This Musically Inclined Rescue Horse Learned to Play the Guitar and Harp. Now He’s Featured on an Album (Exclusive)
This Musically Inclined Rescue Horse Learned to Play the Guitar and Harp. Now He’s Featured on an Album (Exclusive)
Moná ThomasFri, August 7, 2026 at 6:49 PM UTC
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Mikayla Khramov wearing a cowboy hat holding a guitar near a horse.Credit: Mikayla Khramov -
Mikayla Khramov discovered her rescue horse Yupia’s musical talent when he began engaging with her guitar and harp
Yupia, a 7-year-old American Bashkir, now plays various instruments and is featured on Khramov’s debut album and EP
Khramov works multiple jobs to support Yupia and is also creating a documentary while pursuing her music career
When Mikayla Khramov started bringing her guitar to the Southern California horse rescue where she volunteered, she was hoping for a cute video. She got a bandmate instead.
“One day I brought my guitar and was just kind of playing for him,” Khramov tells PEOPLE of Yupia, an untrained rescue horse she gravitated toward at Because We Can – Because We Care, a nonprofit in Moorpark, Calif. “After playing for him, I went into his stall, and he came up to me and started playing with me.”
“It was really organic. I didn’t expect it at all,” she says. “I thought I was just going to get a cute video of him being in the background or something. But he came up and engaged with the guitar with me.”
The next day, she brought a harp, and Yupia was hooked. “He came up and started strumming the strings of the harp. And that’s kind of what started it all,” Khramov recalls. “Now whatever instrument I bring, even the accordion, he’ll come up, and he’ll start playing that.”
Yupia, a 7-year-old American Bashkir, has developed his own technique over time. “When he first started, he really just was strumming with his nose,” she explains. “But since we’ve been doing this so much, he tries different ways of playing. He’ll play with his teeth now, and I’ve had to kind of remind him to be a little gentler.” She lets him explore, she adds, “until I know he’s going to break something.”
Mikayla Khramov smiling while holding a guitar next to a horse behind a fence.Credit: Mikayla Khramov
Khramov, who had never owned a horse before, waited years for the chance to bring Yupia home. “I volunteered there for three years just to see him, and he wasn’t available for adoption until last year,” she says. “When I met him, I just couldn’t imagine not having him in my life.”
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It hasn’t been easy, she notes. Khramov works two jobs and plays music in several Los Angeles bands, and she’s now channeling that work into her debut album, New World. “Having a horse is not easy. It’s a lot of money,” she says. “I’m paying for two apartments, basically.”
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Of course, the music-loving horse is a featured player on the new project. “There are two songs where he’s featured a lot, and we kind of loop his playing,” Khramov says, adding that she’ll sample his music across the record. “If he’s not on it, it’s about him.”
Mikayla Khramov hugging a horse while sitting on its back in an outdoor enclosureCredit: Mikayla Khramov
The budding star is also recording an EP with Yupia and pursuing another dream: filmmaker. Khramov is directing her first documentary, We Are the Autumn People, about Ray Bradbury’s novel and film Something Wicked This Way Comes. “I’m working on my first documentary right now,” she says, describing the project as “really intense.”
For now, Khramov is happy to let her horse take the spotlight. “He’s got a lot to learn still just for being a horse,” she adds. “But I’m letting him be more of a rockstar than a horse right now.”
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
