Over the Rainbow Bridge
Forever in Our Hearts
This page honors the horses who lived out their final days with us at The Sanctuary, safe, loved and free. Every one of them changed my life, and their stories deserve to be remembered. Thank you to everyone whose donations and sponsorships gave them the soft landing they deserved. Run free, sweet angels.
Mister
My first rescue horse was a beautiful Chestnut thoroughbred named Mister. My farrier was working on my naughty horse Addicus, and told me he thought he was lovely and that I should get him a horse friend. At the time I hardly made enough to support myself and my one horse, but I knew he was right. He said he had a 40-acre pasture that he rented where he kept the horses that his clients were going to put down due to chronic laminitis and other conditions that made them unrideable. He said I could come over and choose any horse I liked and he would deliver it to me.
It just happened to be my 20th birthday and I had the day off, so I followed him to Novato and walked around this giant pasture looking for my new friend. Almost immediately I spotted a flaxen-maned chestnut who was limping across the field. He was shining like gold in the sun. I pointed him out and the farrier said that not only was he lame, he was also blind! It didn't matter to me; he was perfect.
So Mister came to my pasture and Addicus liked him immediately. Addicus loved that he had purpose in protecting Mister and became extremely attached to him. Mister spent a few brilliant years with us, with occasional bouts of soundness, and seemingly a hint of vision now and again. He and Addicus had giant pastures with creeks and Addicus showed Mister how to run along side him. It was a beautiful life of freedom for them both.
One winter, Mister began moving in unusual patterns. I thought it had to do with his vision, as the rest of him seemed perfectly healthy. Each day he would walk in little circles, and I would hold him still until he stopped. One day I arrived and he was spinning and I couldn't stop him. He knocked me over when I tried to stop him. I called the vet to come out right away, realizing that something was really wrong with his behavior.
The vet told me he had seen this before and that he had a severe case of EPM which at the time could not be treated. The grievous decision had to be made to euthanize him that day. It was shocking and it traumatized Addicus deeply. We moved Addicus to another pasture while we said goodbye to Mister, and Addicus was screaming and kicking the fence, knowing something was wrong with his only friend. Mister was unable to stop spinning his head and eyes even when he fell down. I vowed that day to dedicate myself to learning everything I possibly could about preventing disease in horses.
I came to understand that EPM is a parasite that attacks the spinal cord, causing nerve and neurological damage. I learned that EPM parasites can be cleaned using equine-safe long-term herbal parasite cleanses, and the nerve damage can be repaired through certain mushroom blends, acupuncture and stimulating bodywork.
Mister's death led me to creating a holistic horse rescue here in Sonoma County.
Jasmine
After the passing of Addicus's best friend, Mister, Addicus was raging with loneliness. He cried for his friend for three days, when the neighbors called to insist that I get another horse as they couldn't bear to hear his lonely cries. I called up my local rescue and asked for a companion horse. My exact words were, "I need a horse to be my horse's friend, today if possible. Give me whomever you think will never be adopted, I don't need to ride them." They said they had just the horse and would bring her right over. It's the call every rescue is waiting to get! It's incredibly hard to place crippled, untamed horses.
Jasmine arrived within hours and immediately stole my heart. She was a shining blue roan mare with a strange wobbly gate. Addicus was thrilled! Jasmine was so sweet, she lied down and I braided daisies into her mane.
The next day I arrived at their pasture and walked right up to Jasmine to give her love and she reared in my face! She was a completely different horse, and totally terrified. I spent the day trying to gain her trust, to no avail. It became clear to me that she had been heavily drugged for her trailer ride the day before and that no one had told me.
Jasmine had spent the majority of her life as a Premarin mare, meaning that she was kept pregnant and strapped up to a urine catch in a stall for most of her life. Pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer collect the pregnant mare urine to create female hormone replacement drugs for their customers while horses and their unwanted babies suffer the cost. She was abused by humans and made to move with an electric cattle prod which has given her a phobia of anything electric and for many years she suspected that humans hands were the source of electric shock. It took many years of training with a professional to be able to touch her at all. Getting her hooves trimmed was always a drama.
One day about 3 years after I took her in, an eleven-year-old horse-whispering prodigy hopped into Jasmine's pasture and went right for her teats and showed me that she was still producing milk! She told me Jasmine was physically irritated from her years of constant pregnancies and that if we relieved some of this pain and itchiness, we could make friends. She was so right!
Between this woman and one of our other volunteers who fell in love with Jasmine, she became more trusting and began to associate humans with the ability to give her scratches. When I was with her, she would arrange herself so that her belly was against mine, which was how she asked for rubs. She was a fervent mutual groomer and would forget that we are delicate humans, occasionally using her teeth to itch your back while you did hers.. hehe
The part that made her the very best rescue I ever had, was that in her last couple years she actually started chasing me, not to run me off, but to ask for belly scratches. She let me put the halter on her, all thanks to our most passionate, patient volunteers, who won her trust and respect by giving her time without asking for anything. It took many, many peaceful and kind people to teach Jasmine that humans are not all evil. Some of us wanted to love her for no good reason at all, other than she was born deserving it.
Jasmine knew true and patient love in her life. Not only by humans, but by her horse husband Addicus, who was lost without her leadership. He followed her like a puppy, but honestly, they all did. Jasmine was the leader of all my horses that ever came in. No horse was ever above her. Despite her small size and her ruined body and gait, she was FIERCE. She told everyone where to be, when to eat, when to move, and they trusted her completely.
Her death in the spring of 2026 was a difficult one. I didn't want to let her go and I fought it for a long time. I called out everyone I could to get her up one more time, to give her another chance. In the end, she stopped trying to stand, and she was put to her final rest. She is buried in the pasture at our ranch, our forever home, where someday her friends will be buried beside her. Addicus grieved for her deeply.
On the day of her funeral, many ladies came to plant wildflowers on her grave. She knew love.
Cheetah
Cheetah, my sweet angel, was one of the horses that I made a strong friendship with. Cheetah came from a trail riding business that had neglected him due to an injury which made him unable to carry a rider and earn his keep. He was starved, had severe arthritis in all four legs, and a giant knobby knee that was likely broken at one point, not treated, and then the inflammation calcified. His hooves were crumbling from having been neglected for a long time. He was scared and weak and he looked like he was 30 years old.
We put all our love into this guy who was about to be euthanized by his former owner. He gained weight quickly on our special grains, supplements and endless high-quality hay. One day we found out that he had been a former racehorse! He had a tattoo on his upper lip that I was able to research. I found out that he was only 17 years old and that his Racing Name was "Ora's Blake". He was one of the sweetest cuddling horses I've ever had the pleasure of rescuing. He had a stall across from my workshop so that every time I opened my door I could go hug his giant head and give him kisses. He was the only horse that never pulled away from kisses and hugs, just soaking up all the love we could give him. Cheetah had special privileges — I loved to let him out of his stall every morning and just let him roam around the ranch. He got to experience freedoms that most horses will never know.
He passed away at our ranch on December 5, 2023, surrounded by the ladies who loved him so so much during his 9 months with us.
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Ember
Ember came to us in May of 2022, broken and irritable. Like Holly, she came from a local beach trail riding operation. Through patient loving kindness, perhaps thousands of pounds of carrots, and the tender love of her horse husband Tater, she opened her heart to trust again and truly enjoyed her life.
When Tater arrived at the Sanctuary, he was so thin and sick that I assumed I would just give him a happy few weeks. Then... Tater saw Ember, and they fell madly in love, and Tater had a reason to live! Ember needed a big strong protector, as she was crippled and unable to defend herself, and Tater grew HUGE and strong to be just that for her.
Her last summer was the best of her life, with nothing asked of her. She was so light of heart that despite a broken back, severe arthritis in her legs and other health ailments, she was able to canter with Tater down their long grass pasture, on their merry way to gobble grain twice a day. Our sweet old Dancer became her dear friend too.
In December of 2024, I saw a serious decline in her health and happiness. She was afraid to lie down, knowing she would not be able to get back up, and she would try to rest her tired legs by balancing the weight of the front of her body on her teeth in the dirt. The vet was astonished to find that her back had broken many years ago, and the two pieces of her back bone did not even come close to touching. It's a miracle she could walk at all. Along with her severe arthritis, nerve damage and tumors, I understood that it was time for her to get the rest she so needed. The volunteers, and my family who loved her dearly, came to be with her and spoil her and itch her body for her last couple of days.
On the morning of December 28, 2024, Ember passed away so suddenly that she still had fresh hand-picked green grass in her mouth. She was very ready to go. Her friend Dancer stood over her body for a half hour, making certain that he saw her soul up and over the rainbow bridge.