By Susan Kayne
For Capital Region Independent Media
They arrive with nobility etched into every line of their being, their bloodlines whispering ancient stories of speed and heart, even as their bodies bear the harsh scriptures of suffering.
Their eyes—once bright with the fire of competition, now dim with confusion and fear. This is what I see when Thoroughbreds like Queen and Lady step off the trailer at Unbridled—saved from a nightmare they should never have suffered, rescued from the horror of America’s slaughter pipeline —a dark, vile stain on our society that continues to exist as a disposal system for unwanted horses.
When you run a horse sanctuary for special needs and senior equines, you dwell at the intersection of sorrow and wonder. You become a keeper of stories written in flesh and bone, a witness to both the darkest chapters of exploitation and the luminous possibility of transfiguration.
Queen of the Bayou and Almost a Lady came to Unbridled from Stroud, Oklahoma, rescued from the edge of oblivion at the slaughter-bound stockyards. Even in their diminished state, the ancient lineage of Thoroughbred royalty radiated from within them. It shimmers in the proud curve of a neck despite exhaustion, in the intelligent depth of an eye despite fear—the lightning of generations, now crackling beneath the surface of beings whose worth had been reduced to pennies per pound.
In late August 2021, Queen was saved within hours of being forced onto a crowded trailer filled with horses bound for slaughter in Mexico. When she arrived at Unbridled, she carried little more than the weight of her bones and the ghost of who she had been. Emaciation had sculpted her once-powerful frame into sharp angles and hollow spaces. Her hind legs, those powerful limbs meant for power and flight, swollen with lymphangitis.
Yet even then, there was music in her movement, a rhythm that spoke of a spirit refusing to surrender its claim.
Lady arrived on Jan. 4, 2024. She had been rescued on Christmas Day—that time when the conveyor belt to slaughter continues its relentless motion, pausing for no holiday. Removing her blanket revealed multiple melanomas that covered her gray body like small mountains.
She had been a star on the racetrack, earning over $184,000, and had produced three foals. Beyond that, we knew only how she arrived—discarded and disheveled after doing all that had been asked of her on the racetrack, in production, and more recently under saddle given the four neatly affixed and new shoes on her four hooves.
At Unbridled, we welcome mares like Queen and Lady with gentle hands, humility and patience. No demands, no expectations. We offer ourselves as witnesses to their unfolding, providing nourishment and safe space to reclaim their dignity. And slowly, like dawn breaking after the longest night, they begin to meet us halfway.
What many fail to understand about these magnificent creatures is their capacity for both memory and forgiveness. They carry the archive of every harsh word and broken promise. But alongside this perfect recall of injustice lives an equally powerful capacity for recognizing kindness—for distinguishing between those who treat them with indifference and those who understand their struggles and see them as kin.
Their most sacred gift lies in revealing to us that inviolable place within themselves—a wellspring of trust that somehow survives trauma—while our gift to them is creating the space where they can choose new family, forging bonds that carry them forward despite all that’s been ripped from them.
Lady found a kindred spirit in Raf And Ready, another senior Thoroughbred mare rescued from auction. Their friendship began as a gentle acknowledgment across a stall wall and blossomed into something profound; grazing, elaborate grooming rituals, and the silent language that flows between beings who have walked similar paths.
Queen formed a soul-bond with Town On Fire, a senior Thoroughbred mare rescued from the same slaughter-bound feedlot in Oklahoma. Dawn after dawn, I’d find them inseparable—Town always positioning herself as Queen’s living shield, her body a barrier between Queen and any other mares in the field. When Queen lay down to rest, Town would stand guard.
When Queen’s legs troubled her, Town seemed to know before any of us, gently slowing her pace to match Queen’s capability that day. Their eyes would meet in silent communication that needed no human translation. This wasn’t mere companionship—it was friendship in its purest form, manifested not in grand gestures but in the hundred small ways Town protected Queen from a world that had already hurt them both too deeply.
On days when the weight of gravity eased its hold on their pain-worn bodies, Queen and Town would surprise us with unexpected poetry—a shared gallop across the spring grass, manes catching the light like pennants, tails raised in momentary jubilation. These weren’t echoes of their racing days but expressions of something purer—the exhilaration of movement for its own sake, undertaken not for human entertainment but for the sheer delight of feeling alive.
Lady and Raffy created between them a daily liturgy of touch—each taking turns to groom the places the other couldn’t reach. In these quiet exchanges, we glimpsed their essential nature—beings of intricate complexity and profound emotional depth.
While Queen moved through the world with thoughtful deliberation, her gaze assessing and intelligent, Lady carried herself with a gentle extroversion, nickering her greetings, her presence a kind of benediction.
These relationships aren’t random coincidences; they are chosen kinships. In the freedom of sanctuary, horses weave new family tapestries. They heal each other in ways human hands cannot touch, speaking a wordless language of shared experience and mutual recognition.
But sanctuary isn’t just about restoring joy—it’s about honoring the entire arc of existence, including its end. For Lady, that threshold came far too soon. Though her legs stayed strong, the melanomas that invisibly entangled the inside of her body finally overtook her spirit’s nobility. Unable to function under her own strength, Lady stood with Raffy nearby, sadness clouding her friend’s eyes.
Like in Terry Jacks’ “Seasons in the Sun,” Lady released her hold on a body that had served her as well as it could but could no longer carry on. It was hard for her to die and even harder for Raffy to witness—losing her friend at just 16, barely half of her natural lifespan. She was laid to rest with dignity and humanity, finally free of pain and suffering.
Queen’s crossing followed months upon months of comfort care. The pre-existing conditions that plagued her hind legs, despite a year of dedicated veterinary intervention, had not improved. Though seemingly young and full of life in spirit, her body ultimately failed her. When she could no longer live with dignity, the heart-wrenching but just decision was made to lay her to rest. And so it was on Feb. 1, 2025, surrounded by the love and presence of our volunteers, our veterinarian, and her constant companion Town, that Queen took her final breath.
From the moment she arrived until she crossed the Rainbow Bridge, she knew love, she knew care, and she knew that she mattered—not for what she could do but for who she was: a living, breathing, sentient being sharing this earth with us.
The story of Queen and Lady repeats itself thousands of times each year. Ex-racehorses, discarded when broken or aged beyond usefulness, face precarious futures. Most will never find sanctuary. Most will end their lives in confusion and terror, their noble bodies processed anonymously, their consciousness—as rich and complex as any—extinguished without acknowledgment.
But for those who reach Unbridled, another ending is possible. There is redemption in gentle hands and spacious fields. There is the miracle of chosen companionship. There is the restoration of dignity. There is family—across species lines—and there is peace.
In their final race, Queen and Lady crossed a finish line marked not by cameras and glory but by something far more profound: the quiet completion of a journey traveled with indomitable courage and ended in love’s encompassing embrace. Though their time with us was brief, they dwell now in that safe place in our hearts where no pain can reach them.
May we honor their lives by recognizing the sacred in the ordinary, by entering each day with a generous heart, by serving the call of courage and love until that day when there is no more separation, and we find ourselves, once again, standing together in the light.
Susan Kayne is the founder and president of Unbridled Sanctuary, an equine rescue on the border of Albany County and Greenville.
