Some of my sweetest memories with my mom begin with an old, tattered horse book when I was about 6 years old. The cover was worn, the pages bent. Some of the pages were soft from being turned so many times. My brother, my sister, and I would sit together with mom flipping through those pages, looking at picture after picture of horses while she told us stories about them. That book wasn’t just paper and ink. It was where I saw her passion come alive. It was where she quietly passed that passion on to me.
What I didn’t know then was how God would take that passion she planted in me and use it for something bigger than either of us could have imagined. Out of my mom’s passion, through my calling, and God’s purpose, Unbridled Farms was born.
Unbridled Farms is more than a program. It is my mom’s legacy breathing in real time. It is broken people finding hope. It is chains of bondage being broken. It is people learning to trust again — often through the quiet, healing presence of a horse. Every single moment of transformation that happens traces directly back to my mom. If it weren’t for her, this program would not exist.
Every life changed at Unbridled Farms carries a piece of her story. In every tear shed through healing, every breakthrough, every moment of redemption. This is my mom’s legacy.
My mom may no longer walk with us, but her passion runs through Unbridled Farms, through its mission, and through me. What she planted continues to grow. I find comfort in knowing the same God who gave her that love for horses has now carried her home. My heart is deeply heavy but also deeply grateful.
I picture my mom in heaven, in a field, surrounded by horses, her body and mind whole, free from pain in the presence of our heavenly father, the great healer, restorer and redeemer. I will hold close the precious memories shared with my mom, brother and sister. Simple moments like a worn-out horse book, going to church, vacation bible school, and Easter egg hunts in our childhood backyard.
My mom’s legacy lives on in me, in her children and grandchildren, in this program, and in every life Unbridled Farms touches.
Mom, thank you for the gift of life. I love you!
Sheila Louise Mixon June 10, 1947 to March 10, 2026
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