Grateful for Teen Volunteers

Christine helping out in the barn

There are many elements of serving as the Volunteer Coordinator at High Hopes Therapeutic Riding that I love.  Each day, I get to be witness to volunteers giving their time, energy, and effort to others.  Along with Jeanna Pellino, Volunteer Manager, I get to be part of making the phone calls and setting the schedule and providing the training that make that happen.  I know that the staff at High Hopes feels grateful for each and every minute that volunteers spend driving to the facility, working here, and helping with special events.  Not to mention the gratitude that many participants frequently express towards those volunteers who make it possible for them to ride, drive, and just be with horses each week. 

Today I want to give a special nod to the teen volunteers who come to High Hopes each week and give their time and energy.  Last Saturday, I walked through the barn a few times and just took note of the industry happening there.  Volunteers, most of them teenagers, were grooming horses, cleaning stalls, tossing hay, helping to prepare horses for class, and sweeping.  All with diligence and strict adherence to the safety rules, NARHA standards, and High Hopes policies they've been asked to follow.  There are many smiles, lots of laughing and hard work, and an absence of any kind of discipline problems or negative behaviors.  As a person who has worked with teens and young adults in various contexts over the past ten years, I am well aware of how special the young volunteers at High Hopes are, and how lucky we are to have them.

Sometimes, there's also an interesting dynamic that sometimes takes place between riders and their teenage sidewalkers.  At times, teen volunteers can motivate youth participants in a different way than adult volunteers can - call it positive peer pressure! 

No one who comes to visit High Hopes on a Saturday could have any doubt that the future of our society is in great, compassionate, hard-working, generous hands.  These teens prove that each and every week.



Will assisting a rider on the Sensory Trail



I also want to say thank you to the parents who provide transportation, teach their teens about honoring weekly commitments, and help set up realistic schedules and goals.  During an economic time when it is very difficult for teens to find part-time employment (one article claims that at 26% teen unemployment was at an all-time high this past summer and that 4 million less teens were working than would have been at the same time in the year 2000), volunteering is an excellent way for teens to learn work ethic, commitment, and good people skills.  While High Hopes most definitely benefits from our teenage volunteers' time and effort, we hope that they are also aware of the way that their work can influence them as people. 

Finally, I want to express gratitude to High Hopes as an organization, other staff members, Team Captains and seasoned adult volunteers who help provide such a positive environment for teens to learn and grow in their volunteer roles.  When I see our teens hard at work, it really brings home to me the potential for experiential and service-based learning to help teens grow as people and develop a sense of self and responsibility, not to mention tolerance for diversity and a broader sense of humanity.  The environment at High Hopes - structured but creative, authentic and nurturing - definitely fosters learning and makes this a positive place for teens to be and serve.

So... to all our volunteers, and especially our teens, thank you, thank you, thank you.  We hope you and your families and friends and animals enjoyed a peaceful and happy Thanksgiving!  (And remember, classes resume on Monday...)

~Karen Pfeil
Volunteer Coordinator/ Instructor

Thanksgiving

Fall Day at High Hopes

This week staff member Renya Craig shares her thoughts on the season...

What an amazing season of brilliant foliage it has been, reminding me just how much I enjoy Connecticut in Autumn time... November is suddenly here, Thanksgiving is on the horizon, and I would like to take this blogging opportunity to give thanks to ALL the High Hopes community for blessing my days at work with an abundance of grateful moments.  Because of you, it’s an honor and pleasure to be an employee here.

Seasoned Googlers and NEW Googlers (like me!), there’s always a whole lot to be thankful for… and I wonder…. In the spirit of the Thanksgiving season, do you have any grateful tidbits to share with the High Hopes Family?

Conference Day 1

Holly and Sarah at the Hartford airport.

Karen reporting from Denver...

I've always loved to travel.  Not tour, necessarily (museums, not really my thing, tourist attractions like Disney World, even less so), but to travel.  Go somewhere different, see a new city, drink coffee and people watch, gain an understanding of a new people, culture, or place.

Of course, for much of my life, this love of going places has been in pretty much direct conflict with my other love - horses.  There's almost nothing that can tie you down faster than a 1,000+ pound animal with daily care needs that approximate that of your average toddler. 

So, when I made the decision to enter the therapeutic riding field, I believed it would probably be at the cost of the travel and freedom I so enjoy.

Luckily, life is almost never what you expect it will be.  Since completing NARHA certification, I seem to find more and more opportunities to go places and also great role models who balance love and commitment to horses with a desire to travel to other places and centers.  Not to mention the happy fact that High Hopes is a multi-cultural place with regular visitors from all over the world.

I'm extremely grateful to the management at High Hopes for sending us to Denver for the NARHA National Conference (not only because Denver is a fun, funky, clean city with mountains in the background and a southwestern flair).  Today, I met therapeutic riding instructors from Washington, Mississippi, Colorado.  I heard about their students, their horses, and the challenges they face in the field everyday.  (It does bring home how blessed we are at High Hopes in so many ways, and as a relative newcomer, it emphasizes for me the gratitude I owe to those who have built the program into what it is today.) 

I also attended three presentations.  One about horse care and maintenance; one about natural horsemanship; and a third about the benefits of therapeutic riding for children on the autism spectrum.  They were all interesting, but it was this last one that made the deepest impression on me.  Several researchers from Texas Tech, among them today's presenters Tangi Arant and Heather Hernandez, did a small scale study to try to measure the affects of horseback riding on young children (age 2 - 8) with an autism diagnosis.  Their study was conducted using strong research methods, and the teaching methods they used to work with the children were many of the same teaching strategies and activities that we use at High Hopes everyday.  It was extremely validating to see that their study revealed measurable benefits to the children (an increase in eye contact, vocalization, and positive social behaviors and a decrease in behaviors such as stimming).  Their research generated dozens of questions and theories from the audience - evidence to me that the therapeutic riding field is ready and eager for this kind of research and discovery.

After the conference, we spent time wandering downtown Denver (checking out everything from kitchy Colorado tourist shops to high-end engagement rings) and chatting... lots and lots of chatting. 

Thanks for reading and I will try to update again tomorrow.  Internet access at the hotel isn't what I hoped, but I will do my best!

-Karen Pfeil

It's Denver Day!

This week, November 3rd - 7th, the High Hopes herd gets a break.  Are the horses glad for their time away from program... some time to linger over their am feed?  A few days without saddle and bridle?  A respite from carrying the riders that they serve so faithfully week in and week out?

Yes... 

But what about the High Hopes staff?  We need something to do while the horses have enjoy some well-desearved R&R! 

Head to Denver!  To NARHA's 2010 National Conference.  A chance to attend the National Conference means world-class professional development opportunities and the chance to network with professionals in the therapeutic riding industry from all over the world.

For three High Hopes staff members, it also means the chance to present to others.  Jeanna Pellino will do a presentation about on-going volunteer training and enrichment.  Liz Adams will present about interactive vaulting, while Sara Qua will share her knowledge about fundraising and silent auctions.  For Lauren Fitzgerald, the conference is a chance to attend a NARHA Evaluator Training, preparing her to evaluate instructors for NARHA certification at On-Site Workshops/ Certifications. The trip also will afford us the opportunity to connect with friends from afar - some of you may remember past intern Mercedes from Mexico, who plans to attend.  And our current ITC, Klara Shim, from South Korea, is taking a break from student teaching at High Hopes to fly west for the week. 

And conference also means a chance for us to see each other differently, perhaps.  Away from the office and the barn.  To share hotel rooms with fellow staff members (Keeping things fair and interesting, Kitty had us all draw names from a hat, so our "roommates" are randomly assigned).  To face fears of flying.  To maybe tell some stories over dinner in a far-away city. 

You might be surprised, given that we all spend so much time together, that there is still a lot for each of us to learn about the others.  I have never worked with such a dynamic group of people, and as a newer staff member, I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone better.

So stay tuned as I blog this week from far-away Denver.  I'll do my best to share the experience with you from my keyboard and camera!

Kind, Patient... Fantastic!

This week's entry is the voice of Jessi Goble, an Idaho native who recently spent eight weeks at High Hopes for the Instructor Training Course.  Jessi graduated from the University of Idaho May 2010 with a Bachelor of Science in Child Development with a Specialization in Disabilities. She currently has an Appaloosa that she rides English and Western, and trains for 3-day eventing. 

Fall 2010 Instructor Training Candidates -
Dick Lasnier, Jessi Goble, Yael Dekel, Katie Posner, Klara Shim

I may not be from Israel or South Korea like some of my fellow ITCs, but picking up and leaving my cozy little northern Idaho home and coming to the wild, wild East seemed like moving across the world. I knew what to expect at home and had no idea what to expect here at High Hopes.

I don’t know how many times my parents reassured me: “Jessi, people who work in therapeutic riding have got to be kind and patient.” Like most kids, I didn't think my parents could be right, but yet again, they were. But they were also wrong…My parents were wrong because the people here are not only kind and patient, but they are also fantastic!  I have never met so many people who are so open and willing to help in any situation or at any moment in life. It’s even more amazing when I think about all of the ITCs, on-site certification candidates, and the large number of people in general who walk through the front doors of High Hopes. The  instructors, staff, and volunteers still have the time and the patience to be open and helpful to those who stop in.

An Introduction to Driving for ITCs

During my two month stop here,  I feel as if I have made many friends--with instructors, staff, and-- most important-- volunteers. I am going to miss all of you and hope that I can keep in contact with the folks connected to High Hopes and perhaps come back later for conferences or for further training. Don’t ever change! Thank you for making my time here so memorable, fun and full of hard work! Keep showing these children and adults your "high hopes" in their abilities to do whatever they are brave enough to try. Happy Trails--until we meet again.

~Jessi Linder Goble/ NARHA Registered Level Instructor/ Graduate of High Hopes Instructor Training Course, Fall 2010

Fundraising - Choosing to Be Involved



I became a volunteer at HH in the fall of 2003, with no experience in Therapeutic Riding, but intrigued by the idea of animals helping people.  Slowly and over time, I began to witness the breadth and depth of what High Hopes and therapeutic riding have to offer. The magic that occurs at High Hopes is very subtle; it doesn't hit you over the head, but simply allows you to bear witness.  As if by osmosis, I began to absorb the incredible level of technical expertise of the teaching staff, the barn staff and the administrative staff.  Years ago, I had been a management consultant and had worked for Fortune 500 companies that were striving to identify and develop their own positive and motivating corporate mission statements.  Much to my surprise, without the business suits and consultants and meetings that I had experienced, everyone at High Hopes seemed to already "get it;" they were all present for the same reason.  As in pole jumping, the bar at High Hopes was set high, and it went unsaid that everyone was expected to clear the mark.  



Concert in the Barn 2009



In the spring of 2005, I cautiously became involved in the Concert in the Barn benefit.  Yes, I became involved in FUNDRAISING. 





Smiling after a Ride



To this day, many people tend to shy away when they hear I am involved in FUNDRAISING. FUNDRAISING is viewed almost as a "dirty word."  They don't want to be involved, don't want to ask anyone for money.  Don't want to impose, and don't understand why I have chosen to become involved. The reality is that without volunteers who are willing to "make the ask," the rest of the volunteers would not be able to do what they love to do for the participants.  Like it or not, it takes money to run such a large and professional organization.  It takes money to underwrite 70% of the cost of a rider's lesson.  Think about that.  SEVENTY PERCENT.  The average cost for an hour long lesson at High Hopes is $107.  High Hopes only charges $40, and out of everyone who particpates, HALF of those are on scholarship.   This is with heartfelt thanks to you and your friends who donate to the annual appeal, you and your neighbors who attend the benefit events, and your local businesses who donate for corporate sponsorships.

Learning to Pick Feet

When you are passionate about a cause, about its beneficiaries and participants, and when you respect the professionals delivering the services, it makes it easier to ask for support.  The money that we raise is not for me... it is for Victoria on Mondays, ....Janet on Tuesdays, ....Ozzy on Wednesdays...Ian on Thursdays...Sylvia on Fridays...and the 200 other participants that leave with a sense of accomplishment, acceptance and FUN that can be hard to find anywhere else in their lives.  



(Above) Patty at Concert in the Barn 2009 and
(below left) riding her horse at the High Hopes Schooling Show

To be completely honest, I am having fun as well.  Where else can you spend time and have such an impact? Where else can you work with such a professional group of individuals, both volunteer and paid staff, and get such immediate gratification for time well spent?  I witness hugs for the horses, high fives for the volunteers, grateful and happy looks from caregivers in the lounge, people having fun on the dance floor during a benefit...that is why I choose to fundraise.  Because it is not easy.  But because the payback is so huge. 





~ Patty Ganey/ Program & Special Events Volunteer/ Committee Member





 






High Hopes is currently recruiting volunteers to help with fundraisers and other special events.  If you are interested in becoming involved, please contact Karen Pfeil at kpfeil@highhopestr.org or (860)434-1974 ext 21.  

Fall Changes

Fall…a time of transition and change… has arrived.  Stuffy nights have given way to chilly ones and humid mornings have changed to crisp ones.  The leaves are beginning to change color and drift to the ground.  It is also a time of change and transition for me.  As the new Program Director I take the “reins” of the High Hopes Fall session for the first time.   Born and raised on Cape Cod, I do have Yankee roots, but for 13 years have grown accustomed to the warm weather in North Carolina, where a temperature of 75 brings out the sweaters!  Back in New England, I realize, I love the fall and the changes it brings.  Leaving a therapeutic riding program where I have been involved for 13 years and been Program Director for the past eight has been an emotional experience for me.  I wondered and worried about the riders I left behind, the horses I left behind and the family of staff and volunteers I left behind.  Would I ever find the same connection?  Would they be ok without me?  Will I find a new family?  At High Hopes, the answer to all of these questions has shown itself to be a resounding yes!

Smokey



Like many of us, my initial interest in therapeutic riding came from a love of the horse.  As I have worked with the High Hopes herd, each member is earning my respect, trust and love through their interaction with our participants.  Today, Greco stood, asleep, on the cross ties as 4 equine learning students learned about wraps and boots.  He was patient and forgiving as he was wrapped, unwrapped, booted and unbooted by learning hands.  I also saw Cassidy help a rider canter independently, a huge accomplishment!  My heart never skipped a beat as I saw the understanding in his eye.  Petra has amazed me with her grounded approach to each rider.  Nervous, excited, loud or unbalanced, Petra seems proud to carry each of her riders.  Yesterday a young girl arrived at the farm, home schooled all of her life and fearful of new situations.  She was nervous until I brought Smokey into the lounge.  After meeting with Smokey in her comfort zone she was able to lead him to his paddock – thank you, Smokey!  During our annual Hoedown, Major was chosen as a mount for the participant drill team.  Initially he seemed worried about the exciting surroundings but once the participant mounted his demeanor changed and he knew he had a job to do.  The stories of how each High Hopes equine is winning my heart go on and on.

Major proudly carries Danielle at the High Hopes Hoedown, with Liz leading.

At the core of High Hopes are the participants – so many to meet, so many stories to understand and appreciate.  It has been a joy to hear the history of High Hopes from participants and parents who have been a part of High Hopes since its humble beginnings.  I had the pleasure of seeing a mother seeking a meaningful activity for her son with autism finding his one true outlet for the first time.  I have had the experience of having riders greet me by name and request that I watch them trot in their lesson that day.  After the drill performance at the Hoedown, I shared in the emotion of a participant’s mother as she cried in awe at the accomplishments of her daughter.  And just today I helped a nervous young man mount a horse for the first time and heard him say the word “awesome” through the entire ride.  Lives are touched by horses everywhere!

Do I still miss where I was and my North Carolina “family”?  Of course! But I am building relationships with a new family here at High Hopes.  Time brings change and growth like the seasons… and aren’t the fall colors beautiful!

~ Liz Adams, Program Director





Monday Morning after the Hoedown

It's 9:30 Monday morning, two days after the 2^nd Annual High Hopes Hoedown and the beginning of a new fall semester.  Walking to work today it’s hard to imagine that nearly 500 people were here on Saturday for games, music and food.  The only giveaway is the port-a-potties that have been moved to the far edge of the parking lot!   

The first few days after an event are always a little unnerving and strange for me.  The adrenaline that carried me through the last week has left.  Mentally, I’m a little drained but I still have to wrap up the loose ends and help Linda prepare the final $$ tally, because everybody wants to know how we did dollar wise.  I feel pretty confident that we have met our budget goal, but for me that will be less than satisfactory as I always strive to exceed that goal.  Fundraising these days is a whole new scenario and I’m still adjusting.  

The other remaining Hoedown task to be performed is one that I look on with pleasure, but struggle to make time for and that is to thank the army of volunteers who helped pull this event off.  I know that this event wouldn’t have happened without their commitment of time and talent and that needs to be acknowledged in a very personal way.  I honestly hate it when someone introduces me and says “Sara is in charge of this event and makes it all happen.” That is so untrue!!  What I do is maintain a checklist and make sure somebody else does all the hard work!!  To be honest working with volunteers is the only way I could perform my job and I have learned to rely on them more and more.  Thank God, High Hopes has the most amazing and committed volunteers! 

As I write this blog, an email message pops up on my computer from our event Co-Chairs Deb Welles & Jeff Ridgway, reminding me that we need to schedule a wrap up meeting in the next week or so.  Next I take a phone call from our Development Committee Chair, John Catlett and we spend a few moments reviewing the Hoedown and then move on to the next items in our Development calendar – setting up a marketing task force, meeting with key committee members on the Annual Appeal and getting invitations out to a Leadership reception for donors to be held in October at the Cooley Gallery.  Volunteer extraordinaire Jim Lewis walks in with some paperwork from the Hoedown and Patty Ganey calls to talk about a upcoming meeting for Concert in the Barn.  I look forward to 2:00 today when I get to be a volunteer and lead a horse.  Then it’s on to the next event!!

Tuesday morning:  Yippee, just found out that the Hoedown exceeded its budgetary expectations!  Great start to our fundraising year and today I am smiling!" 
~Sara Qua/ Director of Development

Getting Started

As fall semester fast approaches, our first installment touches on the feeling of "getting started," being new in a role or place.  Told from the perspective of Karen Pfeil, Volunteer Coordinator.

Late summer... early fall... it's the season for Volunteer Orientations & Trainings.  We have four over the next month and a half, with over 50 potential new volunteers already scheduled to attend.  As always, preparing for a training involves lots of organization - horses, paperwork, revision after revision of how to best execute our presentation.  Jeanna and I want new volunteers to have the best possible experience and the best possible preparation for their volunteer roles.  And we know that starting something new can be both exciting and scary.

I've been the Volunteer Coordinator and an instructor at High Hopes Therapeutic Riding for just over six months now, and some of the newness is wearing off (though it's still, fairly often, exciting and scary in a variety of ways).  My involvement with High Hopes goes back two years further, when I first attended a Volunteer Orientation & Training myself - and I do remember how scary that was.

In fact, the day I came to Orientation, I was terrified. It wasn't that I lacked horse experience (I'd owned horses for years) or experience with special needs populations (I was a teacher). It's just that it's hard to be new in a place that you hope will be important to you, especially when the place is big and impressive. I was also at a difficult place in my life - just turned 30, divorced, discouraged with many of my personal and professional choices. The divorce, two years before, was a traumatic one (is there any other kind?) and there was part of me that thought I'd never heal. I did stuff - worked, dated, walked down the aisle in friends' weddings - but I felt like it didn't mean anything, or worse, like I didn't mean anything.

The training must have given me a sense of purpose because two weeks later I found myself leading therapy horses in classes at High Hopes.  In the first class, I led Petra for some of Kitty's Mile Creek kids, who were adorable and thrilled to be on horseback for the first time.  At the end of class, one of the boys dismounted from Petra and stayed to pat her shoulder.  While the rider and his sidewalker stood near her neck, Petra happened to shake her head at a fly.  And when that ample Fjord-y forelock shook away from her face, the little rider gasped: "Look," he said, pointing, amazement all over his face, "She has eyes!" I will never forget the sweetness of his surprise, the happiness of sharing that moment with him.

My next class was a little more challenging.  I was leading for a more independent rider - a girl about eight who didn't have a sidewalker.  The horse was Filly, an Arabian mare who was nearing the end of her long career at High Hopes.  The rider was nervous and kind of cantankerous.  "I have a headache," she complained, and I remember considering how/when/if I should pass that info onto the instructor.  Everything was so new.

Soon, however, my little rider was distracted by her instructor's direction: "At F ask Filly to T-ROTT!" (It's amazing how trotting cures headaches.)

But then our next problem began.  The rider couldn't get Filly to trot.  Neither could I.  The mare was not having it. 

"Eyes up!" called another instructor who had popped into the ring.  "Look where you're going and don't pull on her." (I realized the instructor was talking to me, not the rider.)  "Let Filly do her job - she knows it!"  Great, I remember thinking: 10+ years of horse ownership, 6 years of Pony Club, and a brief stint as an equine science major and apparently I can't even get out of the way to let an aging therapy horse do her job. Ugh.

When I left High Hopes that day, I wasn't sure how I felt about being a volunteer.  It was more challenging than I expected.  I remember driving north, towards home in Rhode Island, and looking, as I drove, at the pale moon already hanging in a still-lit sky, the way it often does in late summer.  I remember thinking to myself, "This was the first time in two years I've enjoyed spending time with kids like that.  The first time in five that I really smell like a barn."  I took a deep breath of that hay/fly-spray/horse smell.  Just then, I remembered, faintly, who I was.

That's what being a volunteer at High Hopes meant to me. Over time, this place has become part of my life in many new ways, but I still remember what a unique experience those early months of volunteering were.  Sometimes other volunteers share stories with me that echo these claims to finding deep personal meaning through the act of helping others.  For other volunteers, it is most pointedly about the chance to "BE with horses." 

So, when a few High Hopes staff members decided to start a blog, I wanted to share my own story, thinking it might invite or inspire others (participants, volunteers, staff, members of the larger community) to share what this place has meant to you over the time you've been here.  I hope you'll comment below, or ask questions if you have them.  Is there something you've always wondered about High Hopes? This blog is a place to post your questions.  Is there a story or an insight you've wanted to share?  Please do so by commenting below.  (Kindly remember not to name participants in the interest of protecting confidentiality.)  I hope you'll help us start a dialogue here that reaches out to a larger community of people whose lives have been influenced by their involvement at High Hopes.

Thanks! Welcome to the High Hopes blog!  I look forward to sharing stories with all of you.

~ Karen Pfeil, Instructor/ Volunteer Coordinator