Marge Tautkus Gunnar learned that she had ovarian cancer in 1993.

During her months of chemotherapy treatment, she said she derived courage and strength from family and friends, but also from the deep and soulful connection she had to her Lipizzan stallion, Neapolitano IV Farica – Max.

"One day when feeling particularly depressed, my sister bundled me into the car and we headed to the barn," Gunnar writes on www.braveheartsriding.org. "When I entered Max's stall, he looked at me with large soft eyes that seemed to question ‘Where have you been?' I threw my arms around his neck, buried my face in his mane and sobbed. Max wrapped his neck around me and squeezed. I felt that connection between us even more powerfully, and I knew that Max was one of the reasons I just had to get well. Although I didn't know it at the time, it was then that the seed for BraveHearts was sown."