07:49 PM PST on Wednesday, November 9, 2005

By JOSEPHINE CHENG / Evening Magazine

When someone no longer loves their dog or cat, they take it to the pound and often it will become someone else's pet. But when a horse is no longer loved or deemed useful, it can be a sad, sad ending.

That is until Cowgirl Spirit comes into the picture.

Juliane Hanley and her friends are looking for the perfect horse. For them, that means the homeliest, sickest, most unlovable horses they can find. It's a deliberate decision they make based on their deliberate mission – to save horses from being killed and surprise the world with what they are capable of.

For Juliane, it all started at a horse auction. Time after time, she saw old, tired or sick horses being sold, not to owners who put them to pasture, but to "meat men" who ship them to slaughter.

"Don't make them go through the horror of seeing the horse in front of them killed, then being killed themselves," said Juliane.

Juliane wasn't alone in feeling that way.

"It's disgusting," said Ryder Schwartz-Skolnick.

Evening Magazine

Cowgirl Spirit Rescue Drill Team

United in outrage, girls throughout King County formed a plan to have car washes and garage sales every other month to fund their mission.

They called themselves "Cowgirl Spirit."

But saving horses is only half the story, because bigger plans are in store.

Click on the video and find out how they save horses, one at a time, and what happens to those throwaway horses everyone had given up on – everyone, except the girls of Cowgirl Spririt.

Eventually they put the rescued horses up for adoption so they can make room for the next round of horses.

Cowgirl Sprit was just granted tax-exempt status, so if you'd like to sponsor a horse, adopt one or make a donation, now is a good time to do it.