Coming Home: What our Beloved Rescue Horse, Maya Ingrid, Taught Me About Retreat, Return, and Healing

When people hear the word retreat, they often imagine an escape—getting away from the noise, the stress, the burnout. But here at True Nature Integrative Health, we see it differently. A retreat isn’t about leaving something behind. It’s about returning—to breath, to belonging, to the land, and most importantly, to the parts of ourselves that have gone quiet under the weight of survival.

There are some souls who change the course of our lives simply by surviving. For me, one of those souls is Maya Ingrid—our beloved draft mare, and a living testament to resilience, grace, and deep relational healing.

Maya came to us from a severe neglect case. She had spent years trapped in a stall, standing in her own waste, malnourished and forgotten. When I first saw her picture, she was heartbreakingly thin, her spirit quietly flickering beneath the surface. And yet… there was a presence in her. A softness. A dignity that defied everything she had endured. I felt an immediate urge to bring her home and yet she wasn’t officially assessed and ready for adoption yet, but I just knew.

Bringing her home was an act of rescue—but also an act of faith. Not just in her healing, but in my ability to meet her there.

What followed was both beautiful and agonizing. About 2 years after her arrival, Maya developed a life-threatening upper respiratory disease. This was brewing for many years. Despite all my efforts, I struggled to find timely and adequate veterinary care. Watching her suffer, unable to breathe, was a trauma I still carry. It was another lesson in getting my voice heard and screaming into the void. We were in a place where it was seeming impossible to get the care and respect for my herd. It was the moment I realized: we needed to make a change—not just for Maya, but for all of us. That experience became the final push to relocate, to find land where our animals could be supported, and where I could build the kind of sanctuary I believe in.

Maya eventually received the care she needed, but the cost was significant: she required a permanent tracheostomy to survive. A visible reminder of what she’s endured—and of the breath she refuses to give up.

And now?

Now, she grazes under open skies. She seeks affection. She breathes with ease. Maya is not just surviving—she’s teaching. About trust. About nervous system healing. About how trauma lives in the body, and how love and safety can help it release, little by little.

Every time I look at her, I feel tears well in my eyes—not just from sadness, but from awe. The way she’s opened herself to connection, the way she expresses tenderness even after knowing so much pain… it’s humbling. Maya is one of the clearest reflection of whats possible through connection, a living example of what it means to begin again.

Her story isn’t just about rescue—it’s about relationship. About what becomes possible when we choose to see another being’s full humanity (or equine-ity) and meet them there with patience, presence, and care.

At True Nature Integrative Health, this is the heart of our work: healing through relationship—whether it’s human to horse, human to land, or human to self. Maya’s presence reminds me every day why I do this work. She is more than a horse. She is a partner, a guide, and a sacred witness to what it means to begin again.

Thank you, Maya Ingrid, for breathing your way back to life. And for showing me how to do the same.

When I looked into her eyes, I saw a being who had every reason to shut down—but chose not to. A being who didn’t run from her trauma, but carried it with grace. She didn’t need to be “fixed.” She just needed space to feel safe again.

Isn’t that what most of us need, too?

Retreat as a Sacred Return

Watching Maya begin to thrive here—out of confinement, moving with the wind on her back and the sun on her face—reshaped my understanding of healing. It isn’t linear. It isn’t tidy. And it isn’t something we do alone.

That’s why the retreats we offer aren’t about finding calm or checking out of life. They’re about returning—to breath, to body, to connection. To the parts of you that have been asked to hold too much for too long.

And sometimes, if you’re lucky, a horse will meet you in that place and show you how to stay.

Held by the Herd, Held by the Land

Here, our herd doesn’t ask anything from you. They don’t perform. They don’t judge. Like Maya, they model what it means to hold trauma with tenderness, to stay present, and to trust again—on your own time.

Whether you come to us as a therapist, a survivor, a seeker, or someone simply needing space to breathe, the message is the same:

You don’t need to escape.
You need to arrive.
And we’re here to welcome you back.