Taking the Reins

I work at a non-profit. I've pretty much only ever worked in non-profit. There was a stint with a deli in Wilmington NC for a minute, but that's a WHOLE 'nother story.

I was brought up believing that each one of us has not only the capacity but the obligation to help those who need it. I truly believe that's one of the reasons we are HERE. Humans, on Earth, right now. I believe in being happy and I believe that part of being personally happy includes the gift of giving, of helping. There are ooodles of ways to help, it doesn't have to be monetary. I find that your personal TIME can mean more than money quite often.

My eldest daughter, S, deals with anxiety. And for about 4 years, that anxiety focused around animals. Beginning with dogs and then just escalating to anything that moved.

We are ANIMAL. PEOPLE. We had two Saint Bernards, two cats, five chickens and a partridge in a pear tree for the love of all that is holy. Then we had a big - possibly traumatic but I'm no doctor - move. Add other extenuating circumstances I may share at another time and Voila! S was TERRIFIED. of animals.

I researched and talked to doctors... I did All The Things. I am a fairly respectable mother, just sayin'. Everywhere I looked ended up with some kind of animal therapy.

When you read 'Animal Therapy' just visualize dollar signs. Anything I found was absolutely NOT covered by my insurance and therefore COMPLETELY out of our range to purchase.

Which left me thinking we just needed to get a dog.

We have about a million children and a tiny, tiiinnneeeeyyyy little apartment. A dog is NOT a reasonable solution.

So we started talking about medication with her therapist. Just understand, this girl couldn't walk down the street if there was a dog on the other side, with an owner, on a leash, not even LOOKING at her. It was BAD.

I told a friend, who suggested I talk to the people at this non profit, Taking the Reins.

I went, and they were EXACTLY what we needed. A non-profit organization working with horses and other farm animals, focusing on at-risk and otherwise challenged girls. It worked on a sliding scale, too and I got the feeling that maybe, just MAYBE, I could also volunteer in order to make up the rest of the price to participate.

They let me volunteer and S has gotten better and better and better ever since.

Here's a picture of her at the end of her first session. The fact that she is holding the lead of a pony much less standing right next to others was a MIRACLE. I cried the whole time.

She's the blonde in the middle, in the blue shirt.

You can't see her face, because as brave as she is being, the horse behind her moved and she got scared. But she is IN. THE. RING.

Now look, nearly a year later...

That's a big, huge, horse, y'all. She's grooming him with NO help.

This place has changed her life like I only ever DREAMED.

Check it out...

www.takingthereins.org

I'll post more, for sure, but it was her birthday yesterday and I'm so proud of her I could SPIT. She's the bravest person I know. And Taking the Reins is helping her become the confident, inspiring, brilliant woman she will be.

::weep: