My love of horses began the moment I sat on a horse for the first time.  From that moment on, I had to stop and admire horses anytime they crossed my path.  My career path in the music industry took me away from any opportunities to spend time with horses.  I swore one day I would have a horse. While performing a world music event in Colorado back in 2009, I was asked by a good friend to come to a facility where they were keeping wild horses penned up and not treating them well. I’ll never forget the moment I saw Destiny.  I had been sick for the past 9 months.  The doctors warned me not to fly and to stay out of the mountains.  The moment I received the call about the wild horses, I knew I couldn’t refuse.

I’ll never forget the moment I saw the herd of horses, my heart sank.  I said to my friend, “they all have sad eyes”.  As soon as I spoke those words, the most beautiful Palomino paint horse raised her head and locked eyes with me.  I said aloud, “hello beautiful, do you want to go home with me”?  I have no memory of going into the pen of horses.  I only saw this beautiful horse, and I began singing Amazing Grace to her.   The mean cowboys had come back and were yelling at me to get out of the pen.   When I turned to address their concerns, the palomino paint began running towards me.  My back was turned, so I did not see her coming.  She stopped at my shoulder and rested her head on my shoulder as she gently blew out a breath, I put my hand on her face and said, “you are my Destiny…you’re going home with me”.  I took my money, on the verge of losing my house at the time, and I purchased this horse with no plan.  Truly, it was divine intervention.  The next day, I returned, and this time there was another horse that was drawing me in with his eyes.  The cowboys were watching me, so I could not get close.  I had no idea at the time that he was Destiny’s sibling.  He also chose me, and I gladly accepted…. again, with no plan and going simply on faith that God had put these two horses in my life. I named him Cheyenne.

At the time, I was extremely sick and was facing major surgery by the end of the year.  I had no means to get the horses back to Maryland, so my friend said she would keep them for a few months while I figured it out.  I sent money to support the horses, but they were low in the pecking order of a group of Clydesdales and were severely undernourished by the time they arrived in Maryland in October.  The vet stated they would be better off being euthanized due to their condition.  That was not an option, so the long journey of nursing them back to health had begun.

Within two months of their arrival, I had spent every day at the barn nursing them back to health, gaining trust and singing Amazing Grace to them.  Once I had major surgery, I was not able to get to the horses for a couple of months.  During that time, we had several blizzards and the state shut down completely.  The farmer where I was boarding my horses told me I had to find help or move the horses.  I had to figure out a plan.  I put everything in God’s hands and asked for guidance.  That same day, I received a call from a female veteran who stated she had heard about me and needed to be around horses for healing but was not good with people.  I found it odd she was sent to me, as I did not know very many people in the area since we had not lived there long. The day I met her and shook her hand, I immediately had a vision.  This had never happened to me before, and I knew why she had trauma.  A few months later, she confessed that she was going to take her life the day she met me, but when she met the horses, it took her back to her childhood and she wanted to live.  She remembered how she felt when she was with horses.  In that moment, I knew why they had chosen me. I, also, was a survivor of PTSD, and the horses knew I was suffering from trauma when they chose me.  Now, I knew that our path together was to work with people suffering from trauma.  That was the beginning of the next 15 years.

I quickly found out how expensive it was to own a horse, and I now had two of them and was recovering from major surgery.  I began to pray and ask God to help me find a way to support these two horses.  Then it came to me.  I had been designing jewelry for two moms for several years and had been an artist all my life.  The message was, “If you can do this for two moms, then you can do this for two horses.”  That is when I went back to doing my art, which I had given up while pursuing my career in music.

Fast forward 15 years, and I am now partnering with my 8 horses to help people heal from their trauma.  I have been doing expos and trade shows for years now, and everything I sell goes to support the horses.  It is truly a labor of love.  Business began to grow, and I needed more inventory so I began to ask several of my artist friends to let me carry their art so I would have more of a selection, and from there, the business became Destiny’s Spirit Artistry.