There is a moment that comes for many people somewhere after 50. The children are grown. Careers begin slowing down—or ending altogether. Life changes in ways we never expected. Sometimes there is freedom in that season. Sometimes there is grief. Often, there is a quiet question that lingers beneath it all:
What now?
For many people in northeast Georgia, the answer has come not in a boardroom, a retirement community, or a travel brochure—but in a muddy pasture beside a rescued horse, an abandoned pig, or an animal that simply needed someone to care.
Across the Athens area, three remarkable rescue organizations are quietly changing lives every day: the Georgia Equine Rescue League, ReDux Equine Rescue, and Sweet Olive Farm.
They rescue neglected and displaced animals, certainly. But if you spend any time talking with the volunteers—many of them in their 60s, 70s, and even 80s—you quickly realize something deeper is happening.
From retired teachers and physicians to former horse trainers and lifelong animal lovers reconnecting with a forgotten passion, these organizations are offering many people something they long for later in life: meaning, community, movement, healing, and purpose.
Helping horses and preventing the need for rescue
Founded in 1993 by two determined women with only $100 and a mission to help impounded horses across the state, the Georgia Equine Rescue League—better known as GERL—has quietly become one of the state’s most influential equine welfare organizations.
From the time the Georgia Department of Agriculture’s Equine Division was formed in 1993 until it was reorganized in 2020, GERL raised or furnished approximately $750,000 in goods and services to the GDA impound barns because the state had not appropriated funds to pay for the care of the horses they impounded. Today, the barns have been closed and impounded horses are farmed out to 39 licensed rescue stables around the state or to GERL’s foster program.
Unlike many rescue organizations, GERL operates without a central farm. Instead, the organization uses a foster-based model, placing horses in carefully selected homes and paying their expenses while they receive individualized care until permanent homes are found.
Over the years, GERL has expanded far beyond rescue alone. Pat Livingstone, current president of the nonprofit, explains that the organization recognized early on that “we are never going to be able to rescue our way out of the mess we have with the unwanted horse today.”
So, they began attacking the problem at its roots.
Their Stallion to Gelding Program has helped castrate more than 1,500 stallions since 2009, reducing unwanted breeding. Their Crisis Intervention Program helps struggling horse owners buy feed during difficult times so beloved animals do not end up abandoned or surrendered. They have created a law enforcement equine training program and will provide any animal control department with a temporary equine holding pen if they agree to prosecute those who neglect or abuse.
Today, GERL also supports veterans and active-duty military through equine therapy partnerships and special programs at Fort Stewart in southeast Georgia.
“We offer grants to nonprofits that offer equine therapy to veterans,” said Livingstone. “We have also introduced approximately 60 to 100 participants at Fort Stewart to the magic and healing of a horse by hosting week-long equine excursions.”
But for all the programs and advocacy, the heart of GERL remains the horses themselves.
Livingstone still remembers a severely malnourished foal named Elvis who arrived unable to stand. Volunteers suspended him in a sling for weeks while he slowly regained strength. Eventually, Elvis not only survived—he thrived.
“It’s almost indescribable,” Livingstone says of watching rescued horses recover. “I get goosebumps when I deliver a horse to its forever home.”
For volunteers like CeCe Calli, the work becomes deeply personal. A lifelong horsewoman who once trained thoroughbreds in California and Florida, Calli found GERL after moving to Hartwell and looking for a meaningful way to stay involved with horses. Now retired from paid work, she says she has “never been so busy and satisfied.”
One horse, in particular, still stays with her.
“Bailey’s owner passed away,” Calli recalls. “She had been tied to a tree and was brought to my house injured and starving. She is now a family horse and does kids’ camp. Perfect new beginning for her.”
That phrase—perfect new beginning—seems to echo through all three organizations. And not just for the animals.
Livingstone believes many older adults underestimate how much they still have to offer, even if they aren’t “horse people.” There are opportunities for hotline phone duty from home, marketing of donated items online, helping with the tack store open a couple of Saturdays a month in Good Hope, writing articles for the quarterly newsletter, or volunteering at a GERL event.
Fresh starts for horses – and humans
On a peaceful property in Colbert, horses who once faced neglect, uncertainty, or slaughter are finding something many never had before: stability.
Founded officially in 2021 by Paulette and Chip Brown, ReDux Equine Rescue grew from years of the couple quietly helping horses whose owners could no longer care for them. Today ReDux is one of the licensed rescue stables in Georgia that individuals, county animal control, or the state department of agriculture turn to.
The rescue typically cares for about 30 horses at a time, everything from miniature horses to draft horses. Some are retired. Some require retraining. Some arrive emotionally wounded as much as physically compromised.
There are a couple of reasons these animals end up at Redux, according to Brown. Number one is an owner who can no longer care for their horses due to illness, job loss, or loss of their farm. “Many of our horses come from loving homes.” But the other reason is neglect and impoundment by law enforcement.
Brown says the rescue’s mission is simple: “to provide at-risk equines a safe landing and a fresh start.”
Rehabilitation and training
On arrival, horses are integrated into a herd as quickly and safely as possible, says Brown. “We then let them just be horses for a few weeks, or longer if necessary.” Starvation cases are carefully and slowly brought back to health, injuries are treated, and all horses evaluated by University of Georgia veterinarians.
When a horse is judged to be ready, trained volunteers start to work with them, making sure they can stand quietly, have their feet picked, accept grooming, bathing, and being led. The volunteers also work to discover what training the horses already have, and what training they will need to find that perfect home.
Then, it’s a matter of retraining; some have little or no training or they have negative training experiences. “We want the horses to enjoy working with people and learning new things. Rescue horses are not ‘broken,’ they just need a hand finding their person.”
After retraining, ReDux actively works to find these horses a new home through social media, advertising at equine events, and word of mouth. Brown says it’s always a celebration when a horse leaves ReDux for their new home.
She recalls one memorable horse that arrived with a history of nipping and aggressive behavior. Instead of punishing him, volunteers worked patiently to understand what made him uncomfortable and fearful. Eventually, the horse met an experienced horsewoman whose calm confidence transformed him.
“Two years later they are competing and enjoying life together,” Brown says. “We do believe that there is a person for every horse.
What makes ReDux especially striking is how many of its volunteers are older adults. According to Brown, three-quarters of their volunteers are over 50.
“They bring years of life experience and a desire to help,” she says. “Plus, they expose the horses to many different personality types and handling styles.”
For volunteer Rhonda Osburn, who worked in insurance and will turn 60 this year, volunteering began with a simple online search and a lifelong love of horses. Now she helps feed horses that need special food, checks water troughs, and spends time simply loving on the animals.
Meaning and community
If Sweet Olive Farm feels a little magical, that may be because it was never part of a grand plan.
Founders Kat Howkins and Susan Pritchett originally rescued dogs in Atlanta. Then one day, an animal control officer casually asked if they wanted a potbellied pig.
“The rest is history,” Howkins says.
Founded in 2010, Sweet Olive Farm Animal Rescue provides a forever home for unwanted, injured, elderly, or homeless farm and exotic animals as well as a nurturing and healing space for animals and humans, with a special focus on children. Sweet Olive is now home to over 250 animals in Winterville, including horses, pot-bellied pigs, goats, sheep, donkeys, emus, turkeys, chickens, a peacock, alpacas, mini-brahmans, bulls from a dairy farm, and, of course, cats – all males of any animal are neutered.
They come from far and wide: through animal control, owner surrender, neglect cases, and networking with other rescues up and down the East Coast.
“We have goats from Connecticut, cows from the Philadelphia Humane Society, and more goats from Lancaster, Pennsylvania,” explains Howkins. “There are also pigs from Chicagoland Pig Rescue, and just recently a mother hen and her chicks arrived in a Tesla from Jacksonville, Florida.”
None of the animals are adopted out, and because of that, Howkins emphasizes that they can’t take every animal people bring them. She must weigh how any new animal would fit in and whether they have the room, the funds, the volunteers, and the fencing. She’s raising money now for more fencing.
The farm also rents out its barn for weddings, rehearsal dinners, and other events. A children’s farm camp occupies much of the summer.
The rescue operates almost entirely through volunteers. Morning chores begin with filling feed- buckets, watering, cleaning stalls, grooming, and caring for animals with special needs.
But what keeps people returning week after week is harder to describe.
“There’s a deep sense of meaning in caring for the animals and also building community with the other volunteers,” Howkins explains.
That meaning became life-changing for retired educator Lynn Kovaciny. After Covid disrupted her career and the death of her mother left her grieving and emotionally exhausted, a friend invited her to visit Sweet Olive Farm. What she found there changed her life.
“It was the remedy that no doctor could have prescribed,” Kovaciny says. “No amount of therapy could’ve taken me to the place it did.”
Then she explains something anyone who has ever loved an animal instantly understands:
“You see, animals accept us where we are, who we are, at any given day and time.” Now, six years later, she still volunteers weekly.
“Be open and receptive to the new experience,” she tells newcomers. “You will be touched by it in your own individual way.”
Volunteer Janie Sanders, a retired dietitian, tells a similar story. Six months before retirement, she rode past the farm on a bicycle and thought, “Oh my God, here’s my retirement plan.”
Nearly a decade later, she says the rescue gave her exactly what she needed after retirement: Purpose. She has learned new skills, built deep friendships, and found meaning in the daily rhythm of feeding and caring for animals.
And then there is Annie Shield. At 82 years old, Annie still volunteers twice a week and remains a valued horse expert at the farm.
The invitation waiting in the pasture
What all three of these organizations understand is something our culture often forgets:
Purpose does not retire. Neither does compassion. And perhaps neither does the dream many people quietly carry of reconnecting with horses, animals, nature, or simply with a version of themselves they thought had disappeared long ago.
You do not need to be a lifelong equestrian. You do not need to lift heavy hay bales. You do not need to know everything.
Sometimes rescue organizations need people to answer phones, write newsletters, organize donations, help with social media, greet visitors, clean tack, or simply spend time with animals that need gentle human contact.
And sometimes, the very act of showing up changes everything – for the animals and for the people. And for those who thought their most meaningful chapter might be behind them, perhaps it’s waiting in a pasture somewhere just outside Athens.
Rescue is an expensive calling
Along with food, water, and shelter, other expenses can include vet bills for neutering and vaccinations, emergency/special needs care, medication, pet supplies, cleaning supplies, waste management, transportation, marketing, insurance, legal advice, and computer software.
If you’d like to know more about these three rescue operations and to consider donating to their mission, visit:
- Georgia Equine Rescue League – Gerlltd.org
- ReDux Equine Rescue – Reduxrescue.org
- Sweet Olive Farm Animal Rescue – www.sweetolivefarm.org
Arlene Williams can be found taking care of three horses in Winterville, and when she’s not there, she’s on a dance floor somewhere.
