Photos were taken during my few visits in Poreby, Poland in May 2005, where Horse Sanctuary ”Tara” had its home at this time. Tara is the biggest horse sanctuary in Poland now, actually they were one of the first places like this. I had never came back there after 2005, but their website provides information that at the moment there is about 170 horses and 50 cats and dogs. I remember that the place gave me such a good feeling back then. It was in a time when I have actively photographed and rode horses and idea of rescued them from bad people and deaths in slaughterhouse became close to my heart. I had opportunity to observe different side of horse world. In my life before I saw only working horses, but in Tara there was no such thing like that. Each horse which was rescued, no matter if it was young, healthy or old, instantly received a kind of retirement there. Horses were free and it was for sure, that they will never be sold to anyone and they will stay in Tara to the end of its life.
I saw there a lot of truth about how some people could treat this beautiful creatures. I saw old, ill, mentally hurt horses, but the bright side of was that these horses didn’t have to be scared anymore. From this day places like this are close for me. I wish to visit one of them in the UK with my camera in the future.
Several dogs, cats and a pig lived in the shelter together with the horses.
I would like to show You these old photos, there are mainly black and white and all were taken on photographic films and scanned. You can see different horses, dogs, cats on them, but I want to start with two horses which definitely were very important to me. One of them, called Wist, was one of the first horses I have ever rode, when I started as a 12-year-old girl. He was one of a dozen of horses, that patiently taught me and my younger sister our first trots and gallops in one of the riding schools in Wroclaw. To my surprise, this horse was in Tara. I didn’t know that when I first got there. When I saw him in Tara, it was really amazing. In 2005, the horse was 32 years old and spent a peaceful old age on the pasture along with the rest of older horses and his best friend, the draft horse Grosik. I don’t have any more information about Wist, but I read that Grosik passed away in 2016 as a 43-year-old horse. In my opinion this is amazing and really record life time for a horse.
One more horse have found a special place in my memory. Gray arabian horse Ali and the only thing I remember now about him is that he had some physical disability, problems with walking and coordination of his moves. Taking photos of him was touching… I’m not sure, but I think he passed away after not a long time from my visit. Look at him, such an angel…
Horse sanctuary Tara exists until today, somewhere in Lower Silesia in Poland. In two next posts there will be more portraits and daily life of Tara’s horses.