White Bird Appaloosa Horse Rescue

Support me in my mission to improve the lives and living conditions of rescued horses.

My name is Cynthia Burdalski. I moved to Nottoway County, Virginia about three years ago after retiring and found the perfect way to spend my retirement, helping rescued horses at White Bird Appaloosa Horse Rescue. My happy place!

I started as a volunteer spending countless hours, days, months and now years. After a few months I became a sponsor upon falling in love with a blind rescued horse. I am now volunteer, sponsor and secretary on the rescue's board.

Horses are very expensive to care for and fund raising for the nonprofit rescue is always a challenge. We have 21 rescued horses located on the grounds. The repairs at the rescue are done by the volunteers whenever possible. We have five barns that are in constant need of repairs. The barns range from two stalls to ten stalls.

My focus for this fund raiser is to raise funds to replace the over 50 year old original roof of the 10 stall barn. The roof is riddled with holes and even under cover the horses and their bedding are getting wet. In addition, we are hoping to complete other repairs within the barn caused by the rain.

The 10 stall barn currently houses five rescue horses with plans to bring in other horses after repairs. The rescue horses in this barn consist of a mix of blind, semi-blind, abused, older and many with medical issues that require routine veterinary visits.

One of the horses in this barn who touches my heart is: Chessie, who once was a laboratory horse used in experiments of a university, still has their freeze brand to this day. She landed at an auction, headed for trouble, so some White Bird volunteers pooled their money to buy her. She has navicular disease and will live the remainder of her life in safety and dignity at the rescue.

Chessie's friend across from her in the barn was taken from his owner by Animal Control in a cruelty case. Although he had a rough life outside of White Bird, he has captured the hearts of many volunteers, including myself, and enjoys being spoiled.

Another friend in the barn is Velvet, who we believe is around 37 years old and was a hardship surrender. She suffered a fungal ulcer and despite aggressive treatment, we had no choice but to remove her eye. Her remaining eye is low vision, but she does just fine with her sighted BFF Billy Jo, who is in the stall next door.

These are a few of the horses currently in the barn. Our future residents will include: Leader our off track thoroughbred, son of Afleet Alex, the double crown winner. Leader was a race horse until bone chips in his knees ended his career.

Ruby would also love to come in the barn. Ruby is our old fashion native pony at 13h. She is a senior girl with limited vision while full of energy. Her companion was killed and she was subsequently taken from her owner and brought to our rescue.

Everybody's help in improving the living conditions and creating a dry environment for our rescued horses would greatly be appreciated by the horses, volunteers, sponsors and board members.

The mission of White Bird Appaloosa Horse Rescue is to rescue and rehabilitate abused, neglected and at-risk horses. They are a 501(c)(3) organization, have accreditations, and have been helping horses for over 20 years