{"id":451143,"date":"2026-09-29T13:42:51","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T13:42:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/451143\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T13:42:51","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T13:42:51","slug":"take-a-look-inside-horse-rescue-river-thunder-ranch-near-el-paso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/451143\/","title":{"rendered":"Take a look inside horse rescue River Thunder Ranch near El Paso"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANTHONY, New Mexico \u2014 Michele Sleighel gave Pinto a fond smile as the horse dipped its head for a nuzzle. The 30-year-old retired therapy horse probably missed the children that used to pet him, she said.<\/p>\n

As Sleighel continued to talk, Pinto attempted to reroute her back to the truck bed full of hay he was eating earlier. Here at River Thunder Ranch, these retired horses are allowed to be brats, she joked.<\/p>\n

Pinto is one of several horses on the ranch, which serves as a sanctuary for unwanted, neglected and retired horses to live out their twilight years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe horse rescue just started growing on accident,\u201d Sleighel said last week. \u201cThe need is so real.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Sleighel moved back to El Paso in 2022, the original intention for purchasing land was for her horse, Thunder. He was her first horse \u2013 a stocky, chestnut-haired quarter horse that had been abandoned in a stable outside Los Angeles where she volunteered.<\/p>\n

Thunder\u2019s hindquarters squirmed, a condition other riders dismissed as a neurological problem until Sleighel discovered it was worms and dewormed him. He was a stubborn senior who gave her an excited, \u201cold man, cough-y holler\u201d when she visited. He couldn\u2019t grow a mane, just a copper-colored puff on his head. Sleighel rode him with patience in the arena until an equestrian informed her the horse had tossed every rider before her.<\/p>\n

But Sleighel loved him all the same and she moved him to his new home in 2023, a two-acre ranch she purchased just outside El Paso in Anthony, New Mexico.<\/p>\n

\"\"One of Michele Sleighel\u2019s rescue horses scrambles to its feet after a roll in the mud, Sept. 18, 2026. (Corrie Boudreaux\/El Paso Matters)<\/p>\n

Thunder wasn\u2019t alone for long.<\/p>\n

River, a smoky-colored grullo that Sleighel found off Craigslist, joined him. His owner, a cowboy in Anthony, advertised the horse as easy to ride. That\u2019s what Sleighel wanted, a horse she could ride, ideally without the trauma of neglect like Thunder had. But she took one look at the arthritic horse \u2013 the tumor protruding from his chest, his swollen knees as his owner exhausted him on a hard ride \u2013 and she overpaid $2,000 just to get him out of there.<\/p>\n

Soon, people started contacting her about horses they couldn\u2019t care for anymore, as well as dogs and turtles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty Christian and I feel like it\u2019s my job to serve my community,\u201d Sleighel said. \u201cSomeone just left chickens on my property the other day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once a horse is injured or becomes too old to work, owners refer to it as \u201con their feed bill,\u201d Sleighel said. That means owners are spending money just to feed them, but are less inclined to invest in their lives, she said.<\/p>\n

Sleighel has rescued retired horses from a therapy ranch in Canutillo. She has rescued spunky Shetland ponies from Vinton that once gave children rides at birthday parties. Recently, she rescued a \u201c25-year-old, super old, black lady horse\u201d whose owner could no longer afford her.<\/p>\n

\"\"Bonnie, left, and Pearl are young horses of a type colloquially known as \u201crez ponies\u201d because they come from semi-feral reservation herds that are often a source for kill buyers, Sept. 18, 2026. Michele Sleighel rescued the pair from kill pens and hopes they can be rehomed after training. (Corrie Boudreaux\/El Paso Matters)<\/p>\n

By March of this year, Sleighel had lost her lucrative job working remotely for a San Francisco tech company. She used her time unemployed to \u201chit the gas\u201d on River Thunder Ranch, starting the formal process to form a tax-exempt organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople kept coming by asking if I was a nonprofit, but I was just a girl who keeps finding horses,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A day at the horse sanctuary<\/p>\n

The nature of Sleighel\u2019s rescue, where most horses are living the end of their lives, means residents come and go. Thunder, whom the ranch is named after, lived for less than a year after the move. River, the ranch\u2019s other namesake, was euthanized this month after struggling with pain from tumors and advanced arthritis.<\/p>\n

The youngest residents are horses Sleighel purchased from a kill pen, destined to be shipped to and slaughtered in Mexico for the international horse meat trade. A young horse has the potential to be broken in and rehomed, she said.<\/p>\n

Volunteers trickled in on a recent morning, ready to haul hay and spray fly repellant. The first to arrive were Tony Arreola and his girlfriend, Jasmin Gomez, who commuted from far East El Paso.<\/p>\n

Arreola had an internship in Guthrie, a small ranching community in northwest Texas, before moving back to El Paso. He and Gomez hope to one day own their own ranch.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say I\u2019m like a first-generation cowboy,\u201d Arreola said. \u201cMy family in Mexico, they had ranches and stuff, but I was too young to actually be there. Now I think, coming back into that world and that lifestyle was like an itch you can\u2019t get rid of.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"River Thunder Ranch volunteer Tony Arreola hauls hay to the paddock, Sept. 18, 2026. (Corrie Boudreaux\/El Paso Matters)<\/p>\n

Gomez said she started falling in love with horses through volunteering.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it just helps me center myself a little,\u201d she said. \u201cLike the calmness that it brings me is what keeps me here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Zelenak, another volunteer, echoed a similar sentiment. She grew up in Canutillo and other than the occasional trail ride, is new to horses.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tend to be an anxious person and I found that horses, if you\u2019ve read anything about them, they pick up on your heart rate, and they kind of force you to calm down and regulate,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The horses are typically separated in different sections based on age, temperament and medical needs. Noche, a blind horse who acts like the head of the herd, doesn\u2019t usually share a space with the miniature horses, Estrella and Blackie, who are short enough to get stepped on, but that morning the rain had flooded their pen.<\/p>\n

The volunteers that day were also prepping the space for farm day, a monthly event where the public is invited to pet and read to the horses. Children can ride miniature horses, a band performs and vendors sell food and flowers. September\u2019s farm day also featured a south bath and games hosted by students from the University of Texas at El Paso. Admission is free, though visitors can make a suggested $5 donation.<\/p>\n

In addition to donations, River Thunder Ranch generates funding through an online shop and Airbnb.<\/p>\n

\"\"River Thunder Ranch volunteer Jasmin Gomez leads Blackie, a Shetland mare, to a pen as Estrella, Blackie\u2019s daughter, looks on, Sept. 18, 2026. Michele Sleighel, owner of the rescue operation, began caring for the two ponies when a storm damaged their owner\u2019s property. (Corrie Boudreaux\/El Paso Matters)<\/p>\n

Sleighel, who\u2019s 38, said she didn\u2019t become passionate about horses until she was an adult. She grew up in the Parkland Mobile Home Park in Northeast El Paso, and her only experience with horses was occasionally riding her uncle\u2019s horse in Red Sands when she was a child.<\/p>\n

Then, during the pandemic, she began volunteering at a stable in Montebello, east of Los Angeles. People who leased there taught her how to saddle and ride in exchange for her cleaning their stalls and walking their horses.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was super green, but really determined,\u201d Sleighel said. \u201cI never encountered anything I wanted that bad. You think at that age you\u2019ve discovered all your passions, but horses, I never loved anything like this. I was up at 6 a.m. in L.A. traffic driving out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sleighel said the farm days are a way to give people access to the joy of horses. The horse world can be expensive and full of gatekeeping, sometimes borderline hazing, she said. Volunteers have told her that at other ranches, they\u2019re expected to pick up manure for two years before they can even touch a saddle.<\/p>\n

But at River Thunder Ranch, people can come without making a major financial commitment, she said. Eventually she would like to open up a garden and permanent public space for the community.<\/p>\n

\"\"Michele Sleighel, owner of River Thunder Ranch, looks over a gate as her rescue herd has breakfast, Sept. 18, 2026. (Corrie Boudreaux\/El Paso Matters)<\/p>\n

Sleighel said people\u2019s generosity has restored her faith in humanity as she experiences people from the El Paso area checking in on her and the horses, contributing their time and resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had some horses come so emaciated, I thought they came to me just to die,\u201d Sleighel said. \u201cBut through donations, vets calling me, people donating bags of grain, we\u2019re able to bring horses back. You would not believe it. Even from the kill pen, when they come wild as hell, a year later they\u2019re begging you for scratches. Meet these horses now you saw a year ago, and it would shock you.\u201d<\/p>\n

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