In the heart of the Salinas Valley, amid the rolling hills of Chualar, The Canyon House stands as a refuge for draft horses in need. Founded by Sarah Rodriguez, the sanctuary is more than a passion project—it’s a lifelong commitment to rescuing and providing a forever home for these gentle giants, many of whom were once bound for slaughter.
Even with deep roots in Western Growers and agriculture, Sarah never imagined she would one day be at the helm of an equine sanctuary. She is married to Trey Rodriguez, whose family is well known among Western Growers members and the agriculture industry. Trey’s father, Sonny Rodriguez, was the recipient of the 2024 Western Growers Award of Honor. Sarah also has deep ties to the industry through her father, Mike Azzopardi, who operates American Cooling, another proud Western Growers member.
Trey and Sarah both followed in their fathers’ footsteps. They own a three-year-old multi-state cooler management company, Legacy Cooling, and they too are members of Western Growers, with Trey currently in his fifth year serving on the Board of Trustees for Western Growers Assurance Trust.
It was an unexpected moment online that changed everything for Sarah. While browsing through an equine adoption ad, she stumbled upon the heartbreaking reality: countless horses, particularly draft breeds, faced uncertain futures with many destined for kill pens.
For some people, learning about the realities of horse slaughter and equine neglect might lead to a donation, a shared social media post or a passing moment of concern. For Sarah, it became a calling. “I just couldn’t let it go,” she said. “I knew I had horse knowledge. I had energy. I was young and fit, and I could help in some way. I just didn’t know what that role would be yet.”
It became clear in October 2023 when Sarah saw a plea from an equine rescue in Texas, highlighting the urgent need for a draft horse sanctuary in the Western U.S. Unlike smaller breeds, draft horses require more resources. They need three times as much space, they eat twice as much as a regular-sized horse and they require specialized farriers (providers of hoof care) and stock equipment. Often discarded when they are deemed no longer useful, particularly in Amish communities, many aging workhorses are left to a grim fate; shipped to kill pens and sold for slaughter in Mexico.
Sarah had an unwavering love for horses, 87 acres of untouched ranch land and a relentless determination. “I told Trey, ‘I want to start a draft horse sanctuary.’ And he said, ‘I don’t know about that. Where are you going to put them? I think we should think this one through.”
Sarah didn’t wait. Within a week, she purchased six draft horses from a kill pen. “I jumped into the deep end,” she said. “If I was going to do it, I was going all in.”
And thus, The Canyon House was born—a sanctuary where these draft horses, once used for intense farm labor and carriage rides and now cast aside and destined for tragedy—could spend their days in peace.
After those first horses arrived, it became clear that Sarah couldn’t do this alone. This is where having deep agricultural roots made all the difference. Sarah and Trey turned to the network they knew and trusted—longtime industry partners who didn’t hesitate to step up.
It took one call to Coastal Tractors, and within days, a brand-new blue tractor arrived at the ranch. Within 24 hours, Toro Petroleum delivered a red diesel drum straight to the barn, fully equipped for seamless fuel transfers. Now, monthly fill-ups are just a text away.
When the local hay didn’t meet the nutritional needs of the senior draft horses, Sarah reached out to an old friend of Trey’s at Hancock Farms, known for growing the highest-quality hay in the Yuma Valley. Delivering that hay? Another trusted ag family, Harrison Farms Trucking, always ready to navigate a tight delivery with reliability and care.
Although The Canyon House takes in horses of all ages, what makes it so unique is its focus on senior draft horses—those often overlooked because they require lifelong care but are no longer useful for riding or work. Unlike traditional rescues that rehabilitate and adopt out horses, The Canyon House is a sanctuary. That means every horse that arrives stays for life.
“Nobody wants to adopt a senior horse. You want a horse you can ride, that your kids can ride,” Sarah said. “But these seniors still deserve a soft landing.”
Today, The Canyon House is home to 32 equines and two donkeys. The equines include draft Belgians, draft Mules, wild Mustangs rescued from Native American reservations and retired rodeo bucking broncos. Almost all arrive sick, injured, underweight and fearful of humans.
Caring for them isn’t easy. It’s costly, time-consuming and emotionally demanding. But for Sarah, the work is deeply fulfilling. “Every horse that comes here is going to die at some point,” she said. “But here, they get to live their last years with dignity.”
The sanctuary is more than just a place for these horses to land—it’s a place where they learn to trust again, heal and be seen as more than just tools for labor, Sarah explained. Each one of them has a story, a past filled with struggle and a future that, for the first time, is filled with care and security.
And while this work is fulfilling, it is certainly not easy. “You think they’re going to come in and you’re going to bond with them immediately, and they’re going to love you and trust you. And it’s absolutely not like that,” Sarah said.
“They finally get here and they’re like, ‘Where am I? What are you going to do to me?’ And it’s not an immediate connection,” she said. “Sometimes it takes months and months and months to connect and say, ‘Okay, how can I help you? What do you need?’ And I just sit there, and I’ll stare at them and try to figure them out.”
Among the sanctuary’s notable horses are Pete, aka Little Pete, a 2,000-pound, 20-hand-tall draft horse who, despite being only four years old, suffers from a paralyzed larynx and stringhalt, conditions that prevent him from doing any kind of riding work.
Then there are Thunder and Mabel, who were so distrustful of humans that Sarah couldn’t even catch them at first.
And then there’s Bruce, another large draft horse with a severely cracked hoof. “He couldn’t even walk. The people who owned him before just kept working him until he was physically unable to move,” Sarah said.
Bruce required an all-star farrier team. Through Sarah’s networking with other rescues across the country, she was able to connect with Pete May, a renowned farrier who is in such high demand that he is very reluctant to take on new clients. Through their shared devotion to horse care, Sarah was able to convince Pete to help Bruce. Bruce lived at Pete’s ranch in Texas for six months, debriding dead tissue, binding his cracked hoof and creating custom shoes for this 1,800-pound giant so that he could finally make his way to his forever home at The Canyon House.
When people ask how she balances the sanctuary, motherhood to two-year-old Beau and a full-time job, Sarah’s answer is simple: “You just do it. You wake up every day, knowing that lives depend on you, and you keep moving forward. There’s no time to dwell on how overwhelming it can be, because the horses don’t wait. The feedings don’t wait. The medical care, the rehabilitation, the emotional work—it all continues whether you’re ready or not,” Sarah said.
But on days that feel impossible, when Sarah questions if she’s making enough of a difference, there are moments that remind her why she does this: Pete finally allowing her to touch his face without pulling away, Bruce able to gallop for the first time in over a year as his hoof heals and Thunder, after monthly anti-inflammation shots and proper feed, finally running with the herd and as a thank you, showing his trust by standing closer, letting her into his space.
When asked if he ever saw his home turning into a sanctuary, Trey said: “My wife has supported me and our business since day one. When she asked for my support, it felt great to be able to return the favor.”
“I am not an animal person by nature, and I am the textbook definition of a workaholic. Having these amazing creatures here who depend on you, showing up for them for their survival, opened my heart in a way that I never expected,” he said. “You see their soul when you look into their eyes. You see their fear, their hurt and their thanks. It teaches you to slow down and see the beauty in people as well. If I reflect honestly, I must admit, I think the sanctuary rescued me as well.”
The long-term vision for the sanctuary is still evolving. The Canyon House needs more space, more helping hands and more awareness. Right now, the sanctuary is at maximum capacity and that’s a hard reality to face when Sarah knows there are so many more horses out there in need of help. But for now, she will continue to use her platform to educate and advocate for these gentle giants.
If you’d like to support The Canyon House, you can visit canyonhousesanctuary.org to learn more about the sanctuary’s story, meet the horses and make a donation, where 100 percent of contributions go directly to the horses. You can also follow The Canyon House on Instagram at @the.canyonhouse, where Sarah shares heartwarming and inspiring moments of daily life at the sanctuary.