About Us
Winter’s Grace Animal Rescue was officially started in July of 2025, but our mission to rescue animals started many, many years before that. Over the past nearly 30 years we have rescued animals of all shapes and sizes from cats, dogs, rabbits, hamsters, rats, snakes, spiders, bearded dragons, geckos, to our most recent rescues such as goats, horses, mini horses and donkeys.
Our decision to incorporate a non-profit charity was not an easy one but felt that it is necessary as there are so many animals out there in need and certain rescues only accept help for certain species of animals, why not one that accepts ALL animals?
With your help from donations and help from our generous volunteers who are willing to accomodate rescues in their home and on their property, we hope to acheive our mission one animals life at a time.
Who is Winter?
After the start of Drake Meadows Farm in 2023 which began with two small Nigerian Dwarf goats, more space was cleared for larger animals in need as time moved on.
In early 2025 we acquired Duke as a gift for a family member and he ended up staying as part of OUR family. Duke’s circumstances were not great when he was rescued in SC, he was kept in a small pen and never socialized. Well, we decided Duke needed a companion, so we looked into the kill pen in Asheville, NC and found Harley the mini horse. Harley was sick with a respiratory infection, not uncommon for those places. He was also a lot older than the 4 years I was told, nearly 20 the vet said. He was thin and hesitant to be touched.
While minis are wonderful creatures, we decided to reach out to helping larger horses. A dream of mine. Upon lots of research, we welcomed Rez the Arabian horse. He was previously owned by a very loving owner in SC but his owner of his entire 21 years of life had recently just died of cancer. And while the family who took him in was taking great care of him, they wanted to find him a loving home. So, he came to live at Drake Meadows. As sweet as he can be, he is very loving yet bossy at the same time.
Not long after rescuing Rez we decided we had space for one more horse and was reached out to by another owner in SC. This particular horse was also older, like Rez, she was 24 years old. She was beautiful, also an Arabian cross. Circumstances stated that she was timid, the low end of the todem pole, afraid to eat with the others, bullied even. We instantly fell in love with her from her pictures and her story. We quickly rushed to SC to pick her up and were shocked at what we saw. This was not the horse we had seen in the pictures. She was emaciated, scared. She seemed as if she had been deprived of a lot things, including love. We took her home, introduced her to the other horses who quickly welcomed her. Within a couple of days she started eating with them, we watched her as she slowly tested the waters to see if it was ok, if anyone would bully her and when she felt safe, she settled in. At first she was not a fan of being touched, a few days in, she allowed us to love on her and followed us around. Within a couple of weeks she was defending her feed from others and standing her ground.
Winter was this beauty’s name. Months later, after seeing the transformation of this gorgeous horse from a hay/worm belly and skin and bones everywhere else to a flourishing beauty, that was encouragement enough to not only keep our rescue efforts going but to make it statewide, even country wide if we can somehow do so.
Thus, Winter’s Grace Animal Rescue was born.
