Cleopatra

Cleopatra's Story:

We first saw her at the August 2025 auction...

We had already saved all the horses on our list that day, but we had the funds left for one more horse. So we watched the sale and waited for one of the horses going through to speak to our hearts.

When she stepped into the ring, her hip bones were what I noticed first. A saddle laid over her back, hiding her spine and ribs protruding, but her hip bones and thin neck told me all I needed to know.

Her eyes were completely bleak and it seemed like no one was home inside this gorgeous horse. I could tell she absolutely HATED being ridden.

I could also tell that she was a mustang because she has the specific frame and often lots of mane and feather (the hairs on their legs).

I threw my hand up without hesitation.

After the auction, I spoke with the man who sold her.

He confirmed that my hunch that she was a mustang was correct and he told me she came off of a New Mexico reservation. He bought her several months before, broke her, and brought her here to sell for a profit.

My heart fully broke when we got her home and I realized how scared she truly was of people. In every way, Cleo was still just as wild and terrified of the scary humans that took her from her home as she was the day she was rounded up. They just threw a saddle on her and expected the world.

You can’t walk up to her, you can’t catch her, and she does not want to be touched- but yet her will was bent and her spirit broken enough to ride and seem docile in the sale ring.

Had she sold to someone looking for a good riding horse, she would have ended up right back at the auction the next month because she’s got behavioral issues from being so scared and being forced through it.

And then... she would have ended up sold to the kill buyer and headed for Mexico for slaughter like so many before her.

I couldn’t let that happen. Thanks to our incredible community I was able to immediately say YES without any hesitation and pull her out of the slaughter pipeline and out of the horrible life of abuse she was forced into.

We brought her home and her journey to health began.

Now, she is absolutely thriving. She has several very close mustang friends within her herd. She is absolutely stunning and she feels good in her body. She has a spark In her eyes again and she loves taking a dip in the creek and running the hills for the fun of it!

Cleo is restored ❤️

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