Mare Rescue Heals Horses And Program Participants

Animal communicator Cindie Ambar volunteers weekly for Pregnant Mare Rescue in Watsonville.

PMR is a temporary horse sanctuary committed to rescuing pregnant mares and orphan foals from abuse, advocating for the humane treatment of all horses. Ambar, of Heartsong Animal Healing, is a local animal communicator and healer and has seen horses from all walks of life, former Olympic athletes, mares used to make female hormones, and discarded horses.

“All have been traumatized, some so severely abused or neglected that it takes a great deal of healing work and loving kindness to heal. This includes an understanding of trauma reactions and symptoms, as well as the ability to provide appropriate and compassionate support,” Ambar says. “PMR works with the horses by giving them the space and time they need to heal and allow the horses to take the lead in their own journey.”

She explains that the PMR sanctuary is different from most rescue facilities, which have a trauma-informed perspective when working with horses and provides from two to six hours of pro bono healing work and communication on a weekly basis.

Ambar provides healing with Reiki energy since it’s a modality that can support multiple animals at the same time. Trained in 18 different healing modalities, she uses her skills to create physical, emotional, and behavioral healing for the horses on an individual basis.

She recalls a profound healing experience for a filly named Lady. At six months of age, Lady was untouchable. Ambar made progress on the first two visits, but on the third, something remarkable happened.

“I had been with the horses for almost twenty minutes when Lady started to close her eyes. This meant that I had established a great deal of trust, and she felt safe enough to let her guard down. She continued with eyes closed, starting to drop into sleep,” Ambar says. “She slept standing up for about half an hour, then would open her eyes, stretch, close them, and go back to sleep. After that session, we were able to connect physically.”

While her contributions make a tremendous difference, she attributes much of PMR’s success to farm manager, Denna Kelley, referring to her as “The Horse Whisperer of Santa Cruz County.”

Kelley’s passionate journey with horses began at the age of six when she was drawn in by horses’ elegance, grace, and powerful presence. She had competed in many Equine disciplines over a period of 20 years but after getting married and starting a family, she disconnected from the horse world and began a career helping adolescents suffering from addiction and alcoholism.

In 2012, after suffering a severe injury on the job, her dreams of continuing as a professional clinical technician ended. Suffering from depression after her injury, she began volunteering with Pregnant Mare Rescue, believing that getting back to horses was vital to her recovery. Observing the horses’ healing process sparked a personal healing journey that was far beyond anything she thought was possible.

As the healing began, the depth of Denna’s progress was profound. Recognizing the power of reciprocal healing occurring organically, deepened her understanding of the horse and human relationship, laying out new pathways for deeper healing not only for horses but humans.

She now manages the Pregnant Mare Rescue Sanctuary, where non-ridden and retired rescue horses reside, grazing in their beautiful eight-acre pasture. She gives guided tours offering meditation with the horses, as well as conducting programs for children and adults. She is also developing healing workshops to be offered as the pasture space evolves to facilitate these amazing Zen experiences. Denna speaks of horses as being magical and deeply grounded in a realm we can all aspire to connect to more often.

“They assist in healing through their innate wisdom and are incredible teachers that guide us on a spiritual journey,” Denna says.

Most of the riding I have done in my life has been the “follow the horse in front of you” variety, not all that exciting. But the horseback riding I did at Reba Farm Inn in Bedford, VA (Home of the D-Day Memorial) a few years back just off the Blue Ridge Parkway was “horse riding of a different color” for me!

The guy who runs it with his wife is a real-life “horse whisperer”. I am not kidding. Their specialty is taking in troubled horses and horses with behavioral problems.

He rescues them.

When he gets them, the first thing he does is remove their horse shoes. When you go out to the giant quonset hut where the horses are prepared to go on rides, there is a pile of rusting horseshoes about four feet high. None of his horses have any shoes.

He doesn’t segregate his horses into groups, he just lets them all live together, stallions, mares, and geldings in a huge herd. He says it is how they live in nature, so he lets them. (He did have his prize stallion segregated in a small paddock one day as I reference below, but that was really the only time I saw it in several visits)

As he was explaining this to me, his prize stallion was in the field with all the horses, and was acting up, trying to engage a huge work horse stallion who completely ignored the high-strung stallion. It was comical, and Ron grinned as he pointed this out to me and said “Look at that big lug of a horse...the other one is trying to pick a fight with him, but he couldn’t care less!”

He talks to all of his horses in plain English, and I swear, they understand him. (All these names below are made up since I can’t remember them) I was watching them take out a bunch of horses one day for a group ride. He went to the pasture holding all the horses, opened the gate and yelled “Betsy! Come on.” and a horse peeled off, ran over about fifty yards and right through the partially opened gate, and without any guidance, ran up the hill into the quonset hut and right up to a bucket of oats to eat and wait for a saddle.

He called “Jim! Come on.” and another horse ran over and up the hill into the “stable” to get set up for a ride.

He called out “Strawberry! Come on!” and two horses ran over and both went through the gate. He yelled after one of them “Daisy! Come back...you aren’t going out!” and without hesitation, the horse stopped, turned around and walked back through the still open gate unprompted!

I thought this was amazing-I know some horses are smart, but this guy seemed to have a way with them! When we went inside to saddle the horses, they were all standing where he had placed the buckets of oats and he just walked to each one and clipped their harness to an eye-bolt on the wall. As we were saddling the horses, I heard this ruckus coming from outside somewhere, a horse whinnying loudly and making various horse noises. I was puzzled by this, and didn’t know what was going on, but Ron didn’t even seem to notice it. I said to Ron something like “It sounds like that horse is in trouble or something” and he stopped, went outside and I could see a small one horse paddock about 100 yards away with his prize stallion in it, and the horse was going mental, rearing up, just making a scene. Ron yelled “COWBOY! YOU AREN’T GOING OUT FOR A RIDE TODAY!” and the horse huffed and stamped its front hooves into the ground...hilariously, like a little kid being told he couldn’t play with a toy!

Ron just said “He sees us getting set, and he wants to go with me on the ride.”

I loved it. I had never seen horses in this light before, and I looked at them in a completely different way!

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