By Susan Kayne
For Capital Region Independent Media
A few weeks ago, I shared the story of Captured Angel, a Thoroughbred whose early life traced the stark contrast between racing’s golden promises and its shadowed realities. Today, I’m watching her load onto a trailer bound for Florida, and I’m struck by how life’s most meaningful chapters often arrive unexpectedly.
Angel isn’t traveling alone. Beside her stand Heaven and Red, two other young mares whose lives have become inextricably woven with hers during their time at Unbridled Sanctuary. Their story illuminates something profound about horses that many humans overlook: the depth and healing power of equine friendships.
We often think of horses as athletic partners or performance animals, measuring their worth in ribbons won or tasks completed. But here at Unbridled, we’ve learned to see them through a different lens – as beings capable of forming bonds so deep they can transform trauma into triumph.
Take Heaven, who arrived at our Sanctuary in May 2022. She was rescued from the slaughter-bound stockyards in Bowie, Texas. Barely more than a baby, her long legs and gangly frame betrayed her youthfulness. In those early days, anxiety lurked in her every movement. At the tender age of 18 months or so, she had been abused, neglected and abandoned. But horses, like humans, have a remarkable capacity for overcoming fears when given the right support system.
Enter Angel and Red, survivors of the unwinding of 756 Farms – a once-prestigious breeding operation where bloodlines worth millions ran through the pastures. Angel, daughter of promising young sire Danza, and Red, carrying the royal blood of Preakness winner Shackleford, had been carefully bred for racing glory. But when tragedy struck and a key partner in the entity passed away, these young Thoroughbreds found themselves caught in a legal limbo that would last years. Their world shrank to overgrown pastures where they grew wild, their prestigious pedigrees meaning nothing as basic care dwindled away.
Then came the terror of the Unadilla roundup – a day of whips and shouts, of metal trailers and strange hands, as 44 panicked Thoroughbreds were driven from their familiar fields to the auction block.
These three young mares found each other at Unbridled, each carrying stories of a world where carefully planned beginnings had unraveled into chaos. Perhaps they recognized in each other the common thread of their experiences – all had been purposefully bred, cherished at first, then cast aside when circumstances changed. Did they share memories of friends lost along the way? Of gentle hands turned harsh? Of hunger and fear and confusion? We’ll never know exactly what drew them together, but their bond formed swiftly and ran deep.
In each other, they found something essential: understanding. They recognized in one another the echoes of their own experiences, the wariness, the need for safety, the hunger for connection. Their friendship became a shelter where they could heal together, their shared past a foundation for building trust in the future. What we witnessed over the following months defied conventional training wisdom. Traditional horsemanship often advocates separating horses to “focus” their attention on humans. But watching these three heal together taught us something profound about equine emotional intelligence.
They created their own language of comfort. When Heaven would startle at unexpected sounds, Angel would position herself as a living shield, her presence steady and grounding. Red became the group’s confident explorer, her curiosity inspiring her friends to venture beyond their comfort zones. Angel, whose early years of neglect had left deep emotional scars, learned to trust again by watching her companions’ growing relationships with their handlers.
Their daily rituals became a dance of mutual support. They would graze in perfect synchronization, their bodies aligned like dancers in a silent ballet. During veterinary visits, they took turns standing guard for one another, offering reassurance through gentle nickers and soft touches. These weren’t just habits – they were conscious choices to support each other through every challenge.
This is what many people miss about horses: they don’t just tolerate company; they actively create community. Their relationships aren’t simple hierarchies or convenience partnerships. They’re complex emotional bonds that can rival human friendships in their depth and loyalty.
Now, as these three mares begin their next chapter together at a professional training facility in Florida, they’re teaching us another valuable lesson. Their potential as show horses isn’t diminished by their deep attachment – it’s enhanced by it. Their confidence, built on the foundation of their friendship, makes them more capable of engaging with new challenges.
The decision to keep them together wasn’t just sentimental – it was a recognition of how integral their bond is to their well-being. In their new home, they’ll continue supporting each other through their development and transitions ahead, their friendship providing the security they need to embrace new experiences.
This is what ethical engagement with horses looks like: recognizing and honoring their emotional needs alongside their physical ones. At Unbridled, we’ve learned that healing happens on the horse’s timeline, not ours. Sometimes that means watching three young mares spend years rebuilding their trust in humans through the scaffold of their trust in each other.
As I watch the trailer pull away, I’m filled not with sadness but with profound hope. These mares carry with them not just the promise of new beginnings but living proof of something we at Unbridled have always known: when we honor horses’ deep capacity for connection, we don’t just heal their past trauma – we build bridges to their future potential.
Their journey reminds us that in the end, it’s not our training techniques or our ambitious goals that create breakthrough moments with horses. It’s our willingness to see them as they truly are: emotional, intelligent, social, sensitive, sentient beings capable of forming bonds that can transform fear into courage, isolation into community, and survival into flourishing.
In a world that often rushes to impose human timelines on healing, Angel, Heaven and Red stand as testament to the power of patience, the importance of friendship, and the transformative potential of being truly seen and understood. Their story isn’t just about three horses finding their way to a brighter future – it’s about what becomes possible when we honor the healing power of equine bonds.
Susan Kayne is the founder and president of Unbridled Sanctuary, an equine rescue on the border of Albany County and Greenville.