From Auction to Sanctuary. Left: On August 23, 2025, an unidentified mare stood tethered in an auction barn without intervention,
she and her unborn foal would have been trafficked into the slaughter pipeline. On March 7, 2026, she safely delivered a healthy colorful colt in Sanctuary.
She Was The Last Horse Sold That Night.
Eight Months Later, She Gave Birth Safely.
A mare rescued from the Unadilla Auction delivers a healthy colt at Unbridled Sanctuary — March 7, 2026.
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HER STORY
On August 23, 2025, a mare was dropped at the gate of the Unadilla Auction with no paperwork, no history, and no name. In auction language, she was a walk-in — a horse no one bothered to document. Half blind. Hind legs permanently injured from a life pulling a cart. She was the last horse sold that night.
Unbridled Sanctuary Founder Susan Kayne saw her, and made her a promise:
“No matter what happens tonight, I will not leave without you. I will bring you home.”
Unbridled’s Auction Rescue Fund made that promise possible.
The mare came home. She was carefully rehabilitated — given the nourishment and medical attention her body and permanently injured hind legs had long been denied. She was named JOYFULL. What no one knew was that she was pregnant.
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Had Unbridled not been on site that evening, this mare and her unborn colt would have been trafficked into the slaughter pipeline.
On March 7, 2026 at 7:45 PM, Joyfull delivered a healthy colt at Unbridled Sanctuary in Greenville, New York. Both mother and colt are thriving.
Two lives that were never meant to be documented. Both have names now.
WHAT MAKES UNBRIDLED DIFFERENT | A Movement With Real Horses
Unbridled Sanctuary is home to 65 rescued equines on any given day.
It holds the largest living archive of real horse rescue stories in America — over two decades of documented lives pulled from abuse, exploitation, neglect, and slaughter. Every horse has a name. Every rescue has a date. Every outcome is on record.
Most sanctuaries rescue horses. Unbridled also keeps the testimony.
Unbridled operates at two levels simultaneously:
Upstream — Advocating for policy reform and ethical accountability within the equine industry.
Downstream — Rescuing individual horses from auctions, slaughter pipelines, neglect, and abandonment, and providing lifelong sanctuary.
Every horse at Unbridled is a living example of the change the movement seeks to create.
Joyfull’s colt, born March 7, 2026, is the newest entry in that record.
ABOUT THE FOUNDER | Susan Kayne
Susan Kayne has been a lifelong equestrian. From Pony Club eventing and show jumping in her youth, through her years in racing and breeding as an adult, she has spent her entire life working alongside horses — not observing the equine industry from the outside, but living inside it.
In 2004, she founded Unbridled Sanctuary. She lives alongside the horses at the Sanctuary. She writes about each individual with precision and intimacy, documenting their lived experience.
In 2025, Unbridled Sanctuary was awarded the A. Gary Lavin Equine Welfare Award by the American Association of Equine Practitioners. Susan received the honor from the President of the AAEP at the Awards Luncheon during the 71st Annual AAEP Convention in Denver.
National Recognition
Unbridled Sanctuary is recognized for the highest standards in equine welfare and nonprofit transparency.
• Accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS)
• EQUUS Guardian Charity
• Equis Foundation Rescue of the Year (2021)
• A. Gary Lavin Equine Welfare Award — AAEP (2025)
• Four-Star Charity Navigator Rating
• Platinum Seal of Transparency — Candid
Media Contact
Susan Kayne is available for interviews, on-camera appearances, and on-site visits to the Sanctuary.
Photography, video footage, and B-roll of Joyfull and her colt are available upon request. Press assets include high-resolution photography, archival rescue footage, Sanctuary grounds footage, headshots, and background materials.
Paula Woodward | Director of Strategic Partnerships, Corporate Sponsorship & Media Relations
paula@unbridledhorses.org | Mobile: (845) 612-3553 | Office: (518) 966-0082
Left to right: JOYFULL tethered at auction, August 23, 2025, the last horse through the ring; Susan Kayne keeping her promise to bring her home;
JOYFULL beginning rehabilitation in quarantine, still unnamed and unknowingly pregnant; and on March 7, 2026, Susan with JOYFULL’s newborn colt.