Horses of Unbridled: Saving Love

By Melanie Lekocevic

Capital Region Independent Media

GREENVILLE — Unbridled Thoroughbred Foundation has galloped its way into the neighborhood.

Unbridled moved its horse rescue group from Coxsackie to a 30-acre site in Greenville and recently cut the ribbon on its new facility.

“We moved here from Coxsackie,” said Susan Kayne, president and founder of Unbridled. “We had a wonderful location there, but with the approval of the solar project, there was absolutely no way that we could grow or expand our footprint.”

Kayne plans to grow the facility and provide care for horses, and along the way build awareness of the plight of the majestic animals she loves so much.

“Our vision for Unbridled is to have as many horses as we can,” Kayne said. “We are rooted in education, in horsemanship, advocacy, legislative initiatives and getting laws passed to protect horses, and just didn’t have enough of a venue to be able to expand into what we envisioned we would be doing.”

The organization currently houses 40 horses rescued from abuse, cruelty and neglect situations, with many coming from the slaughter pipeline, Kayne said. On the day of the ribbon cutting, she also announced that Unbridled had just closed the deal on purchasing an adjacent property where she plans to expand the group’s reach in advocating for horses.

“We bought the old Wild Times factory,” she said. “It’s a 9,000-square-foot warehouse that we are going to turn into an education center, an art gallery, put a few pads in for campers to come to do an Airbnb. What is so beautiful for the horses is that there are about 13 acres that are clear that we can fence in and add to our pastures.”

The new site also gives Unbridled access to something they had very little of — storage space — and when you are caring for 40 horses, sufficient storage capacity is a must.

“The beauty of this location is that we have very large storage areas, so we have a hay barn. We just got a tractor-trailer load of hay, which is 30,000 pounds of hay, so we can store that here,” Kayne said. “That is an example of what we didn’t have in Coxsackie. It was very challenging not having the storage space.”

Kayne said she has been involved with horses her whole life and developed an affinity and love for the animals.

“I do what I do because I love horses, I have loved them my whole life,” she said. “I was always involved with them competitively, whether in show jumping or in racing or endurance-type riding.”

That love of horses evolved into advocacy and a lifelong passion for protecting them.

“Over the decades, I got to really know and understand who horses are, from their mind to their personality to the depth of emotions that they have, to their socialization and their capacity to feel, just as we do, and that they are truly fellow sentient beings,” Kayne said. “As that developed in me, I also concurrently saw how many horses were being abused, neglected, the subject of cruelty cases, and, most egregiously, the hundreds of thousands that ship to slaughter.”

Horse slaughter is illegal in the United States, but horse auctions are still permitted, and brokers purchase the animals at these auctions and then ship them to Canada or Mexico where they can be legally slaughtered. The number of horses in the slaughter pipeline has been reduced to 85,000 to 90,000 a year, Kayne said. Those numbers spurred her to action.

“I became really active with advocacy, with speaking, trying to embolden a new ethical perspective to consider who horses are, as our friends and companions, and done a lot of work legislatively,” Kayne said.

One of the advocacy measures she took on was working with state lawmakers to pass the first law in New York state that prevents Thoroughbred, breeding and racing stock horses from being sold for slaughter or transferred through the state for slaughter.

“That was a groundbreaking bill that Gov. [Kathy] Hochul signed into law at the beginning of this year,” Kayne said. “That is a huge step for horses and for the first time criminalizes the act of selling certain horses to slaughter.”

She said she hopes to do more on the legislative end in protecting horses.

“I will use my voice, my time, my talent to do everything I can to change hearts and minds and laws to protect horses, and also to educate people as to what is going on with the plight that horses face and what they can do and how they can become active participants to enjoy horses,” Kayne said.

Pamela Geskie, president and executive director of the Greene County Chamber of Commerce, was on hand to help the volunteers and advocates of Unbridled to cut the ribbon on the new facility.

“Susan [Kayne] is amazing — the love that she has for what she does and for these horses, and the love that is given back to her by these amazing animals, sometimes I am at a loss for words because she just does so much, and she does it because she loves doing it and because she really cares,” Geskie said.

Volunteer Rachel Zanchelli began volunteering at Unbridled about a year ago when the group was still at its Coxsackie facility. She feeds, waters, grooms the animals, and helps out wherever she can. Her love for horses has only grown over that span of time.

“It’s an outlet for me. I call it horse therapy,” Zanchelli said. “It’s just so rewarding. These horses have been through so much that it brings tears to my eyes.”

Many of the animals that come to Unbridled have been neglected or abused, but while some are fearful when they first get there, they become loving animals to the people who care for them.

“It’s like you have 40 four-legged friends,” Zanchelli said.