Irene Valenti Provides Refuge for Retired Champion Stallions to Provide Therapeutic Services
Pegasus Rising got its start in September 2009 when Cynthia and Tony Royal, Valley Center, CA horse trainers learned of a herd of 28 horses that had for years been living in poor conditions at a farm in Northern California. Well-intentioned owners were giving them away. These were no ordinary horses, Cynthia Royal said, but descendants of champion stallions brought to the United States from Poland at the request of then-President Ronald Reagan. Describing her first encounter with the horses, Royal said they “were all together in a location suitable for two horses, not a small herd.”
The Royals decided to adopt all 28 horses and launched a volunteer campaign to transport them, first to a transitional facility and then, on Nov. 15, 2009 to Rancho Santa Fe. The horses serve as therapy horses to military veterans and other handicapped individuals. www.pegasusrising.org
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