Fundació

The Miranda Foundation was born in 2008 with the desire to rescue and recover horses who live in difficult situations, of abuse, isolation or abandonment, and offer them a dignified life. We facilitate their life in herds and in freedom, in large natural spaces. We accompany them in the process of becoming free, healthy and safe beings again, of recovering their balance and physical, emotional and mental health, in contact with the natural environment and with the group of horses. They receive our support and attentive care, and when necessary, a supplement of fodder and veterinary care to ensure the quality of the adaptation process. Currently 70 horses and ponies, 6 donkeys and 1 mule live with us.

The horse is gregarious and claustrophobic, it needs space and a group. It is a herbivore, not a granivore, and it must be able to graze at least 16 hours a day. It is a nocturnal animal. It is a movement by definition, it needs to move to eat and eat to move. Nature has designed it with perfect hooves that do not require horseshoes. In conditions of freedom a horse can travel 40 km per day. We consider any handling that does not meet these basic needs as abuse and we promote a new paradigm of animal welfare.

The Orri Plan: a seed that continues to walk. There are places that mark a history. And there are stories that end up transcending places. The Pla de l'Orri has been one of these special spaces for the Miranda FoundationFor years, among forests, pastures and mountains, we have accompanied rescued horses on their return to the freedom, we have recovered paths of transhumance, we have learned to listen to nature and have shared with thousands of people another way of relating to animals and the territory. Many winters of snow and ice at 1.700 meters full of challenges and learnings…

But what made Pla de l'Orri unique wasn't just the landscape. It was the view. It was the trust in horses as guardians of ecosystems. It was the will to regenerate, to care and to reconnect. It was everything that, day after day, we sowed in this place.

In 2025 we had to leave this space that we still consider HOUSE of the horses, as we say in the award-winning documentary Marina Road.

Today, the Pla de l'Orri is in a new stage. Other people and other projects will continue to give life to these pastures. We celebrate it, because living territories need new paths and new hands to care for them. Meanwhile, the Miranda Foundation continues its own path. Because our essence has never been tied to a specific estate. What we have built in the Pla de l'Orri is part of a living legacy that accompanies us wherever we go: in every horse recovered, in every regenerated landscape, in every person who has discovered a new way of looking at nature thanks to this experience. The Pla de l'Orri is forever part of our history. It is a fundamental chapter of our path, a place where ideas, bonds and learnings took root that today continue to grow beyond their physical limits. Because spaces may change hands. But the seeds sown continue to travel. And the history of Miranda, like his horses, continues to walk free.

As main values, we highlight animal welfare, respect for life, and the conservation of the natural environment.

On the one hand, in Miranda Foundation, we are dedicated to the rescue and/or recovery of horses that have suffered abandonment and abuse. We also carry out preventive work, taking in horses from people at risk, before they are in a critical state, which makes it difficult or impossible for them to adapt to open spaces or natural contexts.

On the other hand, horses have shown themselves to be effective managers of land conservation, and once reintroduced into the natural environment, they perform an efficient task of preventing fires and improving biodiversity.

At the same time, horses that live in fullness and the natural context in which they live become a great positive and transformative resource for the health and emotional and physical well-being of the people we come into contact with.

Let's talk about Transversal Well-being: Horses, People, Nature.

A couple of years ago we worked together with the Department of Climate Action (Veterinarians and Livestock Managers, together with Rosa Galindo and Anita Jauch from Fundació Miranda) to create a Manual of Good Practices for the keeping of horses, which is posted on their respective websites.

Currently, we have a Welfare Protocol that is being completed through our Welfare Commission, in permanent contact and continuous work, and in monthly meetings (Miranda Team and those responsible for each territory, plus regular veterinarians). Also accessible on the Miranda Foundation website.

We have also recently created the Przewalski Horse Welfare Protocol (Giska Protocol), which is in the participatory process phase and is subject to an Emergency Meeting in specific cases that require expert assessment (designed by Rosa Galindo and Laura Riera FAADA, and contrasted with Equip Miranda, Equip Reserva de Boumort, experts from the French entity TAKH, Rewilding Spain, and UDL and UAB veterinarians and experts).

In relation to the territory, the vision or ideal of our Entity is to be able to have a large natural space to house the 80 equines (approximate number maintained) for which we are responsible.

So far we have not been able to achieve this objective and the complexity of this situation has caused us stress and cost dynamics, and having to survive with the herds permanently dispersed in different territories of Catalonia with the complication that this entailsWe have made a fortress out of this difficulty, but that doesn't make us give up on our dream!

This circumstance that we have encountered due to the difficulty of access to land and lack of aid (primary sector livestock policies), as third sector livestock farmers, has also given us a lot of experience and a lot of muscle (since March 2008).

In terms of well-being, it is essential for us to respect the bonds between beings, and having a large space would allow the horses themselves to be responsible for self-regulating their social life and choosing family groups and life partners. Currently, we pay a lot of attention to ensuring that this is the case, but we often find ourselves in dilemmas and having to decide for them where to place certain individuals depending on their life stage, the spaces available and their characteristics.

Territorial dispersion multiplies our costs and causes us to enter emergencies because there are many factors that do not depend on us, but are activated without us being able to control their impact. (productive rotations, dumping of manure in the fields, fires, hunting incidents, changes of ownership, coexistence with neighboring ranchers, disputes between properties, climate emergency and effects such as the drying up of springs and watering points, many movements of horses due to changes that occur in their life cycle and in environmental factors that we have already mentioned).

This multiplies the management, supervision, veterinary trips, enclosures, maintenance, reconciliation with other agents in the territory, documentation, guides, and all livestock permits, inspections... It also makes us so unique that we do not easily fit into regulations and administrative classifications.

What we desire and seek is a large, unique space, with water and pasture, like those of livestock farming. productive (we often end up grazing in places that are difficult to access, poor or unproductive pasture that no one wants and that is not of interest to the first-sector livestock sector, with which we cannot compete in tenders) that allows us to land and take root in the Project, so that no one can kick us out, or intervene in a way that is not aligned with our principles (we often find ourselves in the situation of having to fit into productive rotations that are not in line with our purpose).

From the stability of this space, we would see it in line with our mission to be able to temporarily move small herds to other areas where we would consider collaborations in pilot projects for the management and conservation of habitats, ecosystems, fire prevention and the creation of resilient landscapes.

Therefore, our entity transcends the figure and physical structure of what a sanctuary or protectorate would be because it has a more transversal scope, and at the same time would require a single sanctuary space, of adequate dimensions, to avoid the involuntary territorial dispersion to which we are prone., and that we could carry out from the strength that stability gives, instead of doing it out of necessity and with difficulty as up to now.

The purpose is to stabilize and ensure the freedom of the horses and donkeys we have taken in and prepare to receive others, designing and carrying out unique and territorial conservation projects without urgency and with resources, through alliances and custody agreements as we currently do.

Having exposed all this, let us describe OUR TERRITORIAL REALITY:

Currently, the horses graze in: Garraf, Alt Urgell, Baix Pallars (Boumort), Baix I Alt Berguedà (Central Catalonia), in addition to the Transhumance journeys carried out throughout the territory.

GARRAF – Agreement with DIBA and Parc del Garraf. Private properties.

BAJ BERGUEDÀ – (Viver and Serrateix). Custody Agreement with the property.

ALT BERGUEDÀ – Custody Agreement with Private Property. 1000 ha of which 6 are understood as pasture, but the horses are grazing where the chamois climb and have spent the winter very well, without the need to supplement their feed.

HIGH URGELL – Custody Agreements with private properties in Arsèguel and Ansovell (About 50 hectares).

In the municipality of Querforadat we have just received a legacy of 50 hectares, most of which are scattered. We are the owners.

BOUMORT – Unique project with agreement with the Generalitat de Catalunya (Forests) and with Aid for the Conservation of the Boumort Collegats Protected Natural Area (GISKA Project) from the Department of Territory and Ecological Transition.