ELBERT, CO — A retired Air Force combat pilot's emergency plea for help has paid off. A Colorado family has stepped in to keep Stable Strides, an equine therapy nonprofit in Elbert, Colorado, from shutting down.
Michelle Ruehl, a certified equine specialist and executive director of Stable Strides, sounded the alarm earlier this year after taking the helm of the organization. She told The Gazette she worried the money to cover rising costs of veterinary and feed bills would only last a few more months. Eight employees had to be furloughed. Read Gazette article here.
"When I say nonprofit, we do not make a profit. This is a labor of love. I don't even take a paycheck and that's honestly because we believe so much in the work," Ruehl said.
Ruehl's connection to equine therapy stretches back 26 years, to her time as a cadet at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
"I came out here and I started to see the magic with both veterans down from Fort Carson, children who had autism who couldn't normally calm their bodies or regulate, could regulate for 40 minutes because they desired that relationship with the horse, and I thought, well, I'll never see that again," Ruehl said.
She did see it again. Even as her Air Force career as a combat pilot took her around the world, she kept returning to southern Colorado.
"I was stationed back here 3 different times and I would call up this center every time — you guys need any help. They always said yes and then finally this year when I retired out of NORAD, I thought, well I'll just do it once or twice a week and um turned out they ended up needing an executive director so it worked out to be able to come out here and pour my heart into it 26 years later," Ruehl said.
After reading about Ruehl's plea in The Gazette, David Abbott and his wife asked to meet with her in person.
"They walked through the doors we sat down and they said, Well, we'd like to help you. How much is it? And I said, well, you know, one horse is 10,000 a year. He said, Well, how many horses do you have? I said, Well, we're, we're down to 7 now. And he says, we'll cover all of them for a year. And I thought, what? Say that again. And I started to cry and they said, what else do you need? Well, we need some vet bills. We need to pay our staff from December and they said, we'll, we'll take that too," Ruehl said.
Abbott, who serves as president of the Stable Strides Board of Directors, has since witnessed the nonprofit's impact firsthand.
"When you see a veteran come in, a veteran who's challenged, having some struggles, and has tried everything, and he or she comes here and connects with a horse, and all of a sudden there's some peace and there's some comfort," Abbott said.
Among those experiencing that peace is 11-year-old Selah Grace, who is working through trauma from a vicious dog attack. Through equine therapy, she has learned that in order for a horse to respond calmly, she has to show up calmly.
"He's so calm," Selah said.
"That's all you, girl. If you're calm, he's calm, right? He can feel our heart rates. He can feel our, our heartbeat," Ruehl said.
For Abbott, the work happening at Stable Strides is difficult to put into words.
"This is a place where miracles happen. It's that simple," Abbott said.
