letting them have fun in there for a little while as I got work done in a barn or on a fence or something."

Patti Simpson and Judy Robbins are two of her more loyal volunteers that have been with RRR for years - almost since the beginning.

"They represent that while this is a horse rescue, the effort here is as much about the people as it is the horses," Collins said. "We've developed a close family here."

Simpson said the family is so close because of the one that brought them to the RRR.

"I moved to Jackson in 2013, and when I came here, I thought I was going to be the little old lady going to Master Gardener classes, and then I found myself rucking barn stalls like when I was 16," Simpson said. "But I found out after awhile that I couldn't do all that physical labor, but Lori hates doing all the paperwork that comes with a nonprofit, so I kind of took that over."

Robbins said a lot of the volunteers have their own stories of how volunteering at RRR have helped them.

"Everyone who is volunteering here are either trying to find something or get away from something," Robbins said. "Some of our people have said Redemption Road saved their life."

There are about 25 animals remaining on the premises, and RRR will remain operational until all 25 have found their forever homes.

"I feel guilty because there are so many horses and other animals that need somewhere like Redemption Road," Collins said. "And the people here love the animals so much and want to see them thrive.

"The best days we've ever had are the bittersweet ones when we've been able to nurse an animal back to health from the point of death without enough strength to stand on its own and we've have to use a tractor to help pick it up off the ground and stand it up every morning. Then we're seeing it run through the fields and ultimately finding a family for him or her to go to. We hate to see them go, but there's a fine line between a rescue and a hoarder. And these girls (Simpson and Robbins) and others have had to watch that I don't become a hoarder."

Collins said RRR has a private page on Facebook where volunteers and those who've adopted horses are members, and those who've adopted post updates with pictures and videos of the former residents of RRR.

Collins said there's one story from the Rescue's early days that gives her hope for the future of the region's animals.

"When I first started it, a few months later, a woman came to me and said she'd run a horse rescue and had to give it up and she'd prayed someone else would come in and start one of their own," Collins said. "And she was a help to me and gave me advice and helped out for a while.

"Now I'm the person who's giving up a successful rescue - one of the most successful in the state. And I hope someone will feel called to start the next rescue."

Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news