Hidden Gems: Meet Alexis Roeckner Ferri of Tierra Madre Horse & Human Sanctuary

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexis Roeckner Ferri.

Hi Alexis, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, tell our readers some of your backstories.
I need help to pick a spot where my story starts. Sometimes it begins with horses. I’ve loved horses my entire life. I didn’t grow up on a ranch and never got to ride them or be around them unless my family and I went horseback riding which is always what I chose to do when I got to pick. But from when I was a little girl, I always pictured a life with them. I made up stories about the type of horses I would have: their names, personalities, and appearance. I hoped someday, the make-believe horses in my head would be real.

I grew up on the outskirts of Cave Creek. My parents divorced when I was ten, and my stepdad came into our lives shortly after. When I was 12, he uprooted my family and moved us away from everything I had ever known to a little town called Discovery Bay in California. I was miserable. I was bullied at my new school. Worse still, my stepdad started to reveal his true colors. I didn’t know it then, but I was about to spend the next five years being emotionally and mentally abused by him.

We moved again a year later to another town in California, and a year later, we moved to Florida. By then, I was 15 and starting high school. I hated Florida and wanted nothing more than to be home in Arizona. My home life was filled with screaming. Accusations. Insults. Assurances that I was worthless and that no one would ever love me. I watched my mom suffer, and my entire family suffered. I had no one. At school, I was bullied. The one friend I made stalked and molested me. I started to think maybe the world was better off without me. I began to feel numb. Like I would never be happy again. I didn’t know depression was a thing – mental illness wasn’t discussed in those days. I didn’t know that my thoughts of taking my own life were not normal. I just thought I was going insane. The voices in my head telling me to end it all grew louder and louder.

Then, five months into living in Florida, my stepdad’s work moved us back to Arizona. I flew home in January 2007. I was 15 years old, and though I didn’t realize it, I desperately needed professional help. On the plane home, an in-flight movie called Flicka came on. I watched it and scarcely breathed the entire time. Here was a story about a girl my age who felt misunderstood by everyone but horses. She lived on a ranch with horses and was connected to a wild mustang named Flicka, who wouldn’t be tamed. She wanted to be free. I made a decision right then and there on that plane. Somehow, someway, I was going to have horses in my life. I was curious to know how that would look or what I would have to do to make it happen. But for the rest of my life, I would seek to be with them every day. That’s what I wanted with my life. To be with horses.

That was sixteen years ago. Today I am the CEO of Tierra Madre Horse & Human Sanctuary. I walked into the ranch at 17 years old. At that point, I was consumed by the fog of depression that had started several years before. I’d forgotten what it was like to live without it. The horses there saved my life. They showed me what it looked like to go through hell and still be strong. They showed me that life could still be lived after enduring abuse. I thought that if they could live in the moment and find happiness after everything they had been through, then maybe I could. I’ve since sought professional help. The darkness I lived in as a teen is no more. Tierra Madre is a nonprofit organization that saves abused, neglected, injured, or surrendered horses. Healing, hope, and happiness are our tagline, and we do fantastic work for the humans who walk through our gates. It’s a circle of healing, one I can speak to firsthand. And now and then, people will tell me how cool it is that my job is about saving horses. And you know what? I always tell them the same thing: I don’t keep horses. Every single day, they save me.

Thanks for sharing that. So, you could tell us a bit more about your business.
Tierra Madre Horse & Human Sanctuary is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in Cave Creek, Arizona, that provides a forever home to previously abused, neglected, injured, abandoned, or surrendered horses. Founded in 2006, we have been saving horses for nearly two decades. We have one job: to give our horses healing, hope, and happiness. And our horses only have one job: to live the best lives they could have imagined. Tierra Madre is the only exclusive horse sanctuary in Maricopa County. Most of our horses are retired and have chronic medical conditions that must be professionally managed. Over the years, the humans at Tierra Madre began recognizing that while the horses were being healed. The humans were receiving healing, too. Today, the horses of Tierra Madre serve as healers in various programs, continuing our mission of promoting a circle of healing between humans and horses that has existed for centuries. I have the privilege of being the chief executive officer of Tierra Madre Horse & Human Sanctuary. I am proud to have been involved with this organization for the past 13 years. Thanks to Tierra Madre, I sought my master’s degree in nonprofit management and leadership from ASU. If I had to pick one thing I was proud of at Tierra Madre, it would be our commitment to inclusiveness. Everyone is welcome at our ranch: two-legged and four. Everyone has something unique to offer, no matter who they are, where they came from, or what their abilities are. Come as you are. You are welcome here.

What does success mean to you?

• Success is getting out of bed in the morning. There was a time when that was hard for me to do. Every day I’m out of bed, living my life is a successful day.
• Success recognizes that there will always be bad that comes with the good. You cannot have light without shadow.
• Success is failing and then trying again.
• Success is aiming high and missing because you aimed high rather than too low.
• Success is loving what you do and giving back to the world in a purposeful, meaningful way.
• Success is taking a step forward daily and celebrating the step, no matter how small.
• Success is feeling things and not just being numb all the time.
• Success is navigating big feelings like anger and disappointment and grief and sadness. Feeling those things means you’re alive.
• Success is looking back at how far you’ve come and thinking, “I did it.”
• And success is looking at what’s ahead and thinking, “I can’t wait for what’s next.”

Contact Info:

• Website: https://tierramadrehorseandhumansanctuary.org
• Instagram: ranchotierramadre
• Facebook: ranchotierramadre

Image Credits
The first three: Alexandra Buxbaum Photography The last two: Waves of Grain Photography