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For thousands of years, horses have walked beside us -carrying our burdens, sharing our journeys, healing usand filling our lives with love and companionship. Inreturn, we have asked everything of them. But what happens tothem when they become old, injured, or are simply no longerconvenient with many cast aside or sent to a terrifying end? In 1994, Kim Meagher (pronounced Maher) was a single momraising two young children, Nick,10 and McKay,12 while working in the corporate world. She had already built a beautifulhome, but it was so close to other homes, and she longed formore space, more freedom, more meaning. She started lookingin Gilbert, Arizona. Kim looked at many ranches, but when shepulled up into what was then called, Yellow Rose Ranch (one ofthe most run-down ranches she looked at), something stirred inher heart and she said, %u201cThis is the place!%u201dShe had no idea she was stepping into her life%u2019s calling.That same ranch carried a powerful legacy. It was previouslyowned by the Nichols/Sawyer family. AB Nichols bought a stallion from a kill pen that was deemed, %u201cworthless%u201d because hehad a club foot. He named him Clabber, because of it. Heworked on the ranch during the week and then raced him on theweekends. Clabber became a World Champion Quarter Horsein 1940 and 1941. He was known as %u201cThe Iron Horse!%u201dIt seems the dye was cast, and Kim and her children startedto learn about the plight of horses with 100,000 of them going toslaughter that year. While they couldn%u2019t rescue all of them, theyknew they could save one, then another and so on; Pandora%u2019sBox was opened! Their first rescue was a grey mustang, namedLady. Dunny was second and was still young. Kim was doingthe play, Oklahoma, and trained Dunny to be the horse in theshow. During the show, Kim%u2019s foot came out of the stirrup, andshe grabbed onto the horn, but the saddle fell under Dunny. Shecredits him for saving her life because he stopped right away.The accident left Kim with a ruptured lower lumbar and a broken neck. She still lives with daily neck pain from that moment.But even through her own pain, she refused to stop! In 1995, they renamed the ranch, Wildhorse Ranch - a 501c3non-profit born from love, determination and quiet defianceagainst a broken system.Kim Meagher, owner of Wildhorse Ranch Rescue, with Sierra who was saved from a feedlot in Nevada.WILDHORSE RANCH RESCUE: 31 Years Of Unbreakable Love And Second Chancesby Ann HerringtonPhotos courtesy of Wildhorse Ranch Rescue50 Arizona Horse Connection July, 2026The Rescue works closely with Arizona Equine, which is located nearby in Gilbert.Quality Custom MadeChaps For AllDisciplines!Lori Goulet %u2022 206.498.1214 %u2022 Easton, WA 98925continued on page 52