A Young Horse-Rescue Volunteer

A few months ago, I took on a story assignment for a new magazine in the Horse Illustrated/Young Rider family called Rescue Me. The magazine is all about the world of animal rescue. The story was to be about young volunteers at animal rescue organizations–totally my kind of story. I knew I wanted to include a horse rescue kid, but I had a hard time finding just the right super-star volunteer.

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Then I found Linda Lewis at All About Equine Animal Rescue in El Dorado Hills, California. She recommended a teen named Jamae Lacy. What I loved about Jamae’s devotion to horse rescue is that’s she’s totally focused on the horses and their care, not what’s in it for her, like riding privileges. And she knits hats to make money to donate to the rescue.

Devoted horse rescue girl Jamae and her rescue pup, Lea.

The story came out recently (you can read it in the May/June issue of Rescue Me). This weekend I got the cutest email from Jamae after she’d seen the magazine. It’s always special when someone I’ve interviewed for a story takes the time to reach out afterwards. But of course, Jamae wasn’t basking in the spotlight, she thanked me for helping spread the word about the rescue organization and the horses she cares so much about.

“Thank you so much for helping me get my message out there,” she said in her email. “I showed it to people at school and they read your article and realized that animal help is serious business. So thank you for writing that wonderful article, and for helping me and AAE get recognized :)”

Every week, Jamae mucks stalls, grooms and feeds horses and helps tends to the horses’ cuts and scrapes at All About Equine Animal Rescue near Sacramento, California. She wants to be an equine vet when she grows up. “To help horses, just like AAE does.”

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10 years ago

Kitson Jazynka

A freelance writer and children’s author based in Washington, D.C., Kitson Jazynka contributes regularly to Horse Illustrated. Her horses enjoy the good life in nearby Potomac, Md.

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PKL says:
May 14, 2014 at 2:53 am
Thank You from all horse and animal lovers, and specially from the critters themselves.
savannah says:
May 14, 2014 at 6:10 am
Jamae is doing a wonderful thing for those animals! I am sure that she makes them feel safe again! I would like for horse members to consider doing a program called Mustang Million. If you are between the ages of 8-17 you can do the youth division if you are over 18 you can do Extreme Mustang Makeover. The whole purpose of the program is to take a mustang that has never even seen a human, and train them for one hundred days then compete with them to show that even a wild mustang can be the perfect horse with the right love, gentleness, and patience. The purpose is to keep the mustangs away from the government so they can get new loving homes. I am going to do the youth program next year or the year after and i will keep doing it for as long as possible. I really hope that some people will do this it's a very good cause!
f says:
May 14, 2014 at 5:41 pm
cool! very inspirational!
Galadriel says:
May 14, 2014 at 11:52 pm
Very nice.
Isabella says:
May 15, 2014 at 10:17 am
Wow! This is amazing! Very inspirational :)
kygal says:
May 16, 2014 at 6:52 pm
awesome kid need more like her
Dick says:
May 20, 2014 at 5:45 am
I also volunteer at AAE and Jamae is one of many dedicated people who provide helping hands to restore horses to health for eventual adoption to loving families. Jamae is all heart and will achieve any goal she sets for herself. We at AAE are all very proud of her.