Time to hunker down and make some damn posts. September 15th, the day of the posts. Lots has happened in the last week or so. Coming out of the redwood forest, my destination was Ashland Oregon, just north of the California boarder and known as the hippy-est town in the US. It was actually a very neat little town and didn’t seem too hippy-ish at all, just cool. The occasional shoeless backpacker but I wouldn’t have been surprised to see that anywhere really.

Ashland is also home to the New World Sanctuary Foundation, an animal sanctuary with 20 horses, 7 dogs, a couple goats, 3-4 pigs, a handful of cats, things I’m probably forgetting and of course the 3 lovely ladies that manage the place, including Cami’s childhood friend Rosie.

The entire premise on which this place was founded is unlike most, if any, things you come across in life. It’s fueled by pure compassion; for the animals, the people that work there and the people that visit. The will to do good and develop everlasting relationships drives the whole operation and as a result you’ll find animals here that are very unique.

The Sanctuary was founded and is lead by a woman named Ren Hurst. Prior devoting her life to this place and the ideas you can find here, she was a very successful horse trainer and even wrote a book about her transformation from traditional training methods to the common-sensical, relationship based approach that is employed at the sanctuary today. You can learn more about Ren here and find her book on the amazons.

During my first few minutes at the sanctuary, Rosie and Ren took me around to see the place and visit some of the nonhuman residents. You know when you first meet someone and can instantly figure out if they’re a good person? Well that’s the way it was with these horses. I’ve no experience with horses, nor do I know much about them other than they are large and intimidating creatures. But these guys were just cool, friendly dudes and gals that I felt completely comfortable around.

The Sanctuary is an amazingly humbling place. The staff here has devoted their time and lives to something that they believe in, something worth believing in. Imagine doing that, something you believe in with all of your heart instead of something that will net you the largest gross income. It’s heartwarming and inspiring to say the least.

As of right now there isn’t any way that the sanctuary manages to take in money aside from donations and for the short time I was there, the amount of hard work that goes into running the place was evident. Somehow each week they manage to scoot by and put food on everyone’s plates (or bags if you’re a horse). Eventually, this place will transform further into a bed and breakfast style sanctuary for people too, where souls can come to be healed, learn what love and relationship means and move on to become better and inspire others to be better.

The foundation’s website can be found at newworldsanctuary.org and it has plenty of great information and descriptions of their work far better than mine. If you were interested in assisting them grow and helping the sanctuary along, you can also donate here, I’m sure they would be wildly grateful.

My time at the sanctuary was short, but the experience and lessons in life were great. I really hope to visit again sometime soon. Thanks again guys, it was a trip!

My route to Ashland can be seen in the previous post. On to Portland!