With the Dawning of the Year of the Fire Horse,

RTF Honors the Untamed, Resilient Spirit of the Horse

Dear Friends,

Return to Freedom’s team enters this year ready to embrace powerful and creative energy for transformative change!

The Year of the Fire Horse is a time to make bold moves — and we hope you will join us.

On behalf of our Board of Directors and staff, I want to begin by expressing our deep gratitude to everyone who continues to give their money, time, and effort in support of our nonprofit’s fourfold mission: sanctuary, education, conservation and advocacy.

2025 was a milestone year with significant achievements, including:

Rescue and sanctuary: We rescued 15 burros from the kill pens. For three months, they participated in an ongoing pilot project on government land to demonstrate the vital role burros play in regenerative grazing. From there, they moved on to their forever homes: two pairs to private homes and 11 to Rancho Burro Donkey Sanctuary in San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Advocacy: We won an important case in federal appeals court, which ruled that the Bureau of Land Management violated the law when it removed about 2 million acres from wild horse use in Southwestern Wyoming. This victory delayed a roundup that seeks to remove all remaining wild horses from the area. This has been and likely will continue to be an issue with a powerful local grazing association that monopolizes the mix of public and private land there.

Education: More than 300 visitors from all over the world came to celebrate Spirit’s 30th birthday and our annual Opening Day celebration for our program season.

Conservation: RTF welcomed two stallions and six mares from the at-risk Wilbur-Cruce Colonial Spanish Mission herd, descended from horses that came to America in the mid-1600s with Jesuit priest Padre Kino.

Conservation: We expanded the regenerative grazing program that has made such a dramatic difference at our San Luis Obispo satellite location, starting two new projects that we will complete in 2026:

• • Partnering with Babcock Winery for the Alpine herd. Thanks to a generous donor, our team and volunteers, 90 acres was cleared of old irrigation pipe and fences, and new fencelines created to implement holistic regenerative grazing sanctuary for our Alpine herd!
  • A pollinator grant was awarded to implement at our Lompoc, Calif., flagship sanctuary that dovetails with modeling paddock paradise and regenerative grazing for more sustainable holistic land management.

We welcomed new board member Tracy Paul. Past board member Alexandra Evans joined staff as our Deputy Executive Director. Kaz Bryan joined the team as Ranch Manager for our SLO location, and ranch hand Estaban Navarro came aboard in Lompoc.

And perhaps the biggest news of all: Thanks to a very generous foundation grant, RTF took a giant step to ensure that our headquarters location in Santa Barbara County, California, will remain a permanent home for our main office, expanding and pioneering educational programs, events, and the rescued wild horses and burros who will live here for generations to come.

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We have exciting projects underway and more planned, including impactful new advocacy campaigns, expanded program offerings, improvements to sanctuary infrastructure, an engaging lineup of webinars, a new website, and much more to share in the weeks ahead.

Please invite your friends to follow our work by subscribing to our e-newsletter, following us on social media, and sharing our posts.

We also welcome you to visit us.

America’s wild horses need all of us now more than ever. This is a crucial moment to channel positive energy into unified efforts to protect wild horses and the public lands upon which they depend and to finally end the stain of horse slaughter.

Thank you, as always, for being part of Return to Freedom’s journey. Nothing we accomplish would be possible without you. We need your help.

With all my heart,

Neda DeMayo

Founder and President

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