Coxsackie horse sanctuary selected top 10 in nation

Unbridled Thoroughbred Foundation on Farm to Market Road in Coxsackie was among 10 chosen from 100 nominees to compete for the annual Rescue of the Year Award presented by the Equis Save Foundation in Montana.

“The sanctuary has been named among the top 10 rescues in the country,” Unbridled Thoroughbred Foundation founder Susan Kayne said Friday. “The competition is now turned over to the public. We were selected out of over 100 submissions, so it’s quite an honor among peers.”

Unbridled is the only equine rescue in New York state to make the top 10. Other top 10 rescues are in Minnesota, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Oregon, South Carolina, Connecticut and New Hampshire, according to the Equis Save Foundation website.

The grand prize winner will be announced after voting ends Aug. 15. The winner will receive a $1,000 grant that can be used for operations and facility upkeep, Kayne said.

She does not know who nominated Unbridled for the honor, but the sanctuary is in good company.

“The top 10 are among the very best rescues in the country,” Kayne said. “They serve different breeds of horses in different sectors of the rescue community.”

Kayne founded Unbridled in 2004 and moved the facility to Coxsackie in August 2019.

“We initially started off helping retiring race horses transition into second careers as riding horses or pleasure horses or show horses,” Kayne said. “Over the years, we have evolved into a full-scale sanctuary. Our primary focus at this juncture is on education — we want to share with our community and with the country the plight of horses and through our advocacy and educational programs really inspire critical thinking, compassion and consideration for what we are doing with horses, why, and what is informing those decisions.”

Volunteer Andrea Basile has been with Unbridled for about two years and has been inspired by the work they do.

“I started as a volunteer and now I am an impassioned soldier,” Basile said. “When something works right, you get more involved. Susan Kayne has a very unique philosophy — her mother was a breeder and she was born to it. She learned every aspect of a horse’s life and she would give her life to save these mares.”

Basile recalled a lame horse that came to the sanctuary unable to walk. Kayne watched the mare and saw something in her no one else did.

“The horse was so emaciated she could barely walk,” Basile said. “Susan was watching her and sensed something about this horse. She said she would make a good jumper.”

At the time, Basile was skeptical.

“That horse is now in a new home and is winning gold medals and is on the cover of magazines, jumping and winning competitions,” Basile said. “Susan saw something in that horse that the rest of us didn’t. Most rescues don’t have that — they are just people who want to save horses. But this is amazing, what Susan does.”

In addition to the sanctuary’s work rescuing horses, Kayne and her team of volunteers advocate for legislation protecting the animals.

“In America, about 100,000 domesticated, purposefully bred horses are sent to slaughter each year,” Kayne said. “They are shipped over our borders to Canada and Mexico and most people have no idea that this exists. That is something we do a lot of work to bring attention to — to protect horses from falling into the slaughter pipeline.”

Horse meat is illegal for human consumption in the United States, but it is not illegal to ship horses to Canada or Mexico to be slaughtered for meat, Kayne said. But some are slaughtered in the United States for another purpose.

“Horses are also slaughtered inside the United States for zoo food,” Kayne said. “That is not really talked about, but it does happen. I don’t know the exact number of horses, but it is many tons of zoo food to feed big cats who are captive.”

One of Unbridled’s missions is to promote legislation that would make the slaughter of horses for any purpose illegal nationally.

“We really take a moral stand for the horses, saying that this is wrong,” Kayne said.

Over the years, Unbridled has rescued hundreds of horses, and currently has 20 equines at the Coxsackie sanctuary and another 10 housed at properties in Greenville and Troy, Kayne said. When possible, the horses are adopted out. For those with special needs or are aging, they can live out the rest of their lives at Unbridled.

Karen Nash began volunteering at the sanctuary grooming the animals, and now works with another aspect of Unbridled — the education program.

“Unbridled is doing work that is incredible,” Nash said Friday. “I have learned so much about how horses are treated and how they are abused and sent into the slaughter pipeline. It is very uplifting to see the horses and know they will be taken care of for the rest of their lives.”

Nash helps get the word out about the value of the horses and their need for protection.

“Susan has worked miracles in terms of providing for the safety of the horses and I feel she has done work with the community and with outreach,” Nash said. “We are trying to get the word out and provide education to students and community members — there are so many lessons to be learned from horses.”

The organization is deserving of the national honor, Nash said.

“Unbridled is saving the lives of horses and, in turn, the horses are enhancing the lives of people in our community,” Nash said.

For the next 10 weeks, the public can vote for the rescue they feel is most deserving of the Rescue of the Year Award. A vote for the favored finalist can be cast once per day through Aug. 15, at equissavefoundation.org/rescue-finalist