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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 19, 2020)
4 Wednesday, August 19, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon Fire breaks out on Green Ridge Horse finds solace at refuge By Jodi Schneider Correspondent When Sisters resident Mona Delfino, animal com- municator and energy healer, found out there was a horse at 3 Sisters Equine Refuge in Bend who was recently rescued from near death, she seized the opportunity to help. Like Robert Redford in the film <The Horse Whisperer,= Delfino was born with a remarkable gift to communicate with animals and help them heal. Delfino said she became aware of her special abilities at the age of five when she knew what her dog Shadow was thinking and feeling, which saved him from being euthanized. This awareness sent Delfino on a spiritual journey toward recognizing her intui- tive abilities. Delfino prac- tices a form of healing based in reading the energy of a person9s or animal9s body, or <Spiritual Immune System.= She has a background in nursing, and neurology. The horse, now named Sammy, was picked up a few weeks ago in an open rocky area in Lane County by Cyndi Davis, board chair and one of the founders of 3 Sisters Equine Refuge. The refuge offers a tempo- rary haven to horses at-risk of slaughter, abuse, and neglect. Davis, her husband, and vol- unteers rehabilitate, retrain and re-home the horses. <We received a text on Sunday evening June 28 from one of our volunteers with photos of a horse that some- one found while out hiking,= Davis said. <We knew then that this was an emergency situation. <The following day Kira (the woman who found him) drove as we followed with a horse trailer. We had to hike up a steep area where she had seen the horse the day before. He was nowhere to be seen. Then, Michele, our board NOW OPEN! Bl m Studio SPECIALIZING IN: Cut • Color Highlights Hair Extensions vice president, spotted a tiny brown dot to the north. Kira and Michele headed towards the brown dot. <As they moved towards the horse in the distance, the horse moved toward them. The horse amazingly fol- lowed them, no halter, noth- ing. He seemed to know to do that.= Davis said, <I9ve wel- comed two other starvation cases into the rescue, but neither were as emaciated as Sammy. He literally had days left but was remarkably strong! <Your instincts are to throw food at a horse that looks like Sammy, but that is the worst thing you can do. It can cause 8refeeding syn- drome,9 and kill the horse in that condition. You start slow and give him small amounts of food (alfalfa hay) every few hours around the clock to re-start their gut.= Davis also found out through the veterinarian that Sammy is 70 percent blind and has no teeth, indicating he is likely a senior, and he has a heart murmur, possibly from the starvation. Davis said, <We are always curious about what our rescued animals are thinking and or needing to say. It helps us as we treat them. Mona has been out before, so when we heard she was on her way, we were all in!= Delfino knew Davis for a year before Sammy came to the refuge. Delfino said, <I met Cyndi and her husband through my friend Lori Drew, who volun- teers at the 3 Sisters Equine Refuge. We became good friends and they knew I am a healer. Whenever they have issues with a horse, they call and ask me to do some heal- ing work. I read the energy of the horse and I get the infor- mation of the emotion that9s occurring within the horse.= Delfino told The Nugget that animals have always gravi- tated toward her. <My family owned a buckskin when I was in grade school and I9ve had Firefighters around a love for horses Central Oregon spent a busy and riding since afternoon and night respond- then,= she said. ing to 39 reports of new fires When Delfino Sunday after a lightning went out to their PHOTO BY JODI SCHNEIDER storm moved through the refuge to meet him, Mona Delfino is helping a rescued horse heal. area. While seven of these Davis and her hus- being one of those important turned out to be false alarms, band were out for a while. 28 were quickly caught and <It was just me and things. Of course, in small contained. Sammy, the perfect time to amounts and we did steam Four fires developed into work with him,= Delfino and shred them for him. She incidents. said. <They had only had also helped him release any Incident #684, the Green him a week when I got there. anger he had from being left Ridge Fire, is burning The work that I did was to to die a slow painful death.= She said, <Sammy is one approximately two miles read the energy of his mus- northeast of Camp Sherman. cle memory. This horse did of the most trusting, loving The fire was estimated late on not want to remember what creatures I have ever met and Monday morning at 20 acres happened to him in his past. honestly it9s shocking that and was showing some active He put up a resistance. And he9s still here.= Delfino offers individual fire behavior. Additional that9s how he stayed alive in 20-person hand crews, heli- the desert. I ran the energy healing sessions that are copters and water tenders through his pressure points done over Skype, phone, and were ordered Monday to help to see what else was going sometimes in person. She contain the incident. on with him. As I was work- also holds spiritual retreats. Updates on the Green ing on him, his stomach was For more information visit Ridge Fire may be found at very hard. I kept coming back www.sacredreconnections. www.nuggetnews.com. to that area, that9s where he com. needed some help. This horse could not decipher if he was in pain or hungry. He didn9t know the difference. So, the third time I went down by his stomach within 45 minutes it was finally soft. He told me he missed carrots. He can9t chew with his teeth because his teeth went bad because of starving, so I asked Cyndi to steam the carrots for him. <I found that Sammy is very special with a wise soul. Horses are intuitive about things, and he knew Cyndi was coming to rescue him. He was left in the desert all alone, but it was his spirit that kept him alive 4 he had hope.= Davis explained that Mona9s ability to commu- nicate with the horse helped the refuge to know what he needed. HOURS: WED.-SAT., 10 A.M.- 4 P.M. 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