Moving on up! The Story Behind Our Move

Have you heard? RVR Horse Rescue is moving!

After over 13 years at the Riverview, Florida facility, we’re moving twenty-five miles north-east to Plant City. We’ve been showing the progress of the new barn on our Facebook page and we’re so excited that the day is finally coming.

We’d like to share the story behind our move with you for several reasons, one of which is the incredible difference that one person can make in our topsy-turvy world.

It’s all about the horses.

If you don’t have the honor of knowing the founder and owner of RVR Horse Rescue, let me assure you that Shawn Jayroe is a warrior and a worrier – and she hates the spotlight.

As a youngster from a horse community in Texas, Shawn was drawn into horse rescue after seeing abuse during her experiences at the rodeo. As an intermission performer with her horse, she witnessed inhumane treatment that stuck in her blood. Her desire to help horses in need followed her to Florida as a young adult and then into marriage, parenthood, and divorce.

One person can make a huge difference.

Shawn went on to build a booming hair salon business, working countless hours to support her young daughters and to rehabilitate horses in need that she found at boarding facilities.

As a successful businesswoman, Shawn knew it didn’t make sense to keep paying boarding fees for the horses she was rehabilitating, so she purchased a dilapidated property and gradually grew it into what RVR Horse Rescue is today.

We are a successful 501 (c)(3) organization with an all-volunteer team (including Shawn) and a reputation for successfully rehabilitating the worst of the worst cases. We’re proud that 100% of donations go directly to the care and rehabilitation of the horses – and not toward the move, by the way.

Forced Out.

Riverview has been good to us, but the booming housing market forced us into an unsustainable situation. The encroaching mega communities have dramatically changed the local landscape, resulting in worsening flooding that’s both harmful to the horses and extremely expensive when we’ve had to move them off-site as a result. In addition, we’ve been blessed with wonderful volunteers who break their backs to manage through the floods, mud, and heat, but the patchwork facility can’t be managed by a few.

Creating a sustainable legacy.

And, equally important, life happens. Shawn Jayroe has continued to work full time to support the ranch. As her time to retire approaches, Shawn faced the dreadful dilemma of how to make her legacy sustainable for the future.

As our fearless leader does, she kicked into full-blown warrior mode and capitalized on her initial investment of the Riverview property and was able to find a beautiful site in rural Plant City where she’s building the new ranch.

Plans for an efficient operation.

The new facility has been designed with ease of operation and efficiency in mind, as well as being a safe and luscious spot for the recovering horses. Longer-term operations will be possible with less back-breaking effort and the new design will simplify the daily work immensely. And best of all, the new site will sustain Shawn’s legacy far into the future. And we can’t wait until she has more time to spend with her true loves – the horses.

Thank You for your support!

The entire RVR Horse Rescue organization is very grateful for the amazing support we’ve received over the years. It’s incredible to think how far we’ve come since the first horse Shawn nursed back to good health. We truly cannot do the work we do without your support and that will continue to be the case going forward.

Ways You can help.

We’ve always counted on the generosity of Horse Sponsors to help subsidize the cost of the horses’ daily care and we will continue to do so. You’ll see some social media posts about sponsorship over the coming months. Our Amazon Wish List shows the items we need to run the ranch and we’ll update it once we see what items we’ll need at the new facility. There are many ways you can help us, including volunteering.

Any support you provide helps us help more horses.

Stay Tuned!

Stay tuned to our Facebook page to get the latest updates, including our grand opening. Let’s keep RVR Strong well into the future!

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In case you missed it…

Our #Dream15 Paso Finos are rehabilitated and looking for their forever homes! Here’s beautiful Diva.