Participant testimonial - Kirsten K.

Kirsten has been bringing her daughter to Grace TR for therapeutic riding lessons for almost 2 1/2 years. She shared that the entire culture of Grace TR, from the horses to the volunteers to the staff, has made the experience stand out. Read Kirsten’s entire testimonial below. 

Chief waits with Allison for the start of his session

I was asked to give a testimonial about my experience with Grace.  I looked up “testimonial” in the dictionary and it said: “A public tribute to someone and their achievements.”  

As I thought about that, the word "achievement” stood out... I realized that to do this properly, I need to make a few testimonials:

First, because I’m a mom, I want to start by saying how proud I am of my daughter and what she has achieved here.  When she has her lessons, she works hard, tries new things, trusts the horses, and her teachers.  And she has grown in confidence, balance, strength, and in her capacity for love and connection because of what she receives from all the two and four legged creatures she has met at Grace.

Second, none of that would be possible without the achievements of Allison and everyone at Grace – all the staff and the incredible volunteers.  This program takes a sacred love the people at Grace have for human beings with wildly different and diverse abilities and learning styles, combines that with a reverence for horses and their ability to teach things humans alone cannot, and adds an incredible mix of competency, organization, and massive amounts of work, time, and energy to accomplish this program.  They have created a space and environment of acceptance, care, learning, and hope. That is a true achievement.  

Russell gets brushed off by a volunteer before getting tacked up

In the spirit and culture of Grace, I also want to make a testimonial about the achievements of the horses.  I know in part they are just being the attentive, sensitive, unique, funny, playful creatures they are innately.  But unless you’ve seen it, you can’t know what it's like watching a lesson from the viewing room.  Every lesson, I watch the person I love most in the world with one of these horses.  They are so large and strong. At first, I was a little nervous giving my child over to the care of this creature.  But the intensity of these horses is beyond description – the way they pay full attention to the person in their care.  The way they adjust to each movement, keeping my daughter safe, and giving her chances to learn, risk, grow, and succeed.  

But the intensity of these horses is beyond description – the way they pay full attention to the person in their care. 

Wrapping up my last testimonial, which is mostly just pure amazement and awe.  I have no idea what goes into training horses to do this work, but I know it is not nothing.  I know it’s hours, days, months, years; spending time with the horses, learning about them and with them, choosing to see them not as objects for our use, but as partners in this beautiful project.  At Grace, respect, compassion, and reverence for humans and animals are everywhere you look, and it makes all the difference.  It is why I drive regularly from another town to make sure my daughter gets to be a part of what’s happening in this place.

In the end, words fail me when it comes to paying tribute to the horses because there’s so much, I don’t know.  I can really only be awestruck at what it all looks like in practice.  And the depth of gratitude I feel about all of it is infinite when I watch how this program has helped my daughter in more ways than anyone without a child in the program can imagine.