prompted Animals' Angels to expand our ongoing investigation into Sombrero Ranches, which offers horse rentals for summer camps, hunting, and private contracts since more than sixty years.

One TripAdvisor user wrote that " The horses we rode could barely walk. And in particular, the horse my sister-in-law was riding kept tripping on the trail and at one point fell to its knee. It was very scary to watch...it was clear from the way this horse's legs were buckling that it was utterly overworked. The kids with us were crying because they knew the horses were not feeling well. So sad. Start to finish."

Other visitors to Sombrero Ranches have shared disturbing accounts of ungroomed, neglected horses being overworked, kept out in the heat all day without water or rest, taken out on trails in lightning storms, and being exposed to dangerous conditions. Many visitors described riding horses along steep, unsafe trails, and one traumatized visitor witnessed unattended horses running out into traffic on a busy highway.

But Sombrero's most shameful secret is the apparent

utter lack of compassion they have for the retiring horses who have given years of hard service, day in and day out, to make money for their owners.

The sad fate of these poor horses was exposed when Animals' Angels obtained public records via Freedom of Information Act which disprove claims that all of Sombrero's horses are retired to private farms. In fact, health certificates show that in 2019, Sombrero Ranches shipped at least 30 horses to known kill buyer Gary Morris in Muleshoe, Texas. Most of these horses were over 20 years old; the oldest one was 30.

Unfortunately, Gary Morris is no stranger to Animals' Angels. Our investigators have reported on the horrific conditions at his lot several times, documenting visibly ill, emaciated, and cruelly neglected horses.

Sick horse at Garry Morris Lot

Bouvry's Lot in Shelby, MT

While it is not a crime in the United States to ship horses to slaughter, we believe that the prosperous owners of Sombrero Ranches are morally obliged to provide their horses with a well-deserved retirement on one of the company's farms, where they can live out the rest of their lives in peace. The money made by Sombrero Ranches off the back-breaking work of these poor animals, over the span of many years, should be more than enough to secure these animals a safe home.