My Nonprofit Reviews

Wakina was born into a herd of 27 wild horses that wandered freely on the Texas range, living off of the land. Only two of the horses, the stallion and mare that started the herd, knew the kindness and love of the human heart. To the others, humans were a threatening predator. The herd’s owner had watched it grow, but lost interest in the welfare of the magnificent horses. With no remorse, he made the decision to sell the herd for slaughter. Word quickly spread among rescue groups in three states of his decision. Pooling their resources and the donations of countless others, these groups were able to save the herd from slaughter and find homes for all of the horses. Four young horses, three fillies and a colt, were placed with Dreamchaser Horse Rescue and Rehabilitation. Wakina was one of the fillies. The stallion of the herd also stayed at Dreamchaser. When Dreamchaser’s founder Susan Thompson and her daughter Jamie first entered the pen holding the five rescued horses, the stallion was the only horse that immediately accepted the human presence. He freely approached them and placed his head lovingly on Jamie’s chest. The other four horses ran away in total fear whenever humans entered their turnout. The challenge for Susan and her staff of Dreamchaser volunteers was to provide security, bonding, and human leadership to the four young horses. Their goal was to guide each horse toward full acceptance and trust of the human environment and then to place them with caring people who would continue to nourish the horses through endless love. But they knew that gentling totally unpredictable wild horses was dangerous. From the beginning, Wakina was more accepting of human presence and touch. After eighteen months of gentling and learning that humans would not hurt her, Wakina’s fear of humans was replaced by trust, and her instinct for the herd’s security was replaced by acceptance of human association. After several more months of training, Wakina was ready to find her forever home. On Father’s Day in 2010, our family visited Dreamchaser with the hope of adopting a horse. Susan greeted us when we arrived and took us on a tour of the ranch. One by one, she showed us many of the sixty rescued horses in her care. But Susan’s heart told her that our family would be a perfect match for one special horse that we had not yet seen. Susan turned to her partner and asked him to bring in Wakina. When he did, everyone knew that it would be a perfect match. Wakina approached our family and lovingly placed her head on my wife’s chest, just as the herd’s stallion had done 2½ years earlier when the frightened and lost horses had first arrived at Dreamchaser. Tears flowed freely as we realized that after all that Wakina had been through, she reached out and chose us to be her forever family. We adopted Wakina that day.

More Feedback