Community & Business
15 September, 2026
Rescue service counts the costs
A TABLELANDS horse rescue and recovery service faces possible shutdown as rising monthly feed bills, staggering price jumps in hay and fuel due to the US-Iran war, and additional vet bills erode what was once a self-sustaining community-based not-for-profit charity.
A TABLELANDS horse rescue and recovery service faces possible shutdown as rising monthly feed bills, staggering price jumps in hay and fuel due to the US-Iran war, and additional vet bills erode what was once a self-sustaining community-based not-for-profit charity.
FNQ Foster Farms (FFF) is flying by the seat of its pants as president Sue Garland scrapes together funds to pay another monthly feed bill.
“If we don’t get urgent ongoing support, we will have to close the gates for good,” she said recently.
“I’ve just got my feed bill, which is $3,100, and I don’t have the money to pay for it. Okay, I have a bank card to back me up. But the money is just not there, and I don’t know where it’s going to come from this time.
“And that’s without anything else – we haven’t got any vet bills in that. We haven’t covered Hendra (virus), we can’t. Whenever there is anything else we’re on the bones of our arses.
“Normally, I can do like a GST return or maybe sell something. I’ve got nothing left to do. We’re at rock bottom.
“It’s nuts the price of stuff at the moment.”
FFF has been operating on the Tablelands for more than a decade. It was created to reduce neglect, abuse and abandonment of animals, mostly horses, by taking them on when owners couldn’t handle them, when they had been abandoned or when scheduled for euthanasia.
Specifically, the group works to improve the condition and mental health of the animals and rehome them to appropriately educated humans.
“But we need funds and adoptions,” Sue said bluntly.
“We have had to say no (to taking on an animal) too many times this year due to lack of funding.
“And saying no is the hardest part of this job. Where else will they go? Will the abuse and neglect ever stop? A horse can be rehomed so many times then it finally gets dumped somewhere and dies a lonely, painful death. It can be tagged as difficult or dangerous because no one has understood what the horse really needs.
“Like humans, they need security in one home, food, friends and freedom.”
If a horse needs special care and a suitable foster owner can’t be matched, it may end up a permanent resident. Which is no bad thing.
FFF works out of a spectacular property in Danbulla. Owned by the Clark family for the past five years, the-50 acre paradise took Sue and her animals in when a previous property where FFF had been operating was no longer viable.
The Clark family had moved in three years ago, after setting up a house, water, solar power, clearing sections of the land, and erecting a perimeter fence.
“When we came here, we had two horses,” Beth Clark laughed.
They are now the owners/caretakers of more horses and ponies, at least five rescue dogs (who are “lifers”), a bustling brood of rescue chickens and roosters, sheep, cows, a pig, a donkey – but it’s a moveable list.
Beth had met Sue through her work with animals and their partnership grew from there.
Setting up FFF at Danbulla was a labour of love between family, friends, members and volunteers. With donations of fencing and funds, they turned part of the property into an organised farm, with feed sheds and separate paddocks to cater for the different needs of individual animals.
The paddocks are well-grassed, have shelters, shade and water, with graded tracks between them to allow access for farm machinery, bikes and buggies.
Sue’s son works part-time keeping machines and fencing running, volunteers offer time with the animals, vets come to visit, and numerous businesses support FFF through regular donations.
But with financial pressures hitting many in the community, and a steep funding cut from Animal District Welfare in Atherton (dropping from $1500 a month to $900 due to its own funding reductions), they now have no reserves.
“There’s a lovely realtor in Atherton that gives $50 a week, and there’s our $5 club, which is when you donate $5 a week. We need 200 people, or 200 donations of $5 a month.”
They have 30 donations so far.
“It is such a small fee ... I do know a lot of people are struggling too, but it would take the pressure off the feed bills,” Sue said.
Another setback this year had been the lack of donations from people who adopted a horse. The organisation had four rehomes earlier in the year, but a suggested $1000 donation from each to support the service was not forthcoming, as it is exactly that, a suggestion.
“We don’t care really ... Well, we do ...yeah, but the home was right for the animal, that’s more important,” Sue said.
“$1,000 for what the horses cost us is nothing really,” Beth added. “They get a well-trained and healthy horse.
“It is quite funny. People don’t feel the need. They think it’s a rescue, so it should be free. We get that a lot.
“But for us, we do everything for free. We rescue and importantly, we rehabilitate, feed and care for the animal so they can go to a loving home.”
Sue and Beth recount remarkable success stories as they check on each of the animals around the property.
They have had an owner so afraid of their horse they would throw the feed over the fence rather than entering the paddock. They figured out the problem – fearful body language. The horse is now a darling.
They have rescued an emaciated horse dumped in “the bush” that would have had no hope of surviving. He lived out his too-short life with a beautiful final year at the farm.
They have de-toxed a horse bound for euthanasia and found he was poisoned by massive amounts of supplements fed to him by an unknowing owner talked into the latest trends. He is still not fully recovered but is a stunning creature. And they have rehabilitated horses and cranky Shetland ponies no one could ride, because the riders were simply not adept at riding them.
They have also visited properties to help owners and horses having communication and behavioural problems. The farm was not just about taking an unwanted animal away.
Sue helped found the FFF after she began caring for and rehabilitating a rescue horse 15 years ago – although her ‘horse whispering’ ways have developed over a lifetime.
She had kept it at her residential home, where he had fed off the roadside. Each day she would take it for a run, like you would a pet dog, and word got around of her dedication and results.
“It was fate,” she said. “It started something.”
She works on a horse’s physical and psychological damage and builds back their skills and trust.
Beth helps with riding improvements and training – of both animal and human – and her speciality is emotional well-being and connection.
It all takes time and effort.
“And a community,” Sue said emphatically. “It takes a community; you can’t run a rescue alone.”
To support FNQ Foster Farms go to their Facebook page, where you can sign up for a weekly $5 feed bill donation direct to the supplier, or to a vet bill. Everything is tax deductible.
Or you can make a one-off donation to the FNQ Foster Farms bank account through a direct deposit:
Account Name: FNQ Foster Farms Inc
BSB: 014 503
Acc: 302 892 091
Reference: your name
The organisation is also running a competition for a car through People First Community Lottery Queensland, FNQ Foster Farms for $2 tickets. Visit communitylottery.com.au
Another fundraiser – the Pets Domain Atherton Adoption Day –
