In it for the Long Run

Last Saturday Nancy was at WindReach stables, near Brooklin. She was conducting a clinic with therapeutic riding coaches, and riders with disabilities. After five years as National Coach of the Paralympic Dressage Team, she has one or two tricks up her sleeve in this department, and it was a great day. Kendra, the program manager at WindReach, one day past her pregnancy due date, traumatized Nancy by jogging with the horses, looking (and feeling) like she was up to a 5 km. run!

WindReach belongs to Sandy Mitchell, one of Bermuda's Paralympic athletes. It's a beautiful facility, completely accessible, with a large farm component in addition to the riding stables. Sandy has another facility in Bermuda. Both facilities strive to provide inclusive and accessible community facilities that enrich the quality of life for people of all abilities, ages and special needs. Nancy has visited the Bermuda facility as well, and been so impressed by both facilities, and Sandy's vision.


There are two donkeys, Bonnie and little gray Maybe, whose role in life is to let children groom and pet them. There's an apple orchard. Wagon rides. School programs. And, of course, the horses.

As part of their program, WindReach fosters horses for LongRun, an agency that takes thoroughbred racehorses and helps them find new careers. The track can be horrifyingly hard on horses. LongRun works hard to repair the damage, and find forever homes for these wonderful animals. With WindReach's lovely stable in the background, Celtic Knot and Bullet Tooth Tony enjoy some sunshine in their paddock. Both are LongRun horses, both are recovering from fractured bones. That's the kind of injury that means you no longer have a career as a racehorse. But you MIGHT have a career as someone's saddle horse... Several LongRun 'graduates', recovered and integrated back into polite society, currently work in the therapeutic riding program at WindReach.

You learn something every day. These horses, moving forward into their new careers, have something to teach us. And the riders, coaches and volunteers who participated in the clinic on the weekend, well, they have so much they teach us. It's a great privilege to work with them.