Arizona -- The Tucson Citizen carried a story on September 12, 2001 by Paul Allen about the rescue of an injured mare:

Mental telepathy between horses and humans? Longtime "horse people" will tell you that such a link can develop, and - after a series of baffling dreams - Sylvia Sebring would be the last to argue with them.

During the first week of August, she had a recurring dream in which a light gray horse, standing in a corral at Marana Stockyards, seemed to be asking her for help. The mare had a limp.

The dreams wrenched Sebring awake from a sound sleep and left her anxious, with a tightness in her chest.

The veterinary technician with Tucson-based Castaway Treasures Animal Sanctuary deals with critters on a daily basis, everything from cats to horses. She recognized the stockyards from having gone there to bid on distressed animals, but had no clue what the dreams might mean. Nor did family members and friends with whom she discussed them.

Then, days later, a call came in from a friend of the sanctuary, saying the U.S. Border Patrol had discovered some abandoned horses in the desert near Arivaca, left to die by drug smugglers. Perhaps the sanctuary should try to retrieve the animals?

The Tucson Citizen carried an Aug. 15 story on one of the horses, which had become entangled in the stirrup rigging of its saddle, and was not found until a week after the others were rescued.

A U.S. Customs Service aircraft spotted the animal, its rear leg through a stirrup and caught under its body. It had lain nearly immobilized for a week in the blistering desert heat with no water and little nourishment.

"That's when she started sending out her little messages that I needed to come and get her," Sebring would muse later.

The horse was, the story indicated, a white Arabian. It had a leg injury - a 12-inch cut on its left foreleg.

A light-colored horse with a leg injury? It seemed eerily close to her dream scenario. The report prompted Sebring to do some telephone investigation. She learned that the horse would be auctioned Sept. 6 - at the Marana Stockyards.

"When I came out and saw her in the corral, I knew that was her right away. It was the first horse I came to. We had her named before she even appeared - Dream Walker."

The horse had a bulky bandage on its injured leg.

Sebring had come to the auction prepared to buy the Arabian. An elderly couple, apparently intent, as well, on rescuing the horse from buyers who routinely attend auctions to purchase inexpensive animals for resale to dog food packing plants, repeatedly upped the ante, which started at $100.

Sebring would not be put off. When she finally bid $425 - three times the amount some of the other animals brought - they dropped out, and she was the proud new owner of Dream Walker.

"They tell me she's 5 or 6 years old. And she should regain full use of that leg."

Unlike other distressed animals that often are adopted out of the sanctuary after their injuries have mended, Dream Walker will remain.

"She's going to be my personal horse. She's not going anywhere."