Hey Beautiful Earthling
I'm Madeleine Maiya, and I've come to believe that the reason animals remain trapped in cages and in lives that are less than liberated is because we, too, are living in cages we don't realize. We're blind to what we withhold from them because we're blind to what is withheld within ourselves.
The beautiful thing is that animals hold the power to heal us. They become a portal into nature, the present moment, and where we came from.
Through curiosity, compassion, and care, I strive to live and inspire an uncaged world for animals and humans alike. One Earthling at a time. And yes, that includes you! <3
A Little About Me
Raised in the country with hour-less days and animals as my best friends, my love for nature and all her creatures was watered young. When I wasn't rolling through cornfields and creeks, you'd find me in leotards and tights at the dance studio.
In middle school, we moved from the farm into the suburbs. I watched all of my animals sold at auction or left behind, and I stumbled away from my soul's calling.
In search of structure and adventure, I joined the Air Force National Guard, serving six years as a military photographer. While stationed in California, I simultaneously studied acting in Los Angeles. During that time, I also discovered a deep passion for meditation and yoga.
In 2021, five senior horses trapped in a severely neglectful situation changed the course of my life. As their only advocate, I personally rehabilitated them and eventually adopted them all as my own.
Already sharing my life with my rescue pup, Vivor, and three rescue kitties, I expanded our family to include chickens. Before I knew it, I looked around and saw I had re-manifested living each day surrounded by nature, my animals, and my art.
In late 2025, I moved to Texas to create a more stable life for my growing animal family. Now, after three decades spent learning from animals and pursuing a wide range of artistic disciplines, translating what I see in them has become my mission. To honor. To inspire. To experience.
What a journey it's been. For me, "uncaged" looks like laying in the sun, burying my nose into a horse, frolicking through the grass with my chickens, moving my body, painting, writing, feeling. I'd love to know what "uncaged" looks like for you. And together, we step into the harmonious, expansive, joyful world we wish to see.
Thank you for being here.
Horses Without The Ride
I'm often met with puzzled looks when people ask if I ride my horses, and I answer, "No." The questions that usually follow are: "Are they broke?" (A couple.) "Are they lame?" (No.) "Can you ride?" (Yes.) "Do you want someone else to ride them for you?" (No.) And finally, the golden question: "Then what do you have them for?" I grew up riding horses. In fact, riding was what excited me most about having them. But after spending years living alongside my horses now without riding them, I came to know horses in an entirely different way. Through that experience, something changed inside of me, and here's what I've come to understand: Too many people hop on a horse before ever hopping on the ride within themselves. Pulling and tugging. Prodding and kicking. There is an undeniable sacred energy—as old as time itself—that I sometimes feel between my horses and I. To ride in the name of sacred union is, to me, a spiritual calling. I believe that if a person becomes deeply aligned with themselves, truly connected to their horse, and no longer relies on restrictive equipment, there is the possibility for something entirely different to emerge. A ride that is offered rather than taken. In that place, I imagine you could genuinely ask a horse if they would like to ride with you, just as you might ask the earth if you may pick a beautiful flower. Sometimes the answer would be yes. Sometimes it would be no. Once you begin to experience the sacredness of a horse without needing to ride them, I believe you're on the right path. Anything less has led me to a difficult conclusion: that our ride is taken from the back of our captive. We built much of the world we know today on the backs of horses. Rather than honoring them, many have remained enslaved for spectacle, sport, and profit—forgotten and discarded when they are no longer useful. I believe most of us are still kindergartners on the path toward understanding our relationship with horses. Kindergartners begin with the basics. We haven't yet earned the wisdom required to ride another sentient being with the reverence such an act would deserve. Once I saw that, riding no longer felt joyful. It felt like an imbalance of power. The fact that the legal minimum space for horses can be as small as a 12-by-12-foot pen breaks my heart, and speaks volumes of where we still are as a whole. I have my horses for the honor of knowing them, caring for them, and giving them safe refuge. It is my service to the world, and the greatest healing force of my lifetime, to know these magical beings and to hold space for lives that would have otherwise slipped through the cracks. Horses have so much to offer, and so much to teach us. One of my greatest hopes is to share that experience, so it may ripple outward in waves of change.
Chickens As Companions
To be defined as one thing your entire life, only to have people turn a blind eye to who you really are and strip away everything that makes you you, is the mass existence of the chicken. Did you know chickens can see more colors than we can? They can remember over 100 faces and communicate through dozens of distinct vocalizations and body cues? Or are chickens more likely to bring to mind something dipped in ketchup between two slices of bread? The very beings who have nourished us for generations are mocked, dismissed, and so often never truly seen. I believe the power of companionship with a chicken can change the world. Because once we learn to truly see a being who has been so commonly overlooked and robbed of even the most basic protections, something fundamental begins to change within us. When I first set out to build a flock, I knew I wanted chickens as companions. What I didn't expect was the extraordinary depth each one possesses. Their individuality, awareness, communication, quirks, curiosity, and charm continue to pull me deeper into their wondrous, inquisitive, fully alive world. And once you've arrived in their world, you've received the gift of keeping chickens as companions. Though it may never outweigh the countless chickens who continue to be exploited, every person who truly learns to see them adds another drop to the ocean—creating ripples that extend far beyond the physical forces confining them as a whole.
Horse Rescue Story, Tarps Over Truth, & Higher Working Powers Towards Hope
It Hasn't All Been Kicks & Giggles
AN UNCONVENTIONAL RESCUE
What happens when animals become commodities for profit and every system designed to protect them fails?
I came face to face with that question when I accepted a job as a "mucker" at a luxury mental health facility that proudly advertised its horse therapy program. What I found instead was a façade. The facility had adopted six senior rescue horses from a shelter, placed them in an old cattle pen, and left them there for over a year and a half with no care beyond nursing staff occasionally throwing hay over the fence—when hay was available. There was no functioning therapy program. The horses were only there as part of the facility's image to get more clients. One horse had already died from neglect. But that wasn't why I was hired. I was hired because the manure had piled up, and the owner was coming to visit. Hence the job title: "mucker."
The moment I stepped into that pen, my life changed, and there was no turning back. These horses needed someone to fight for them, and I can proudly say I was a constant pain in the ass for that facility from the moment they brought me on board, until I left with all five horses as my own.
