Articles by author: Morgan Kastenek

There's never a dull moment at Hearts! From new horses to events, selfless volunteers to Minis on the Move, 2018 was filled with energy, excitement, and a whole lot of HEART!

Every summer we invite kids from the community, as well as kids already enrolled in our riding program to come spend a week at Hearts to participate in a horse-themed summer camp. We also have groups from Girls Inc. of Greater Santa Barbara and CALM participate. Our campers get to develop friendships with our amazing horses and volunteers while learning about horse science, horsemanship, equine-facilitated learning activities and basic riding skills.

Hearts hosted its annual Barn Dance fundraising event on Saturday, May 5th, 2018 at the Carriage and Western Art Museum in Santa Barbara.

Kind. Passionate. Confident. These are just a few words that describe one very special boy named Julian. Julian has been riding at Hearts since 2015 and his family has watched him grow and improve.

Our participants certainly did us proud at our Annual Student Horse Show on Saturday, April 21st. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day! The sun was out, the horses were ready to go, and our participants looked amazing! It was a day filled with excitement and celebration.

Celebrating National Volunteer Appreciation Week April 15-21 - Today is a day to remind all of you just how much our volunteers are appreciated. In honor of National Volunteer Appreciation Week April 15-21, it is my pleasure on behalf of the staff and Board of Directors, to formally express our gratitude to all Hearts volunteers! We currently have 146 active volunteers and last year alone, our volunteers completed over 16,000 hours of volunteer service. WOW!

Hearts installed a motorized lift in January, which has positively impacted several program participants in just a short amount of time. The structure in which the motorized lift lives was generously donated by members of Los Rancheros Pobres, a local men's horseback riding club. The new lift structure was dedicated on Sunday, February 25 at Hearts. Over 28 members of the Pobres donated funds for this special project.

The past couple months have no doubt been devastating and traumatic for so many in our community. Yet, even while we experienced the tragedy of fire and flood, the horses of Hearts remained steady:

December and January have been traumatic to our community. Here at Hearts, we were lucky that we were not seriously affected, other than having to close program for a total of 11 days. We are keeping those affected in our thoughts and prayers. We know that Santa Barbara will recover, although it will take some time. The upper road above Hearts has been very busy with dump trucks dropping off debris. The debris is dirt, mud, and trees, so there are no adverse effects. While this has slowed down people coming for lessons and volunteering, it has also affected our more sensitive horses, so we have mitigated the issue with changes as far as utilizing the cross-ties and dismounting in the arena or at the ramp.

Dani suffered a spinal cord injury 5 years ago. As a quadriplegic, she has limited strength in her core and paralysis through much of her body. Sitting in a wheelchair all day causes severe back and spine pain, while the stagnancy can also make her tense.