What We Do Why "The Gingersnap Girls" Meet The "Girls" Download Our Brochure (large file in PDF format) Our founder, Ann Mercer, feeding Brell the treat of choice - Gingersnaps! The Gingersnap Girls Foundation was there... - for an elderly woman who could no longer care for her geriatric horse - to provide respite care for a pony whose owner was undergoing severe emotional problems - to raise funds to assist a large animal rescue disaster team after Hurricane Katrina - to develop a humane education curriculum for elementary school students.

"Always Loved, Forever Remembered"

About Us

We were founded in honor and memory of three mares, Calypso, Chrissy and Flag who were each saved from the slaughter truck by their own angels.

Each came to us from different places and each at different times, but together they were The Gingersnap Girls, leaving a legacy of strength, hope, and courage in the quest to help save other slaughter bound equines, in addition to providing aid to any equine enduring abuse, neglect, or misunderstanding. Each had an abiding and overwhelming love of gingersnaps!

The Gingersnap Girls Equine Education and Rescue Foundation was founded in 2004 becoming a 501 (c)(3) organization classified with the IRS as a public charity in 2005.

Download Our Brochure (large file in PDF format)

What We Do

The list shown on the left are but a few ways The Gingersnap Girls Foundation assists in helping our equine friends - and human friends, too.Without your generous support we cannot continue to help the abused, neglected, or homeless horses and ponies. In addition, with your help, we can continue our educational programs to ensure future generations will not ever know abuse as we do now and there will be no need for organizations such as the Gingersnap Girls!

Why "the gingersnap girls"

Many people have asked how "the Gingersnap Girls" got their name. Simply - the three mares in whose honor we were founded,
All had developed a very healthy appetite for and ongoing
Love of gingersnap cookies. (Murray's being the number one choice!)

Chrissy and Flag ate them until the very days that they left us to go to heaven. In fact, in the last two days of chrissy's life, gingersnaps were the ONLY thing that we could get her to eat.

Calypso continued to savor them until the day she left us to join Flag and Chrissy in January, 2005.

A friend, knowing of the girls' great fondness for this cookie, one day asked me how the Gingersnap Girls were doing.

Years later, the name sticks!

NOTE: for those that wonder if these cookies are "healthy" treats, I have only to say that they have the vet's approval and as proof, Chrissy lived until she was 32 years old, Flag was 33 and Calypso made the ripe old age of 30! TLC and gingersnaps are a good combination!

Meet the "Girls"

Calypso:

Calypso was a thoroughbred, bred in Maryland, bound for the race track. She was slow on the track and a well-meaning trainer turned her into a fox hunter who eventually passed through several hands, ending up alone in a field in a snowstorm with no shelter, food, or water. A well-meaning neighbor saw her plight, and began feeding her. When her owners planned to take her to a livestock sale because she was no longer wanted, this same neighbor stepped in and contacted a local equine rescue group where she was quickly adopted by our founder.

 

Flag:

No early history is known of this sweet mare except that someone must have been very kind to her at one time for she had the most loving of dispositions. But someone else was not so kind, leaving Flag and another horse abandoned in a field - moving away and leaving them with no food or water. Again, a kind stranger noticed and took action.

 

Chrissy:

Chris was found at a livestock auction boarding a killer buyer's truck. She was bought for $150 by another person who "just wanted to help." She had won over $200,000 on the track for her owner, became a broodmare and was then left to fend for herself in a back field of her owner's property. No food, very little water, no medical care. When she was found, she was hundreds of pounds underweight with rain rot, and was very mistrustful of everyone. Her owner had tried to get the last nickel out of her by selling her to the killer buyers where she would have become food for a European or Japanese plate!