Emily Hall (Part 1 of 2) Hello! I’m Emily and I’ve been the horse program manager here at WSS for just over 2 years now, and have been working with these horses for a total of 3 years. I wanted to let you know how God called me into working with horses.
It started in 2004 when I was in high school. I had read horse books before, but I didn’t think is get a chance to work with them. I was introduced to a local barn and invited to come and work for and learn from them. I stated as a stable hand, mucking stalls, lots of cleaning and starting to learn how to care for and handle the horses. The following summer I also started helping with events. I was a horse handler which involved preparing the horses, helping with games and giving handler lead horse rides for birthday parties, camps and school activities. I loved the days when we got to take the horses into the inner city and let kids who had never seen a horse ride. And even more special were the days inner city kids got to come to our 11 acre farm and got to ride through the woods and by the creek. Scenes which many of them hadn’t seen before.
I worked on and off with that barn through high school and college. While in college I was wondering how my enjoyment of horses, my love of God’s creation and outdoors and my calling to Mechanical Engineering were all going to play out in my life. During a church retreat in my 4th year God told me that my desire to glorify Him through His creation was a good thing. That revelation opened the idea that I might be doing something with horses long term. I had always thought of horses as a fun thing, a hobby, not a profession. I shared this with the owner and founder of the barn and she began to mentor me in what it took to start that facility and things to be aware of. In my 5th and final year of college I decided to start riding lessons as a way to get out of the computer lab and get some exercise while finishing my degree. I also kept volunteering at the barn whenever I could to get more time outside.
Over the following 8 years I was able to ride almost weekly, and take advantage of opportunities to learn how to begin to train and tune-up horses. I also got to see a bit of the process of PATH certification as the facility underwent the rigorous process of becoming the first PATH certified barn in the county. This allowed them to provide accredited therapeutic lessons to students of all ages with a multitude of abilities. I loved seeing how the horses that would “punk” me – an able bodied tune up rider – would be perfect angels for the riders who needed the extra care. It was such a blessing to be in a fun environment where I got to see so many aspects of what it takes to run an excellent facility, from the people to grant writing, volunteer programs and management, excellent trainers and lesson instructors, multiple facilities and what it took to get a new facility running, to military programs, camps, special events, and trainings.
It is so good to look back and see how God put me in the right places at the right time. How so many aspects of what I saw and learned are applicable now. Though sometimes I was thinking the wait was long as I was working in Engineering and riding and volunteering at the barn. But God showed me my part is to be patiently actively waiting in the mean time. More on what that looked like next time.
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