Meet Our Executive Board
Erin Giannios
President and Founder
Horses were always in my soul.
My love for horses started when I was six years old, spending weekends at my family’s cabin in upstate New York. That’s where I learned to ride and, more importantly, learned how to care for horses. I had no idea then how much those early experiences would become a part of who I am.
When I was fourteen, I came to Mahrapo Farm to board my first horse, Ace of Spades. I spent every free minute here—riding, caring for my horse, exploring the Ramapo Mountains, and simply enjoying being at the farm. It felt like home.
I went on to study equine science in college and spent years working around horses and learning everything I could about them. Horses were always a part of my life, but for a period of time, I lost my way. I wasn’t where I wanted to be, and I knew I needed something to change.
In 2005, I came back to Mahrapo Farm. I knew I needed to be here. I needed horses back in my life. I needed something that felt like me again. I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for, but I knew I had been called back to this place. I asked who needed help, and that’s when I met Bailey and Patches. Those two horses changed my life forever.
They had been left behind by their previous owner, and I fell completely in love with them. They became everything to me. Caring for them gave me something I had been missing and gave me a sense of purpose I didn’t even realize I needed.
At the time, Mahrapo Farm was a boarding facility. When Bailey and Patches were abandoned, their care didn’t simply disappear with their owners. Someone had to continue feeding them, caring for them, and making sure they had a safe place to live.
And we did. Then it happened again. And again. More horses were left behind by owners who could no longer—or would no longer—take responsibility for them. What had once been a boarding facility was slowly becoming a place where abandoned horses were being left, and somehow, we kept finding a way to make room and keep caring for them.
There was no big plan. I wasn’t thinking about starting a rescue. I was simply helping the horses in front of me, and the people who cared for this farm were willing to put the horses first, even when doing so meant taking on the cost and responsibility that someone else had walked away from.
Looking back, that was the unofficial beginning of Bergen County Horse Rescue. It took a few more years for the lightbulb to finally go off and for me to realize that this wasn’t just something I was doing. This was what I was meant to do. What started with Bailey and Patches eventually became a nonprofit organization. Ten years ago, Bergen County Horse Rescue officially began, and since then, so many horses have come through our gates. Horses who were neglected, abandoned, mistreated, forgotten, or simply had nowhere else to go. Every horse has a story. And every horse has taught me something. Our mission is simple: caring for horses mind, body, and soul.
To me, that means giving them more than food and a stall. It means giving them time when they need time, patience when they need patience, and love when they may have never really known what that feels like. It means giving them a place where they are safe and where they won’t be forgotten again.The rescue has changed a lot over the years, and so have I. There have been incredible moments, heartbreaking losses, and plenty of days when the work has been hard. But through all of it, the horses have kept me going. And now life has brought me to another chapter I never could have imagined. After all these years, I now own Mahrapo Farm.
The same farm I came to when I was fourteen with Ace of Spades. The same farm I came back to when I needed to find myself again. The same farm where Bailey and Patches changed the direction of my life. I don’t take that lightly. There has been a lot of change and loss in my life, and I don’t know exactly what the future looks like. But I know I’m where I’m supposed to be. The horses are here. The farm is here. And there are still horses out there who need us. When I think about that six-year-old girl riding horses at her family’s cabin, I never could have imagined where those first rides would lead me. I am so grateful for every horse who has found their way here, for every person who has believed in this rescue, and for every person who has ever chosen compassion over convenience when a horse needed a place to go.
Bailey and Patches were the beginning of something I didn’t have a name for yet. They gave me something to believe in. They gave me a reason to come back. And in so many ways, they gave me my life back. Ten years after Bergen County Horse Rescue officially began, I don’t feel like I’m at the end of the story. I feel like I’m beginning the next part. And wherever that takes us, I know the horses will be at the center of it.
Caring for horses mind, body, and soul. That’s what brought me here. And that’s what keeps me here.
Danielle DeBenedetto
Vice President and Co-Founder
I started volunteering during my junior year at Ramapo College before BCHR was a nonprofit organization. I had fallen in love with the horses, the farm, and the overall positive environment that it was before hearing about its ultimate mission. Words cannot express how much these horses and this organization have helped me in my own life; and it is evident that we are making a huge difference in the lives of these beautiful animals- we are giving them a second chance at life.