Saving Horses One at a Time

Rescuing forgotten foals from certain death has become common place for Bonnie Buongiorne, founder of Ray of Light Farm. For the past five years, Boungiorne and her dedicated staff have worked hard to ensure that foals, who are the unfortunate “by-products” of the Premarin drug industry (which uses pregnant mare urine to create menopause drugs), find a safe haven and a “ray of light” at this small non-profit farm in East Haddam.

This year, Boungiorne along with transport provided by EARS (Equine Angels Rescue Sanctuary in New Milford, CT), was able to offer sanctuary to eight such foals in dire need. They arrived in late November, worn from their long journey from Canada, where they would have inevitably been put out on feedlots later to be slaughtered.

After rest, relaxation and acclamation, the tiny herd of babies met another kind of light. It gleamed in the eager eyes of renowned, international respected horse specialist, Anna Twinney and her group of Reach Out to Horses program students, who also traveled great lengths to find themselves face to face with these feral foals.

Twinney, armed with fifteen years of dedicated horse rescue experience and a highly perceptive ability to not only whisper to equine souls, but to intuitively understand, feel and help them, reached out to these babies with heartfelt caring, giving them and her students the knowledge, confidence and appreciation of interspecies communication.

“These foals are all born perfect,” says Twinney with an insightful smile. “We just need to listen to them and figure out what they need.”

She adds, “What I teach is a language not a system, it’s not dominant or a you must! It is flexible.”

 “This is the third year we have been able to work with Anna and it has made a huge difference for these foals,” croons Buongiorne. “The first two years, without her here, it was very slow going socializing and handling these babies, (which had very little human contact since birth) which made it harder for them to get adopted.”

Adoption being the ultimate goal for Buongiorne and Twinney alike.

 “I think it is truly a privilege to be able to save the life of a horse,” said Deborah Rosen of Stamford who met Twinney for the first time during this ROTH Foal Gentling program, which combines body language, energy and interspecies communication to give these foals the best possible beginning to the rest of their lives.

“I have been completely blown away by what I have seen and learned here and I will definitely be applying my new knowledge to my own horses,” said Rosen who already has one PMU rescue and is taking two more foals home and sponsoring one other.

Twinney praises both horse and handler with positive feedback to ensure both are learning and understanding one another.

“Breathe,” she says, “Where your heart is, is where you energy is. Don’t block the horse, slowly teach them to look this way then thank that acknowledgement by leaving. When she volunteers herself (the horse) to you, you have to say Thank You. You must capture the whisper in their eyes and give them options. Using force and violence steals their souls.”

With her soft hands, open heart and willing soul approach, Twinney explains, “The language of horses is non-verbal and that’s what we are keying in on here. We have to listen to them, give them a voice. Our first impressions to the horses is understood by actions not words.”

A true believer, like Boungiorne, to lead by example, Twinney uses her own knowledge and experience to help horses through the education of others. “If I get on my soap box and yell no one will listen and it won’t help the horses.”

In six short days Twinney and her ROTH students worked tirelessly together, infusing these foals with love, respect and a lot of give and take. By graduation day each foal was wearing a halter, being led quietly through outside obstacle courses, over bridges, on tarps and through puddles. It was a tearful culmination, filled with lots of introspective learning, pride, awareness, mutual understanding and happiness. Now Charm, Aria, Mystic, Typhoon, Marnin, Shem, Wisdom and Sol each have a very bright future ahead of them as they anxiously await their forever homes.

“Saving the horses and giving them a voice is the most rewarding part of all this for me,” says Twinney.

“Each year rescuing these foals becomes more and more difficult financially, but there is still a need and it is a passion for me, so we keep on doing it. Hopefully, sometime in the near future that need will disappear,” says a hopeful Buongiorne.

 “I adopted two foals from last year’s PMU rescue group that Anna worked with and it was the best decision I ever made. Anna and Ray of Light changed their lives and they have changed my life and my family’s life forever, they will never leave us,” said Paul Lemay who was at the barn for graduation, contemplating adding at least one more foal to his own small herd in Connecticut.

For more information about Anna Twinney and her clinics, go www.reachouttohorses.com. For more information about adopting, sponsoring or fostering one of the remaining rescue foals go to www.rayoflightfarm.org.