Neda DeMayo
and the
Return to Freedom Wild Horse Sanctuary

Neda DeMayo

At the age of six years old, Neda DeMayo saw wild horses being chased by helicopters on television. She remembers standing absolutely frozen in the middle of her living room, gripped by anguish and fear. Even as a small child, she understood the symbolism unfolding before her; she was witnessing an unjust act leveled at innocent, free creatures.

She feels just as strongly today as she did then, that as long as there are wild horses running in the mountains and high deserts of America, there is hope for humans as a species. On that day, the child made a promise to America's wild horses, that when she grew up they would have a home. For Neda, the horse lives in a world of wonder and mystery, the ultimate symbol of power and freedom embodied in beauty and grace. The horse makes myths come to life and captures the hearts of so many.

"To see the need for man to harness that power aggressively seems the ultimate breach of trust and lack of honor," she says. "As a bystander I wanted to scream and make the man on the TV drop the ropes and let the horse run free. Thank god for movies like The Black Stallion."

She recalls how relieved she was by the latter's message, that someone could win the heart of a magnificent stallion without taking anything from him.

The dream of communion with nature and animals lives in all of us, she believes. For some it is forgotten, for some misled, but at some time in our lives we all have visions of a harmony and communication that exist without words, as her mentor Carolyn Resnick has said, "before thought."

Neda's love for horses kept her mother busy. She took riding lessons when she was five years old, and nothing could make her miss them. She remembers staring into her horse Smokey's eyes for hours, searching them for a hint of the wild mustang.

When her family moved to the country. Her friends and she rode the railroad tracks to the local Dairy Queen; in the summers they swam in the pond, in the winters they jumped snow banks. They rode on full moon nights, camped in the country, rode bareback and without bridles and bits, before and after school. "I lived on the back of a horse," she recalls.

When she graduated high school, Neda left the east coast and traveled extensively, rarely riding horses. She held instead to her childhood vision of creating an animal sanctuary and saving wild horses from government wranglers.

In 1996, she moved to Los Angeles, and worked in the film industry. She shared her dream to have a wild horse sanctuary with her friends and colleagues. A woman she knew told her about a horse trainer in northern California who had actually lived with wild horses. "She said this woman could really communicate with horses," Neda recalls. "She told me that she danced with them, that she knew a way to become 'part of the herd.' If this woman did it, and was only hours away, then I needed to meet her!"

Neda made the call, and spent an hour on the phone with Carolyn Resnick that afternoon. "She listened to me for a little while," Neda remembers, "and asked me some questions. I told her about my dream; we had a lot in common. I told her I was no longer interested in riding horses, that I was interested in communicating with them instead." Neda wanted to know them without fences.

A trio of horses play among the wild flowers. MouseOver image: Neda tames a wild foal.

Neda left for Sonoma within a week, and spent a day with her new friend at the ranch. Neda studied the way Carolyn communicated with the horses. "There was an awakeness in the animals there," she explains, "a spirit you don't find in most domesticated horses."

Carolyn had become Neda's mentor. "Her horses were free when they were with her," Neda realized. "I had found someone who let the dream be real; the black stallion had had nothing taken from him."

"Horses don't need your sympathy," Carolyn reminded her. "They need your leadership."

Two weeks later Neda found a beautiful gray Arabian mare named Ansa. Plucked from a pasture at five years old, she'd been handled very little, yet was extremely communicative. Ansa was fairly wild and though she was a petite mare, she was more than a handful, and very sensitive. "I thought she would be a good teacher," Neda says. "She was—and is!"

Not long after the lessons she'd learned from Carolyn and Ansa, Neda began building her dream into reality.

"In honor of the children we were, the children who are and those yet to be born," she proudly asserts, "and in honor of the pure unbridled spirit of Equus, I am overjoyed to finally introduce Return to Freedom (RTF) Animal Sanctuary and Educational Retreat."

Her lifelong vision has translated into 310 rolling country acres just 40 minutes north of Santa Barbara. She and her horses arrived there in November 1998, and RTF now provides sanctuary for more than 65 wild horses, two burros, and a host of other creatures.

RTF is a special place where children go and meet horses as horses. Neda extends her own spirit to young individuals by allowing them to enjoy the responsibility we all share toward the planet, each other and animals.

Her long-term vision includes the acquisition of more land to provide extended refuge for wild horses. A living museum for America's free-ranging wild horses representing their spirit of grace, beauty and the true power of freedom is still within her reach.

"The spirit in wild horses and all wild animals," she says, "must never be replaced by domestication and industry."

RTF is a non-profit animal sanctuary and educational retreat designed to facilitate a direct experience of compassion and respect for all life. It is primarily inspired by the plight of America's free-ranging wild horses, but it also recognizes that a sanctuary by itself is like a bandaid to a larger problem, and that the community as a whole must become involved for real change to occur.

Neda has made RTF available to host various activities which educate and enlighten through a direct experience with nature and animals. "We recognize that, just as the earth has much to teach us about life, animals have much to teach us about living, communication and instinct," she says. No one, she believes, is too young or old to play a part in creating a healthy co-existence between humans, animals and the environment we all share.

If you are interested in receiving more information, and/or you would like to make a donation for the horses, please contact:

Return to Freedom
The American Wild Horse Sanctuary
P.O. 926
Lompoc, CA 93438
805-737-9246
info@returntofreedom.org
www.returntofreedom.org

Neda (far right) allows visitors to enjoy the company of wild horses. MouseOver image: Return to Freedom is an animal sanctuary as well as an educational retreat.

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