With the pandemic hitting all of us in March 2020, I suddenly and fortuitously found myself with the free time to finally realize my dream of building a program for teens and adults on the autism spectrum.

Besides training horses, I began the task of figuring out how to get 501(c)3 status – lots of reading and online courses, both equine and IRS!

May and June 2020 was spent with our fantastic crew clearing the land for the program site, boring water to the area, and bringing rock in for the foundation and driveway. 

We were slated to have our covered arena built in August 2020….the foundation was ready and giant post holes were dug. But due to being partially in a flood zone, we ran into some permit issues and stopped after two days of work.

September rolled around and we were getting ready to build….then the wildfires happened. With the big wildfire 4 miles away and a smaller fire just down the road, our family and 39 animals were evacuated for ten days.

October came and lumber prices skyrocketed, so we decided to wait until spring 2021 for prices to come down a bit….

During the holidays, I finally submitted the final IRS paperwork for nonprofit status approval.

Shortly after the New Year, we had an unusual weather event called an “atmospheric river”, and overnight our creek completely flooded, turning much of the lower and upper pastures into one giant lake. All animals were moved up near the barn and house!

Then came February, and the crazy ice storm felled huge trees and broke hundreds of massive limbs. We were without power for ten days, and this event added to the already low lumber supply.

At the end of March, we got our 501(c)3 status!!

Here we are, April 2021, with no idea when we can build the arena and the facilities for the program. Fingers are crossed that it will happen this year so we can giddy up…in the meantime, we will be hosting visitors on a small scale who are interested in our program. Thank you for visiting our site, and please contact us if you would like to be involved!