Haven for horses: Mending Hope Acres rescues horses in crisis
Mending Hope Acres rescues horses in crisis
Jen Celedonia is about caring, hope and dignity.
That is how she works and lives her life — full of love, compassion and determination. Her spirit attracts a bevy of volunteers and supporters. It’s why her Mending Hope Acres — a rescue farm for older, Standardbred, Quarter and discarded horses — is a safe and loving haven.
Mending Hope Acres is a rural equine rescue located in Bentleyville, close to Mingo Creek County Park in Washington County.
Celedonia said: “Our rescue serves a dual purpose: to provide safe haven and rehabilitation for horses in crisis, and to foster healing, learning, and connection through community outreach programs. From youth mentorship and veteran support to barn visits and hands-on horsemanship workshops, our programs are designed to uplift both animals and people.”
With community and volunteer support, Mending Hope Acres aims to expand its rescue capacity, build inclusive infrastructure, and deepen its outreach efforts to underserved rural populations.
Currently, Celedonia and the volunteers take care of the rescues, which suffer from ailments ranging from broken-down suspensory ligaments in their hind legs to Lyme disease to ringbone, among other conditions.
“I feel like I’ve been blessed,” added Celedonia, who is a hospice counselor and resides in Venetia. “I remember bringing home the blind Standardbred (Charisma). She was the first horse I had, probably more than 20 years ago, and I was so scared that I couldn’t do it — that I wasn’t able to do it or to make a difference.
“Now, we’re at 12 (animals). I feel like every step is just unfolding for me. Throughout these couple of years, the right people come at the right time. Someone said to me in the very beginning, ‘You don’t have to be perfect. You’re going into it genuinely, and everything will fall into place.’ I think that’s the glue that keeps everything together — on these crazy work weeks, with my oldest son, Cole, having soccer and everything like that. It fills my soul. If I could, I would do this full time.”
Finding forever homes for retired racehorses is a difficult issue. Retirement homes for horses provide a safe and caring environment for aging or retired horses. These facilities focus on the well-being of horses that have served in various capacities, ensuring they receive proper care and attention in their later years.
In the beginning
Celedonia, 45, is effusive in her praise of her brother’s role in helping her start the rescue on the family farm, where her parents, Margaret and Bob, her brother Bob and her sister Michelle live.
“It all happened so fast,” said her brother Bob Immel. “I was up in Somerset, buying a couple of Highland cows. Understand, this has been Jennifer’s dream. She’s always wanted to have a horse rescue. She’s my younger sister, and I’d do anything for her.
“As I was coming back from Somerset, she called crying, and this horse was beaten and abused. I just said, go ahead and get it. Tell me where the horse is and I’ll make payment arrangements and get it. It was in Oklahoma. We found a nice Amish man. He brought the horse home; it took a week-and-a-half, and we were just so excited and couldn’t wait. It wasn’t fast enough. It seemed like it took forever for the horse to get there, and when she did, we found out that she was blind. We took her up to Penn State to see if there was anything we could do, because she was only 10 or 11 years old at the time. The retinas were already detached.”
Thus began Mending Hope Acres.
Bob had just bought his great-grandfather’s farm, but it needed some work, and he ended up constructing a barn with 10 stalls.
“They filled up pretty quickly over the last year,” Immel added. “Jennifer is deeply committed to this — one hundred percent.”
Support system
Kristin MacCartney and Celedonia have known each other for about six years.
“Our boys played baseball together,” MacCartney explained. “She knew that I grew up with horses. When she got the first horse, Charisma, she called me, and that was the first time I met her. It snowballed from there. I got to take care of Charisma if Jen needed it, and as she got more horses, I became more involved.”
MacCartney went on to explain that Celedonia and fellow volunteer Holly Denke have a schedule in which each feeds and turns out the horses throughout the week.
For Denke, Mending Hope Acres offered something new when her life was in transition and brought her back to being with horses.
“I used to own and ride horses when I was younger, and once I had kids, I took a little sabbatical. When my kids went to college, I wanted to find something to do with my time, (and) now they’re back and working.”
Again, needing something to do, she said, “I went and I met Jen. I just fell in love with the barn, the horses and her. My husband never met a nicer person.”
The circle
The circle that outlines Mending Hope Acres’ logo is a symbol of never-ending love. Celedonia chose it intentionally.
“It also signifies the protection found here for both humans and horses alike,” she said. “This is the last stop for these horses — endless grass, a full belly and never-ending unconditional care.”
Jack Cramer is the head coach of the reigning WPIAL champion Bentworth Bearcats’ softball team, but he is a cheerleader for Mending Hope Acres.
“I go over once in a while and just support,” Cramer said. “It’s a good thing. People want to come and spend time with the horses. What Jen and her volunteers are doing is remarkable.”
Celedonia’s wish has been for the rescue farm to be a source of outreach.
“Amazingly, there have been so many people who have joined the outreach at just the right time, so I see myself as truly the fortunate one,” she said. “My heart bursts with gratitude every day that I get to wake up and take care of these horses. I love encouraging people to go down the rescue path because I love to see these horses placed in loving forever homes. The relationship between these horses and their caretakers is symbiotic in the sense that we need each other in different ways. These horses have been through hell and back. They all have a story of someone failing them.
“I believe that all of us as humans can relate to that in a way. But what truly matters is how we land in the end, and it only takes one person or one story or one chance meeting for our lives to turn around. That is where the hope in ‘Mending Hope’ comes from.
“When we rescue these horses and pour our hearts and souls into them, they heal — but there’s a part of all of us that heals too when walking this journey with them. There is something about rescuing a shut-down buddy horse that was shuffled from owner to owner, claimed on the track, then sent off to be a buggy horse. The dullness in their eyes that is replaced by tiny gleams of light built only on pure trust and love is an amazing thing to experience.”