We all know I’m a horse nut who lives, breathes and dreams my vocation. And as the nation turns its pages through a living, raging pandemic, I am turning my own, growing an equine sanctuary.
Trillium Creek Training & Rehabilitation Coalition (TCTC) is now 20 years old, a fully verified non-profit Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries lifetime home for 12-15 rescued, healed, retrained, working, horses. The youngest is 12, the oldest 44, sealing our mission to provide a lifetime home for now, senior therapy horses who have possibly the most important work in their lives yet to do.
The powers and emotional insight these horses wield to help people heal themselves on the inside, especially serving families dealing with life’s new realities and its impact on their mental, social, emotional, recreational, cultural, physical, financial and spiritual experiences and traditions as they must suddenly grow, work, learn and age more in place, is profound.
While caring for the horses our volunteer families experience physical labor outdoors wrestling raw elements. They feel unconditional connection, love and appreciation from intuitive beings who seem to listen, understand and instinctively “know” what they’re feeling. The horses, work and elements here seem to forge a bond resolving to find peace, harmony and sustenance from deep within. Horse speak comes from sensing, touching, and feeling the heart, the eyes, the acres of body hair that sometimes whorls dramatically against the brush; excavating the deep, soft crevices of rock-hard hooves harboring stubborn mud, sand and gravel that can hurt; detangling manes and tails, brushing out soil that often binds to bits of…yes…a little slimy, aromatic discharge once in a while.
Somehow a transformation occurs every day someone’s here.
They learn through nature’s rawness and beauty, notice things they’ve never seen before that inspire awe, moving them to photograph with their cel phones, draw, write, sing or make music with nature. They pause catch the hums/whirs and songs of birds, the calls of coyotes, wails and screeches of raptors. They muck pastures, walk gardens, trek trails with a companion horse, dog, family member, or even better sometimes, alone, appreciating the solitude, the lyrically expressive rain playing its drops to compose downpours that lubricate lichen and mushroom communities that emerge overnight; soft, round, new, moist, changing daily by some mysterious biological clock of their own that morphs and melts them, within a week or two’s intricate lifecycle, back into the earthen landscape to nourish their host in some critically balanced way.
All connected. Evolving. Enriching. As is TCTC.
It is a time for us to embrace ALL the uncertainty. Position ourselves to drive, hold the reins, keep our heels down, look where we’re going, hang on, and GROW…BE the leader…RIDE this horse! And, if feeling moved, our gates are open and coffers always in need, appreciative of your personal support either way, with our deepest gratitude. Thank YOU for being part of our TCTC community…
with hugs, from the HERD!
My best for a HAPPY, PEACEFUL, NEW YEAR!
The Oregon Horse Council is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit that works to strengthen, connect, and represent Oregon’s equine industry.