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"ere's a lot of bad stuff going on in the world, and my heart breaks, but this is what I know to fix; this is what I know to help," she says. "If I had a lot of money, I'd be throwing it here and there and everywhere to help people and animals, but this is what I know." And she knows it well. She's built a vast network and works with volunteers to identify rescue opportunities, often from feedlots that send animals to slaughterhouses and other adverse situations. e endings aren't always the happy ones she wishes they were, but even the few that can't be saved are treated with kindness and dignity and not left to suffer. "Celia is an angel on Earth," says Laura Spielman, who works with Sciacca at Laughing Pony Rescue. "What she does is like nobody else. She gives every moment that she has and every dime that she has to rescuing." A Rescue from the Heart ough Celia Sciacca had been rescuing and rehoming horses for years and helping others to do it as well, when she created her own nonprofit in 2010, it was with the goal to rehabilitate rescued horses to provide equine therapy for the military. ough connecting with the military proved more challenging than she'd anticipated, there were always more horses that needed her. Now, Sciacca estimates that her organization, Laughing Pony Rescue, saves between 100 and 200 horses a year (she puts her lifetime total at about 3,000 rescues!), both at her Rancho Santa Fe-area ranch located near e Bridges community and through her collaborations with partner organizations as well as private donors and volunteers. Some are rehabilitated and kept on-property as therapy animals, and others are adopted. It's hard and often heartbreaking work, but Sciacca says it's what she is meant to do. Laughing Pony Rescue >> @ranchandcoast RANCH & COAST MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2023 55 LAUGHING PONY RESCUE: PHOTO BY MADELINE BARR PHOTO