The American Horse Defense Fund (AHDF), a national equine welfare organization, announces its first rescue resource program, the Rescue Spotlight Award. Each month the AHDF staff will select an exceptional equine rescue that will be highlighted on the AHDF website and will receive the AHDF Rescue Spotlight Award. The award comes with a donation for the rescue to use to help facilitate their equine rescue efforts. Additionally, at the end of each year an award for Rescue of the Year will be awarded to one of the monthly winners. This ongoing program is the first of several programs the AHDF plans to implement in the next two years to enhance and support rescues nationwide.

“We are very happy to be able to support equine rescue facilities around the country with this award,” said Shelley Sawhook, AHDF president. “It gives something back to those who directly impact the lives of equines and is the only award of its kind.”

The April 2007 award is awarded to Return to Freedom, a facility that houses over two hundred wild horses in a natural setting. Return to Freedom is designed to be a model program, which explores alternative and minimally intrusive management philosophies. The facility recognizes that wild horses live in tightly bonded herd groups, but due to space constraints they have designed a non-hormonal, reversible contraception to keep down population and conserve habitat, allowing the mares and stallions to coexist as they do in nature.

“I couldn’t be happier that we selected such a wonderful program to be our first ever Spotlight Award winner,” said Sawhook. “We support any program that helps horses, but this one also is working to preserve the horses in their natural family bands as well as working to conserve the rare and diverse bloodlines that make up the real American horse, the Mustang