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Winter/Spring 2015
High Horses Newsletter
P.O. BOX 681 NORWICH, VT 05055 802-356-3386 HIGHHORSES.ORG
WWW.HIGHHORSES.ORG
High Horses
Winter/Spring 2015
Mission Statement
To improve the wellbeing of people with
unique needs through a
therapeutic equine
experience
Our Vision
We aspire to offer state-ofthe-art equine assisted
therapies, providing a full
range of services to our
community. As a nationally
accredited program, we help
shape the future of our
industry.
Our Values
High Horses adheres to the
values of teamwork, integrity,
respect, empathy, and
joyfulness in all that we do
Newsletter Editor
Sue Miller
Contributors
Stacey Chiocchio, Tim
Morris, Divya Belavadi,
Amanda Lamoureux, Sue
Miller, and Liz Claud
Hypertherm and Volunteering
By, Stacey Chiocchio
Every year all associates at our company participate in an engagement survey that
helps us understand where our opportunities and accomplishments are. For the last
several years the strongest positive driver of engagement has been our
organization’s focus on corporate social responsibility principles, specifically our
commitment to our communities and the environment. Our volunteering benefit is
the cornerstone to our community engagement and therefore a major driver for
helping us develop a positive culture at Hypertherm.
Our story is a simple one, ask associates where they want to volunteer and help
connect them to those volunteer opportunities. Our model is built on personal
choice, associates decide where and how they want to give back. Some choose to
stay within their skill sets and participate in skills based volunteering i.e., our
recruiting team helping high school students with resumes and mock interviewing or
our engineers participating in Lego competitions as team coaches or judges. But
sometimes associates want to do anything but the work they do all the time for
Hypertherm and so they may participate in trail clearing projects, roof repair for a
low income homeowner, or stocking shelves at a food pantry.
We host the Special Olympic Fall Games where we have 40 volunteers running the
event and supporting the athletes. Our associates that volunteer at High Horses to
support the Therapeutic Riding program are passionate about the work they do.
They all have wonderful stories to tell about the effects that the program has on the
participant riders. But most of all they speak about how much as volunteers they
appreciate the experience of helping others.
Story Continued on Page 4
If you would prefer to receive
future newsletters
electronically, please email
Sue at:
[email protected]
The 2014
Wassail
Parade in
Woodstock,
VT Lead by
High Horses
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High Horses Newsletter
Winter/Spring 2015
High Horses Staff
Liz Claud
Executive Director
Sue Miller
Program Director
Amanda Lamoureux
Horse Herd Coordinator
Ellen Zaika
Site Coordinator & Volunteer
Coordinator
Instructors:
Susan Goodell, MEd
Lead Instructor
Lasell Bartlett, MSW, LICSW
High Horses Website Redesign
If you haven’t already, please check out High Horses redesigned website. Karen
Neumann & Janet Matz have worked hard to give High Horses a fresh new
look. Karen and Janet run Websavvystudio.com here in the Upper Valley.
New for our website is a link where you can send us stories, comments, and
experiences about time spent at High Horses. Maybe you witnessed a great
lesson, saw someone reach a milestone or goal, heard someone speak for the
first time, or something funny was said or done during a lesson. Please share
your experiences we’d all like to read about the small pieces of brilliance that
make our program so unique. When the magic of therapeutic riding happens it
would be great to have written extracts to refer back to. You can share these
wonderful highlights on our Facebook page as well.
Sharron Gareau
Joyce Kramer
Amanda Lamoureux
Grey Horse Program Pilot
WWW.Highhorses.org
By Sue Miller
Betsy Medinger
Susan Miller
March 3rd was the beginning of High Horses Grey Horse Program. We have 6
participants that have enjoyed weekly riding as part of their fitness regime and
winter blah buster.
Lasell and Sue each have a small group of riders that are doing stretches, and
yoga horseback as well as mindful leading to bond with the horse. One of our
riders shared, “I highly recommend Grey Horses for anyone with lower body
aches. Riding is helping me develop postures that alleviate muscle and joint
pain, and the horse's movement provides a great massage for hips.”
Upcoming Events:
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PATH Int’l Region 1
Conference April 17, 18
th
&19 , 2015
Spring Session May11th
th
2015 - June 26 , 2015
Parent Education Event
th
May 11 5:30-7:00
Annual Rider Horse
Show – Saturday May
th
30 , 2015
Benefit High Horses
Horse Show @ GMHA –
June 24th, 2015
Summer Session July
th
6 – August 21st, 2015
It looks like we have more participants interested in signing up for the spring!
Please pass the word if you know anyone that is over 50 years of age that
might enjoy getting some exercise horseback. Beginner or first time riders are
welcome to join.
Stay tuned for next
year’s date!
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High Horses Newsletter
Winter/Spring 2015
King Arthur Flour’s Perspective Shopping at AmazonSmile
on Community & Volunteering
can benefit High Horses
By Tim Morris
Running a successful business in today’s world means
more than just providing a quality service or product.
More and more emphasis is being put on the overall
High Horse
is lucky to be
to collaborate
with so
well-being
of employees,
andable
a functioning
wellness
many
wonderful
businesses
and
charities
in
the
program is not just the luxury of the established and
Upper Valley
and beyond.
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business.
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start-up or
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to
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to
collaborate
established, wellness in the workplace is provingwith
to be
Horses
and
Pathfinders
in
Moretown,
VT.
Horses
more and more advantageous to both employees and
and Pathfinders
integrate
equine
activities,
employers.
One easy
way for
businesses
to promote
kinesthetic
learning
and
cognitive
insight
in that
wellness is by creating a program and climate
developing
leadership,
a
healthy
self-image,
as well
supports and encourages volunteerism.
as more meaningful connection to work and
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for ones own life. These benefits go a long way to
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Lucinda
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having
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is College
so important
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in support
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inherently
see the studies
benefitsprogram
to the individual,
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of
theory
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hands-on
experience
but might miss some of the numerous benefits reaped by
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students
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by the
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High
Horses
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are also gained by the company. Groups and/or
work that goes
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here. The
students
in the
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that volunteer
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ourhappier
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they volunteer at (High Horses). These factors also
to help and
helped within
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to able
an advantage
forbecompanies
whenour
recruiting
new hires
and retaining core employees. A higher caliber
employee can be sought and maintained when their core
functions go beyond mere “day to day”.
For those High Horses’ supporters who often, or
occasionally, buy through Amazon on the Internet,
there is a simple and automatic way to help fund
High Horses services. When you do your shopping
at smile.amazon.com you will get Amazon’s regular
selection and pricing and a small percentage of your
purchase total will be given to High Horses. And
you can use the same accounts for Amazon and
AmazonSmile.
Here’s how: Log in to amazon.smile.com, select a
charity (High Horses Therapeutic Riding Program is
on their list) and then go on to use the site and make
purchases as you usually would. Amazon will
remember your charity and the Amazon Foundation
will donate .05% of your purchase price to your
selected charity.
If you are interested in obtaining further information
on this program, visit AmazonSmile program
details.
Helping Hands
Please visit High Horses YouTube
channel and tell us what you think.
Also join us on Facebook for updates.
Living and working in the Upper Valley we are provided
with ample opportunity to help those less fortunate.
Taking advantage of these opportunities shouldn’t be
thought of as a necessary chore or duty, but a
commitment to your company, your community and
yourself that will reward all of those involved.
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High Horses Newsletter
Winter/Spring 2015
What’s in a Name?
Community Awareness
By, Liz Claud
Our Community is part of High Horses and yet we are
still relatively unknown. It always amazes me that not
everyone knows about High Horses and how we
contribute to the health and wellbeing of the Upper
Valley and beyond. Since I ‘live’ High Horses 24-7, I
just assume everyone else knows us. Its human nature
I suppose. We surround ourselves with likeminded
friends, tend to stay within our comfort zones and
know what we know.
Hypertherm & Volunteering
Continued From Page 1
Personal choice is the beauty of our program and how
we have achieved 81% volunteer participation through
December. Every associate at Hypertherm is given 24
hours of paid volunteer time per year. This year 1,137
associates have volunteered for a total of 17,434 hours,
an average of 15 hours per volunteer. Associates
become passionate about an organization and often
volunteer above and beyond that time on their own.
The Social IQ club of Dartmouth conducted a study
for us in 2014 to gather data on community awareness
of High Horses. This study gave us a clear baseline of
name recognition, showing significant room to
improve. Of the people surveyed, 69% had never
heard of High Horses. Yet of the 31% that were aware
of us, their perception was highly positive. To me this
is exciting. We can now use this information to assess
our progress and frankly, the numbers give us great
opportunities.
It has been remarkable to see how volunteering in groups
has improved team relationships. These groups could be
made up of associates who generally work together in a
given work day or they could be from various parts of
the organization. Leaders no longer pay for “team
building” activities. Leaders have learned that by
scheduling a group Community Service Time project
they will increase team communication, engagement,
effectiveness and satisfaction. Breaking down barriers
and working together for a common cause naturally
brings people together. There is much comradery that
builds when we volunteer in teams.
Let’s shake things up. Explore aspects of the Upper
Valley that are unfamiliar to you. Introduce High
Horses Therapeutic Riding Program to your friends
and neighbors and learn from others as well.
Questions to ponder -What does High Horses have in
common with other non-profits? How are we unique?
What are the benefits we provide? How can you share
your knowledge?
Our volunteering has a shared impact on our associates,
our communities, and our business. We see our
associates build compassion for others and return to
work with a renewed sense of purpose and fulfillment.
We see communities transformed by their collective
generosity of spirit and prosper and thrive in sustained
ways that can support our business
Let’s all work together to change the dynamic. We
need your help. Share your High Horses experiences
on our Facebook page as a volunteer, as a donor, as a
participant. Become ambassadors for High Horses
and in return learn more about the fabric of where we
live. In doing so, we will change the above numbers
when we work together as a community.
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High Horses Newsletter
Winter/Spring 2015
Congratulations to our
Volunteer of the Year!
Richard Sachs
Our Horse of the Year
Buddy
High Horses & TRAIN to
Present at PATH Region 1
Conference
Your lasting legacy
to High Horses
Our abstract “A Multicenter Approach to Measuring
Therapeutic Riding Program Impact: Results of a
Feasibility Study” has been accepted for presentation
at the 2015 PATH Intl. Region 1 Conference.
Since 1993 High Horses has been helping children,
adults, teens, veterans and seniors to experience the joy
of therapeutic horseback riding in a safe, serene setting.
Our own Cathy Hybels will lead a presentation on
how High Horses along with 3 other New England
Centers have progressed with using Goals
Attainment Scaling (GAS) for participants in
therapeutic riding.
With your help, we’ll continue our work for
decades to come.
To include High Horses in your will, please include the
following sentence and gift information:
Each High Horses instructor is writing GAS goals
for their participants. You may have witnessed a
lesson being rated or been a rater yourself. The data
collected so far is showing that High Horses is
writing good goals that are specific, measureable,
attainable, relevant and time based and we are seeing
a progression in skill level for our clients.
“I give _____(specific amount or property, percentage
or residue) to High Horses Therapeutic Riding
Program P.O. Box 681, Norwich, VT 05055 a taxexempt organization, for the purpose of supporting its
humanitarian programs.
(Tax ID 02-0461109)
Sue Miller, Lorna Young & Liz Adams will sit on
the panel for this presentation.

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High Horses Newsletter
Summer/Fall 2014
High Horses Partnership with
Tuck School of Business
Horse Herd Update
By Divya Belavadi
I was determined to immerse myself in the Upper
Valley community when I came to the Tuck School of
Business in August 2013. After all, I would only get to
live in this quintessentially New England neighborhood
for two years, so I wanted to get as involved as my
business school schedule would allow. One of the great
partnerships that Tuck has with its community is the
Revers Board Fellows program, which allows students
like myself, who want to get involved in the
community, to serve as a “junior board member” for a
local non-profit during their second year.
By, Mango
Hi Everyone! Happy spring! Isn’t this mud just perfect
for rolling in to scratch off your shedding winter coat?
This is Mango the pony reporting from the wonderful
farm of my foster care giver Ray Gentle. He’s a great guy
and his wife and neighbors are sweet to me too. I’ve been
being well taken care of, and Amanda says that it’s thanks
to the wonderful foster care givers that take care of some
of us from High Horses that our program is able to have
so many wonderful horses, like me! There’s only space
at High Horses in the winter for 4 horses so some of us go
to foster care for the winter. This year I’m with Ray,
Heidi is with her wonderful friend Pam Shepard and
Mitch is with David Pattison who is really great. Amanda
and the rest of the staff sure are thankful for all that they
have done this year to take care of us. They provide us
with food and shelter and lots of loving care. Grooming
out my beautiful mane and coat is essential! Taking care
of a horse is not easy, but we sure do appreciate all of
their hard work.
The horses that are still working at High Horses this
winter have been doing well too. They’ve sent me letters
about how cold it was in February, but they sure are
thankful for their exercise riders getting them out. Their
riders, Heidi, Diana, Meryl, and Liz, give them a little
extra attention on their non-working days and keep them
fit and occupied. Our community of human friends is
essential for our health and happiness. I am looking
forward to getting back to work at High Horses and
hoping that one of my human friends will be my exercise
rider too. You have to be an experienced rider to work
with us as an exercise rider, but it’s a rewarding thing to
do, for human and horse!
If you’re interested in helping out as a part of the High
Horses community, there are lots of opportunities. We
need foster care givers for next winter, a couple more
exercise riders, and are always in search of new friends to
volunteer. Come visit with me (the cute short one!) and
all of my horse friends at High Horses and find out how
you can best be part of our community too.
Until next time,
Mango
This partnership allows students to get a feel for the
roles and responsibilities of a non-profit board member
while also allowing the non-profit to tap into the skillset
of the Tuck student for help in business planning
activities. As a board fellow for High Horses
Therapeutic Riding Program, I have gotten a chance to
put to use many of the skills I have learned at Tuck,
such as financial statements analysis, making
presentations, and strategic planning. In return, High
Horses has gotten an extra helping hand at events and a
different point of view at board meetings.
One of the projects I am currently working on, along
with several other board members, is to identify and
evaluate potential partnerships and locations that would
allow High Horses to operate more autonomously. This
project, in particular, has provided me with a
tremendous opportunity to immerse myself in the
community and push myself outside my comfort zone
through interviewing members of the local equine
community. As our work to find a new home
continues, I hope my contribution will eventually allow
High Horses to expand their programming and touch
even more lives with their amazing services.
My time with High Horses has allowed me to put to use
the business skills I’ve developed at Tuck and to
achieve my goal of immersing myself in the Upper
Valley community. They have helped me grow just as I
am helping them to grow and the relationship has been
a great example of the symbiotic relationships that can
exist in the Upper Valley!
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High Horses Newsletter
Summer/Fall 2014
Collaborations with
Horses and Pathfinders
and VTC
By Sue Miller
Save the Date!
Parent Education Event - May 11th 5:30-7:00
an evening to experience what our riders do
Parents and caregivers can have a chance to
experience what therapeutic riding is like from the
back of a horse.
Please contact High Horses to sign up
802-356-3386
[email protected]
Two feet move our body, Four feet move
our soul
Thank You
Volunteers for all you do each and
every day! 
High Horse is lucky to be able to collaborate with so
many wonderful businesses and charities in the Upper
Valley and beyond. This past year High Horses was
fortunate to be able to collaborate with Horses and
Pathfinders in Moretown, VT. Horses and Pathfinders
integrate equine activities, kinesthetic learning and
cognitive insight in developing leadership, a healthy selfimage, as well as more meaningful connection to work
and relationships. This past October some of the High
Horses staff went to a workshop to hone our leadership
skills, tighten our bond, find our individual strengths as
well as ways we can support each other as a team.
Interestingly Lucinda Newman from Horses and
Pathfinders also works at Vermont Technical College in
support of students in pursuit of Equine Studies degrees.
The equine studies program is a combination of theory
and hands-on experience working with horses and clients.
Specific equine topics include equine anatomy and health,
nutrition, riding instruction techniques, equine massage,
tack selection and fit, as well as therapeutic programs.
Since the college does not have a therapeutic riding
program, they bring a group of students each year to High
Horses for a chance to witness the amazing work that
goes into a ride here. The students in the equine studies
program are always interested in how our lessons are run
and enjoy watching and participating as sidewalkers
learning firsthand what we do. We had 10 VTC students
visit High Horses on March 24th. The VTC students
always enjoy their time with us. It is wonderful to be able
to help and be helped within our wonderful community.
Wishes of Gratitude to:
Brookside Farm & Henry Hazen
Montanna G. for vet wrap
Robert Miller for trailering Little Joe
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High Horses Newsletter
Summer/Fall 2014
Upcoming Events
Board of Directors
Jill Helmer, President
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Pat Tivnan, Vice President
Alicia Hershberger, Treasurer
Gabbie Black, Secretary
Ericka Gray
Ashley Miller
Colin Skinner
PATH Int’l Region 1 Conference April 17, 18 &19th, 2015
Spring Session May 4th 2015 - June 26th, 2015
Parent Education Event May 11th 5:30-7:00
Annual Rider Horse Show – Saturday May 30th, 2015
Benefit High Horses Horse Show @ GMHA – June 24th, 2015
Summer Session July 6th – August 21st, 2015
Board Fellows
Divya Belavadi
Jaimie Sarrault
PR/FR Committee:
Karen Didricksen, Chair
Sharon Crothers
Becky Foulk
Deb Radcliffe
Inside
King Arthur Flour’s Perspective on Community & Volunteering
Grey Horse Program
Collaboration & Community with Horses & Pathfinders & VTC
AmazonSmiles & High Horses
Volunteer of the Year
Horse of the Year
Tuck Fellows & High Horses
Horse Herd Update
 Thank You
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HIGH HORSES
Therapeutic Riding Program
P.O. Box 681
Norwich, VT 05055
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