HARFORD COUNTY, Md. — On a quiet farm in Harford County, horses are doing more than grazing in the grass. They're helping people heal.
A new nonprofit called Hope in a Horseshoe is working to make equine therapy more accessible for women and children who have experienced trauma.
"They're great confidence builders," Co-founder Kristen Burton said. "Your whole state of mind kind of just goes down, so it's very grounding. Horses are innately healing. They're here, they don't hold grudges and they don't judge."
Burton has had her horse, Elephant, for 15 years and says he has a unique ability to connect with people.
"He is the ultimate therapeutic horse," she said. "We partner with him a lot to do work with cancer patients, and he just shows up for them."
Another member of the herd is Wally, a retired show horse owned by co-founder Tricia Keibler.
"He loves everybody. He's a sweetheart," Keibler said. "When we do team building, no matter what we do, he's right in it. He thinks he's supposed to be with everybody."
Before helping others heal, Burton and Keibler experienced healing themselves through horses.
"So both of us are survivors of something, one of cancer and one of domestic abuse," Keibler said. "I sat there with this horse and did that work. It healed me. The trauma that I felt, the triggers that I had, were gone. By seeing that and feeling that, it was definitely something that we needed to make sure other people could see and feel."
Both founders have operated their own equine therapy businesses, but they decided to combine their efforts through the nonprofit to expand access to services for those who may not otherwise be able to afford them.
"These horses just come to them and choose them and put their heads on them and do this work with them," Keibler said. "To see the tears that come out of these people's eyes, it's amazing. We want to make it affordable for everybody."
The organization got nonprofit status in January and started operating from its Churchville location in April. They're now focused on raising awareness and funding to grow the programming.
"Anything we can do to try to get the funding to start coming in," Keibler said. "We want to keep getting that door open. It's just getting the word out and trying to make people understand that we're here. Contact us, and we'll figure it out."
Hope in a Horseshoe will hold a fundraiser on Sept. 19 to support its mission. You can buy tickets for the fundraiser here and learn more on their website here.
