Some horses take naturally to training, while others remind us that domestic life simply isn't for everyone. Saraswati, born in 2008, was one of our original Sand Wash Basin mares who arrived at Great Escape in 2012 and definitely fell into the latter category.

When she entered our training program, we quickly discovered that retaining what she'd learned was particularly challenging for her. Despite consistent work and patient handling, each new day seemed to bring us right back to the beginning, almost as though the previous day's lessons had never happened.

Eventually, we recognized that continuing to ask Saraswati to adapt to domestic life wasn't in her best interest. Instead, we gave her the opportunity to return to a more natural way of living among our sanctuary herd.

These days, Saraswati is rarely far from her two closest companions, Faith and Patsy. The three beautiful gray mares share a special friendship and are often seen grazing or moving across the pasture together. Their bond is one of the many wonderful relationships that make our sanctuary herd so special.

For Saraswati, life in sanctuary means freedom from the expectations of training and the comfort of familiar companions, exactly the kind of life that suits her best.