NONPROFIT SPOTLIGHT

By Megan Lupo

Jody McCambridge was diagnosed with terminal cancer in spring 2018. By the time August 2019 rolled around, she was given only a few weeks to live.

Her daughter, Amy McCambridge-Steppe, was mad, so mad at the world for losing her mom this way. The only sense of peace was that her mom watched her dreams come true with the founding of her and her husband’s nonprofit, the Unbridled Heroes Project, an unconventional rescue and rehabilitation facility that provides refuge from trauma to veterans and wild Mustang horses behind Rohsler’s Allendale Nursery, in September 2018.

McCambridge was a traditional woman and believer of western medicine, but she decided to take a chance on her daughter’s spiritual, alternative way of healing in her transition. Soon McCambridge-Steppe and certified Equine Therapy Specialist Monika Chalmers immersed McCambridge with sage, chants, reflexology and Reiki, a meditative technique that promotes energy healing through touch.

rounded by sun and Mustang horses so gentle and nuzzling, she began to radiate. Her hair grew; the color came back to her face; and she surpassed August, September and October. It wasn’t until late November when another tumor appeared that it was finally time. Yet, even in an unconscious state in mid-December, she still was holding on. It felt like she was waiting for something or someone.

All of a sudden it clicked for McCambridge-Steppe. Her mother promised to visit the barn one more time, but she was bedridden and weak. McCambridge-Steppe had an idea on a way this could work, much to the shock of her father. Chirpa, one of the rescue Mustang horses, was loaded up in a trailer, led up a ramp into the home, and without even glancing at the treats and wide-eyed family in the kitchen, went straight to McCambridge.

Chirpa instinctively knew what to do. She nuzzled McCambridge’s hair for quite some time, and McCambridge’s breathing eased. She ended up passing away early that morning in McCambridge-Steppe’s arms. Chirpa and McCambridge’s sacred bond reflects the unique, healing space that the Unbridled Heroes Project creates. There’s no scripted process or psychotherapy, just two lost spirits saving each other.

“If you unbridle yourself and take the stigma off of whatever’s on you and be who you are at the core, that’s what Unbridled Heroes is all about,” McCambridge-Steppe said. “The name together, ‘Unbridled Heroes,’ means so much because our horses have no bridles. We let them be completely free and heal. We don’t tie them up. They just learn to trust and stand.”

It was an uncertain journey of survival and heartbreak to get to where McCambridge-Steppe and her husband, Mark Steppe, are now. Steppe was in the army and McCambridge-Steppe was in the Marine Corps, both stationed out in California. The moment that Steppe came back from Iraq was the moment when everything spiraled.

The loss of 18 men Steppe experienced, including five of his close friends, led to an alcohol addiction and a disconnect from all of those around him. He numbed himself of the depression, PTSD and even physical injuries he had. They, along with McCambridge-Steppe’s

From there, it was discovered that he had lytic lesions throughout his body, which are areas of hollowed-out holes in the bone. It was unexplainable, especially learning the Department of Veterans Affairs lost his medical records, but not unexpected, as McCambridge-Steppe said there was a lot of forced testing and vaccination administrations in the military.

A zombie in a wheelchair, Steppe was a shell of a man, no matter if he was medicated or not, and McCambridge-Steppe fell into her own darkness.

McCambridge-Steppe developed debilitating headaches that led to a benign brain tumor right around when her mother learnt of her terminal cancer diagnosis.

Just when all hope seemed lost, McCambridge-Steppe’s oldest son led them to a horse therapy nonprofit in Mahwah for a service project. The family became intrigued by the horses, and the couple began volunteering every day. That’s where McCambridge-Steppe met Phoenix, a horse rescued from a kill pen.

“Now I understand why Phoenix helped me so much because the horses mirror you, and she was so hurt,” McCambridge-Steppe said. “We started watching these animals and learning every day because we were there every day. There was nobody really there that was doing the work. Slowly through the time, there were things we had to do together.”

As McCambridge-Steppe and Steppe began to heal with the horses, they began to heal with each other. Their bodies got stronger, and they started laughing together again. From Phoenix to another horse named Saturn, they fell in love with each and every one of them.

Being there was a catalyst to fulfill their ambitions in their own natural, organic way – “Let’s just go for it. What if you never lived?” McCambridge-Steppe asked herself and her husband.

They flew to Florida to meet 19-year-old horse Continued on page 14

trainer Cat Zimmerman, who runs CZ Mustangs, a non-profit Mustang rescue and training facility. From her, they met Hope, a black Mustang that was hogtied and beaten and now forever loved at the Unbridled Heroes Project barn.

Mustang horses parallel veterans in a way that they are American icons, and same in the way that they have been through trauma and brokenness. McCambridge-Steppe and Steppe didn’t know how it would work, but they knew they wanted to take in these horses that weren’t wanted and provide them alternative ways to heal.

“How do we take that magic that this broken animal has and bottle it up and have a person who’s gone through some trauma and pair them together without this horse hurting this person?” McCambridge-Steppe asked. In addition to Chalmers, who embraces yoga, acupuncture, sound healing baths and other holistic healing techniques, there’s Elizabeth Brosnan, an equine therapy specialist who practices yoga, meditations and aromatherapy; Matty Aderhold, the music director; and Vijosa Hoxha, who hosts mindfulness workshops, among others.

Both Chalmers and Brosnan are certified as Eagala practitioners, a revolutionary model that incorporates horses into mental health treatments.

Prior to McCambridge-Steppe witnessing her first session, she was a bit skeptical if these practices would work. Because when wild horses are abused and then rescued, most develop warranted fear, especially of humans.

The answer is to stay present.

“It helps you just be in the moment. You have to be in the moment,” Steppe said. “You’re thinking about 50 different things. That’s when something bad happens. They sense the energy.”

Chalmers joined the team right away, volunteering to do crystal work on the horses. More specialists and horses have become part of the Unbridled Heroes Project family since – a beautiful mosaic of misfits sharing their gifts of aromatherapy, oil and music. When McCambridge-Steppe watched the therapist set up cones in a square, leaving spaces on two opposite sides, she thought it would be a disaster with the horses. The therapist explained she set the cones up like that to mimic a house with a front and back door – a safe space. McCambridge-Steppe watched in amazement as the Mustang horses walked in a line through the openings of the cones and allowed the therapist a hug. She became a believer fully.

Veterans have, also, turned from skeptics to believers through the five session introductory package, McCambridge-Steppe said.

When a veteran reaches out, the first steps are introducing them to the team of therapists, assessing their comfortability and then seeing what would work best for them. Then, they are offered five private, individual sessions where the barn is shut down to the So many lives have been changed throughout the three years that the Unbridled Heroes Project has been operating. The horses have inspired long-awaited breakthroughs with veterans and pulled them out of dark headspaces. These animal and human souls

Continued on page 16

There are 11 horses that make up the Unbridled herd – Hope, Penny, Kaia, Rain, Chirpa, Ruby, Rocket, Shiloh, Mamore, Buddy and Amirah.

Letting the horses stay free and unbridled stems from the thought that they shouldn’t be forced or numb anymore from wearing saddles or being ridden; their most vulnerable spot is on their back. They’ve already been through unimaginable agony, and they deserve to be their natural selves, McCambridge-Steppe said.

In addition to the individual sessions, the organization is also experimenting with group events to encourage more veterans to explore what’s offered.

In late October, the organization hosted UFC veteran Jimmie Rivera for an opportunity to train with him. McCambridge-Steppe hoped that this would encourage combat veterans to stop by and get their stress out through punching bags and having the horses in the backdrop, as they’re trained not to ask for help.

Another moment was when the team brought horses to windows of a nursing home during the COVID-19 pandemic. A woman with dementia began crying because her father used to be a jockey and it triggered a memory. Looking toward the future, the nonprofit has partnered with Holy Name Medical Center’s residential hospice, Villa Maria Claire in Saddle River. The 26-acre property includes newly built stables and pasture fencing.

Back at the Allendale barn, there’s photographs that line the walls of the stable. One in particular stands out of an August day where McCambridge visited the barn before she passed. The gentleness of Chirpa appearing next to a strengthened McCambridge emits a ray of hope like the rainbow that appears above their heads.

McCambridge-Steppe reminiscences one early morning when McCambridge was near the end of her life. Her bed was placed in the living room, and it was inclined to help her breathing. Suddenly, her eyes open wide in a childlike wonder. She’s staring at the twinkle lights in front of her, but she’s in a different place. She exclaims, “Amy. Look at all the people.” She sees angels everywhere.

She closes her eyes and opens it back up. She exclaims again, “There’s a horse. There’s a horse in here, Amy. It’s beautiful. It’s black. It’s Hope.” She took a sigh and shut her eyes. Those are the last words she’s ever said to McCambridge-Steppe.

“It’s incredible,” McCambridge-Steppe said. “The dream has manifested the way it was supposed to. It’s been a beautiful journey.”

The Women First International Fund hosted a luncheon at Capital Grille to raise money for their mission. For more information, visit www.womenfirstfund.org.

Candace Kristin, Noelle Silberbauer

Noelle Silberbauer, Emily Forhman

Eliana Seigel, Heidi Arpacilar Nicole Bello, Kiersten Antaki, Remy Bogan Katya McKnight, Caroline Guarino, Jamie LePore

Arleen Paladino, Melissa Kieferle Yolimar Marese, Stefanie Stone, Bridget Burke

Ronnie Gringeri, Gary Silberbauer, Janet Melia

Hiba Kolkas, Julie Jabaly, Jill Ceglie Aurelia Shafir, Susan Benjamin Lisa Herrmann, Candace Kristin Marie Perrette, Mary Ann Silberbauer

Andrea Filippelli, Kelsey Ottoson, Esther Louis Catherine Espino, Tracy Betz Uta Betancourt, Natalia Antaki Norina Lapp, Erica Ronan, Josephine DeBartolo