Support Our Draft Horse Sanctuary work in the community!

My name is Pamela Rickenbach and I run a Draft Horse Sanctuary in Canaan, ME. We provide a home on our farm for twenty retired, homeless and disabled draft horses, three steers and a cow. This farm was purchased for them so that they can live out their lives and become apart of the community they live in, active members in helping build strong connections to the people in the community along with offering a path to personal well being and re connection to nature.

I was asked to create this fundraiser from our friends at El Rancho de la Vida recovery center. We have been building relationships with the residents there for several months now and in many ways have just begun to explore the ways we can continue to build our already successful partnership in the future for a long time to come. We moved to the area nearly 2yrs ago and have been struggling to get our farm established. We have had a couple of serious setbacks, last years flooding and delays in getting our own soil restoration business up and running. It has become detrimental to our ability in caring for the herd. For this reason we are asking for support with their feed, hay and medical care for the next couple of months while we do all we can to get on our feet and build the legacy we came here to share.

Our monthly feed and hay costs are over $6000 a month, not including the health care they require. We are starting to fall behind, we have a plan but we need time to get it running more smoothly, something we are working very hard at.

The residents at El Rancho have really benefited from the amazing relationships they are establishing with the animals here, the horses in particular. The horses have greatly benefited too! They participate in the basic husbandry of grooming, walking, helping in trimming hooves and feeding, all skills that develop the deep relationships that build the connection to each individual horse.

It is well known that horses have a profoundly important role in helping deal with the stress of these times. Horses give us an opportunity for a powerful and profound, yet gentle journey of self-discovery through relationship with an extraordinary and ancient language in sensitivity. Having a horse as a partner, choosing to awaken our ability to learn their language allows us to understand ourselves in an entirely new way. This understanding quietly transforms our lives as the horses help make conscious for us what was unconscious. Horses help learn about yourself and the impact you make on your environment and the world. They also help identify and enhance personal strengths while conquering limitations. Horses are honest mirrors to our inner selves in nonjudgmental and accepting ways, offering us freedom to re-connect to our authentic self. What we feel is what they see and mirror back to us. They change lives and already have.

Please listen below to Sonni LeBrie's interview. Sonni has a life plan now that includes the horses. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Xk5lBg6zJ0A

I have been doing this work for over 15yrs now and have helped place and care for over 500 working horses in need. We have a long and well lived history in providing care for the horses and sharing with the community in multiple ways. We have served trade schools with apprenticeship programs, provided different forms of equine therapy for Veterans, Recovery groups, Seniors, Autistic and brain injured patients along with teaching usable driving skills at the Stockbridge School of Agriculture at UMass College.

Many of our horses have grown up with us and are very experienced at outreach in their communities i.e. Fairs, parades, demonstrations, presentations at Historical Societies, Museums and Schools.

We have elder, mature and professional, disabled and very young orphan horses in our care who live naturally in herds on land that we were able to purchase nearly 2yrs ago. This land and the building on it are undergoing restoration and special design in order to be in ecological balance with our natural surroundings. Physically on our farm we feature soil restoration and ecological design as a base model for keeping the horses well being foremost while enriching the land. We share skills and knowledge with all that are interested at no cost. We are inclusive to all humans seeking to understand and know the working horses better.

We have a emphasis in our work, especially in the last years, since COVID and of so much social change, to provide opportunities to simply be with the horses and nature as a way of supporting our collective mental health and well being.

Thank you for taking the time to look closer look at who we are at Equiculture @Anam Cara Farm and our needs in order to continue to build this important relationship to our important community leaders in making a difference. El Rancho de la Vida