Biggest Best Life

Healing Horses, Healing Humans: The Story of Lucky Orphans Horse Rescue with Deanna Hearn

• Lauren Chapnick • Season 1 • Episode 7

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Deanna Hearn shares her journey founding Lucky Orphans Horse Rescue, a sanctuary where rescued horses help heal humans through innovative wellness programs and connection-based healing. Her grandfather's gift of a difficult first horse taught her resilience that now guides her philosophy of turning life's struggles into opportunities for growth.

• Received her first horse at age 12 from her grandfather, a Korean War veteran who believed horses "bring light" during dark times
• Transitioned from running a boarding facility to founding a horse rescue after realizing she wanted more meaningful work
• Created a full-circle mission of "people helping horses heal people" that drives all programs at Lucky Orphans
• Offers diverse wellness programs including equine-assisted mental health support, yoga, breath work, and educational initiatives
• Witnessed remarkable transformations, including a suicidal teen amputee finding purpose through connection with a horse with a broken knee
• Measures a horse's value by capacity for love rather than performance abilities
• Faces ongoing challenges funding the care of 44 rescued horses, especially during economic downturns
• Planning to rebrand by removing "Horse Rescue" from the name to better reflect their broader mission
• Believes happiness comes from "listening to your own true north" rather than following others' expectations
• Encourages others to take risks: "Even if you fail, you'll never wonder what if"

Lucky Orphans Horse Rescue website: https://www.luckyorphans.org/

Text BESTLIFE to 833-681-6463 to get Lauren's weekly dose of motivation straight to your phone.


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Deanna Hearn:

Even if you fail, you'll never wonder what if and there are days where I definitely feel like, okay, I am failing or I did fail, but you get to do it over again tomorrow. You get to try again, try harder, change your plan, and it is definitely worth taking the risk taking the jump head first, because you might fail, but you also might succeed. And if and when you do, that is the most amazing, most rewarding feeling in the world.

Announcer:

Welcome to Biggest, best Life, the podcast that dares you to dream big, live louder and step fully into the rock star life you are made for. You're not too late, you're right on time and we're just getting started. Here's your host, lauren Chapnick.

Lauren Chapnick:

Hey, hey, everybody, welcome back. This is Lauren Chapnick and I am your host of Biggest, best Life. My voice is a little scratchy today. I'm getting over a sickness, but the show must go on. I am here in Dover Plains, new York, at the Lucky Orphans Horse Rescue and today our guest is Deanna Hearn. She is the founder and she found this beautiful place 17 years ago and she does a lot of incredible work with both horses and humans, and she really just listened to that inner calling that was telling her that what she was doing before wasn't really working for her, and now she runs this beautiful sanctuary. We sat down in front of one of their horses' stalls. You're going to hear some ambient noise in the background today as I sit down and talk to Deanna, and I hope you enjoy here she is. Congratulations, by the way, on having a baby. Thank you?

Deanna Hearn:

Is it your first?

Lauren Chapnick:

one Third.

Deanna Hearn:

Oh wow, good for you. What did you have? I had a little boy third boy. I have a little boy third boy. I have a 22-year-old son. A 17-year-old son and a 10-week-old son. Oh my gosh, yeah, it's been an adventure. Yeah, I'm sure Great.

Lauren Chapnick:

So tell us, where did you grow up?

Deanna Hearn:

So I grew up. I was born in Mount Vernon, lower Westchester, lived on City Island, which is like a little island off the Bronx, and then moved to New Rochelle, so lower Westchester until I was 15 and then we moved to Millbrook, so from Westchester to Dutchess County.

Lauren Chapnick:

And as a kid, what? What lit you up like? Were you always drawn to horses and animals?

Deanna Hearn:

It's funny unlike my senior superlatives, you know when they guess what you're going to be doing. It was that I would own a horse. I started riding when I was 10, 11 years old with my grandfather. He was a Korean War veteran and in Korea they used horses to move artillery. They had real war horses. So horses throughout the war, after the war, through his recovery struggles, it was always a horse that brought light to his life. And when he would take me horseback riding as a child, that's the story that he told me that horses always bring light. So when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, he bought me a horse. So I got my first horse when I was 12 as a gift for my grandfather. And he got me the horse so that through all the dark parts of my life I would always have a way to turn on the light. And after he passed away, it really was horses that kind of tethered me, to bring joy to my life, even on the hard days. And now there's 44 horses that have been rescued to bring joy to people.

Lauren Chapnick:

That's so beautiful.

Deanna Hearn:

That's such a beautiful story, thank you. He was bad. He was a bad horse. He bit, he kicked, he reared, he bucked, he threw me off so many times. But I think that that experience made me such a great rider. I'm of the mentality that, whatever life gives you, every struggle you can't be a victim of, you have to be a survivor of. So yeah, I love riding. I don't love competing, I don't love the show ring, but I love connecting with a horse and going for a trail ride or just playing.

Lauren Chapnick:

I think that says so much about you too, that your first horse gave you so much trouble threw you off. Most people wouldn't get back on again. You went on to a whole career in horses.

Deanna Hearn:

Yeah. So, that just tells us who you are. Right there, stubborn and persistent? Yeah, but I do. I think that you can't be a victim of circumstance. You have to be a survivor.

Lauren Chapnick:

So did you kind of always know you wanted to have a career with horses?

Deanna Hearn:

I did. Yeah, I wasn't quite sure what you know? It's so interesting how early kids have to decide what their career choice is going to be. Um, but I did. I thought about always using horses as a tool for healing. Um, I thought I wanted to do more PT OT work with kids on the spectrum and the more I've learned and and as life took me on this journey, it's really become using horses for mental and, as life took me on this journey, it's really become using horses for mental, emotional support, for PTSD trauma. We've worked with domestic violence victims, rape victims, grief and loss so much more than I thought was going to be possible.

Lauren Chapnick:

So take us back to your early career. How did you get started with horses, and then kind of what led you to the rescue worlds.

Deanna Hearn:

What happened? Yeah, that's a great question. So I started a boarding business in 2003. I had worked for other people. I was 20 years old and I worked for other people throughout my life up to that point, taking care of their horses, managing other people's farms, and I became pregnant with my first son in 2003. Well, two, he was born in 2003. So he was born in February and June of 2003,.

Deanna Hearn:

I started a boarding facility. I wanted to have my own schedule and not have to punch a clock and be able to spend time with my son. So I started a boarding facility and grew it to have 40 boarders and while it was a good business, it wasn't fulfilling personally and I realized that just taking care of other people's horses wasn't offering a solution to anything. We did get a lot of phone calls people wanting to donate their horses, neighbors complaining about. We did get a lot of phone calls people wanting to donate their horses, neighbors complaining about neighbors not taking care of their horses skinny horses and so I started really researching what being a rescue would entail, from the paperwork side to the finance side, and I realized that I didn't just want to take care of other people's horses, I wanted to help horses get a better life and then go back to my roots and help horses help people, and that's essentially how our mission was started.

Deanna Hearn:

The mission statement of Lucky Orphans is people helping horses heal people, so it's full circle. It's being able to rescue horses, offer them sanctuary for life and then offer them a way to do what they do best and help people. They can teach us so much about forgiveness. We have these rescued, starved, abandoned, neglected horses that forgive people and then give back to them through our programs, and and that's that's really the. The value of it is that full circle people helping horses heal people.

Lauren Chapnick:

How have you changed doing this work with rescuing horses versus what you were doing before, and what have you learned from horses? What have the horses really taught you?

Deanna Hearn:

So what's changed is where it used to be just get up, feed the horses, take care of the horses that didn't belong to me. They were border's horses, they were other people's horses that didn't belong to me. They were border's horses, they were other people's horses. I didn't get attached. Now, every horse has a story. Every horse has a past that they're trying to overcome while looking into the future.

Deanna Hearn:

And I think that's my biggest takeaway is you can't judge a book or a horse by the cover, so it's always a question of what did this horse endure, what have they gotten through and what can they help me get through? And it's interesting I just interviewed a potential new employee yesterday and she has a one-eyed cat and we joked a little bit about what would Meadow do, because she said that Meadow is completely resilient and you know she might walk into the chair, but if she's going to the kitchen, she's going to walk into the chair, shake it off and keep going. And I think that so many of our horses are the same way. We have blind horses here, we have horses with one eye, we have lots of different situations and it's the same thing. It's that resiliency that they can lend to humans that, okay, my leg might hurt or I might walk into the fence and I'm just going to shake it off and keep going, because, in order to survive, I can't be a victim, so I'm just going to keep going.

Lauren Chapnick:

So tell me about some of the programs that you have here at Lucky. Orphans for wellness, healing trauma what kind of programs do you offer? Yes. Wephans for wellness, healing trauma yes, what kind of programs do you offer? All of them?

Deanna Hearn:

All of the programs. Yeah, we do yoga with the horses for movement. We have a breath specialist that comes and does breath work. She comes to our veterans programs and our retreats. We do Bowen therapy, which is a fascia release, and the horses help guide the physical treatment. We do Bowen therapy, which is a fascia release, and the horses help guide the physical treatment. We do Reiki with the horses. So that's all of the physical work that we do. And then we do the mental health programs. So it's really it's self-development. We don't like using the word therapy because there's so much stigma around it, but it really is. It's development, it's mental and emotional support.

Deanna Hearn:

I'm EGALA certified, which is the global standard for equine assisted growth and development. I'm natural lifemanship certified, which uses horse psychology and physiology to help human psychology and physiology as well as equine experiential education. And I'm also a certified humane education specialist. So our programs satisfy the New York State standard for humane education. So we have a mobile classroom. We go right into schools and use horses for humane education, tying children to animals in their community. We have a pony with one eye who we use for an inclusivity program to teach acceptance. So the programs are endless and it's so hard and people say that you should pick one demographic to work with. But we really can help everybody and I don't want to limit that, of course. We've done programs with senior citizens, we've done programs with nursery schools and everything in between.

Lauren Chapnick:

I love that. So, in the work that you've done with wellness programs and healing programs for humans, what are some of the biggest transformations that you've seen, both in humans and in horses Like? Are there any stories that stand out in your mind? Yeah, the power of the connection between the human and the horse, absolutely so.

Deanna Hearn:

A few years ago, probably closer to 10 years ago, we rescued a thoroughbred off the track and he broke his leg his very first race. He broke his knee against the starting gate and when we found him he was at another facility. Somebody had bought him, not quite sure where he went from the track, but he was adopted or bought from another organization and they wanted him to be a jumper. So there's this woman who's trying to ride him and trot him and get him over jumps and he has a broken knee. So then we pulled the x-rays and it was in fact still fractured, so we accepted him into the program and he was really shut down. So you have an athletic horse who doesn't really know why all of a sudden he's in retirement. You know he's kind of depressed head down, and at the time we had a volunteer who came in and she was 13 years old.

Deanna Hearn:

She was a bilateral amputee, had both ankles and feet removed when she was 8 years old due to arthrogryposis. It's a congenital disorder. She was a triplet and the other twins sat on top of her in the womb, so she didn't get a chance to grow as they did, so her joints were restricted, she had limb restrictment and she had to have her ankles and feet removed when she was eight years old, when she was 13,. She had attempted suicide three times because the kids were bullying her. The kids at school were just, you know, instead of supporting her and helping her, carrying her books for her, they would laugh at her when she dropped them. And so she was really struggling and she came to the farm just to volunteer, not even as a client, but just to find a place to fit in and maybe get away from the struggles of life. Find a place to fit in and maybe get away from the struggles of life.

Deanna Hearn:

So when she came to the farm, we, unintentionally, she saw Casper and just fell in love with him, and she'll tell you that, you know she was able to look into his eyes and see another soul similar to herself.

Deanna Hearn:

So we have this horse with a broken leg and this human with prosthetics and she just started working with him and the two of them really came to life. They would smile or she would smile and he would nick her when she walked into the barn. And it got to be such a great relationship that I actually took them to Equine Affair, to a big trade show vendor fair. So we brought them there and she brought him into the Coliseum, surrounded by people, and she was brave enough to tell the story of how this broken TheraBread saved her life. Wow. And now she's 26 and she has a child and she's engaged to be married and she's going back to school for mental health to help people overcome their struggles. So it's it's just amazing how a life can be, two lives can be saved and changed just with a little bit of hope and support.

Lauren Chapnick:

Yeah, and that's just something you can't do with traditional therapy Absolutely Amazing. So how's Casper doing?

Deanna Hearn:

Is he still here? Yeah, casper's amazing Um, he's actually out right now with with his friend Monty um, still here. And that's something. That's something that's really beautiful is that people judge the value of a horse by how fast they can run or how high they can jump, and here the value of a horse is measured by how much love they can give and their hearts are huge and they have so much capacity for forgiveness and giving, and Casper's living proof of that.

Lauren Chapnick:

Yeah, so this is truly soul fulfilling work. Do you feel like you're living your true purpose?

Deanna Hearn:

Absolutely, without a doubt. I mean even on the hard days, the days where I'm bleeding and crying because, you know, maybe, maybe I got hurt, it's a farm, or maybe one of the horses is sick, you know. Or we're wondering how to's a farm, or maybe one of the horses is sick, you know. Or we're wondering how to pay the bills. But there's definitely some hard days. But when I look back at all of the good that happens here, the horses that are helped and the people that are helped, I've had more than one parent on more than one occasion come up to me and tell me that in the moment maybe they didn't say it, but now that they look at their child, two, five, eight years later, the farm really saved their child's life, created a work ethic or a sense of belonging or the ability to heal and overcome that they wouldn't have found otherwise. Wow.

Lauren Chapnick:

What's better than that?

Deanna Hearn:

Nothing, absolutely nothing.

Lauren Chapnick:

Yeah. So when you were making that change to go from barn management to rescue, what were your doubts and fears? Did you hold back at all, or were you pretty set saying no, this is what I'm meant to do next?

Deanna Hearn:

I definitely. I mean with any business, you know business there's always intrepidation and fear. But I think with any business and with anything in life, you do learn as you go a little bit. But absolutely I think that this is entirely where I'm supposed to be.

Deanna Hearn:

The biggest struggles or fears are always how do we pay for this? Because as the economy shifts, so do donations, and like a lot of businesses or organizations or unlike, I should say, a lot of businesses and organizations I can't scale back easily. So I can't lay off staff, or I'm not a doctor or an attorney where I can have a home office. I need land, yes, and I need staff. It's not a condition where, oh, we can cut costs and just not buy that much hay or feed or pay those vet bills this month, because lives depend on it and we won't euthanize for space, we won't euthanize for money, We'll make it work no matter what. So 44 lives depend on the income from the programs, the income from the education, the income from the grants, the income from donations. So it's a constant. There are definitely some nights that I lose sleep over. How am I going?

Lauren Chapnick:

to pay the bills this month? How are we going to pay the taxes? How are we going to buy hay this week? Um, so that's. It was, and it still is always a struggle in nonprofit.

Deanna Hearn:

People that are listening. Where can they find you? How can they support your mission? Um, so, really, really easy. You can just Google lucky orphans. We have a website. You can learn about all of the horses. You can donate to a specific horse, so luckyorphansorg allows you to donate easily.

Deanna Hearn:

We're also on Facebook. We have about 30,000 followers on Facebook. So Lucky Orphans Horse Rescue on Facebook. You can also donate there. You can learn about our events. So lots of fun ways to get involved and, of course, donate. You can follow us on Instagram, linkedin we're on all the social media platforms and then different ways of giving, so you can make a one-time gift, you can make a recurring donation. We always look for people to support the horses. If you have 30 friends, we encourage people to find or to get those 30 friends to support a horse. If you have 30 friends that can donate $30, that horse is covered for the month, so we get really creative. We've had people sign up to give to our horses as wedding gifts, as bar mitzvahs. The sky's the limit in ways you can help the horses.

Lauren Chapnick:

Yeah, that's great, and I will link all of that information in the description of the show so people can find it Okay, perfect. So if somebody is listening who maybe has a calling to make a change and do something different because they're pulled in a certain direction, as you were, based on your experience, what would you say to that person?

Deanna Hearn:

Don't hold back, you know. Don't live in that fear. Life is short and you only get to do it once. So take every experience, take every chance, even if you fail, you'll never wonder what if. And there are days where I definitely feel like, okay, I am failing or I did fail, but you get to do it over again tomorrow. You get to try again, try harder, change your plan, and it is definitely worth taking the risk, taking the jump headfirst, because you might fail, but you also might succeed. And if and when you do, that is the most amazing, most rewarding feeling in the world.

Lauren Chapnick:

Love that. So okay, two questions that I ask everybody, okay. So just whatever comes out, it just comes out, okay.

Deanna Hearn:

Complete this sentence Happiness is happiness is doing what feels right. Um, and there's, there's so many people that might tell you I guess I'm going to complete more than just the sentence but, um, there's so many people that tell you what you should be doing, what they would do in your shoes, and happiness is not listening to any of that. Happiness is listening to your own true north, your own heart, your own life journey, and that's just it. Happiness is listening to yourself and doing what feels right to you.

Lauren Chapnick:

Love it, Deanna. What do you think it means to live your biggest, best life?

Deanna Hearn:

My biggest, best life is really just living in the moment. Um, I can't imagine being anywhere else. I did make the decision early on, when I was just 20 years old, that I didn't want to work for anybody else. I didn't want to punch anybody else's clock and and that to me has been my my tr gift to myself to be able to work for myself, even though it is a nonprofit and I have a board and it does have that corporate business model. It's my time, it's my gift to the community and my gift to myself to be able to have a flexible schedule to spend time with my family, which is the most valuable thing. As much as I love my time with the horses and I love helping people, it's really being able to tune in with my family, share this with my family and spend as much time as I can with my family doing what I love. I think that's my truest, biggest, biggest joy is doing what I love with the people that I love excellent, um.

Lauren Chapnick:

So what does the future hold for you and what does the future hold for lucky orphans?

Deanna Hearn:

so the future for me is getting to be a mom all over again. I just dropped my used to be youngest off to start his life in college and had a baby, so it's great to be able to literally start over, and I think that that's the most valuable message is you can always start over, no matter what that looks like. So, yeah, the future looks like getting to be mom all over again. Congratulations to you, thank you. And for Lucky Orphans, we do want to do some rebranding, because I want to drop Horse Rescue from the name. I think it's very limiting. It doesn't really express truly what we do, whereas Lucky Orphans can be the people that we help, the horses that we help. I really want to deep dive, take this time of rebirth and renewal and see what we can do to reinvigorate lucky orphans. We've been around for 17 years and I want to check in with the community and see if there's any gaps that we can fill.

Lauren Chapnick:

I love it, Diana. Thank you so much for inviting me here.

Lauren Chapnick:

This was so great to talk to you and I wish you all the best. Thank you for sharing your story with us. Great. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you, deanna. Thank you so much for sitting down with me and sharing your story. It was so inspiring to hear you and how you started this wonderful organization. If you would like to learn more, you can go to luckyorphansorg. I will link that in the show notes as well. Make today awesome. Trust your gut, get off your butt and I will see you the next time. Bye-bye.

Announcer:

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