“This was a mid-career crisis for me as I evaluated if I had it in me to start this all over again and whether there was anything else I would rather be doing,” she said. “Regardless of how hard I thought this would be, I had to muster the energy to rebuild.” And rebuild she did, with Schaad immediately selling or placing 21 of the 25 horses from the previous program and working as the sole employee out of her garage. Schaad’s love and appreciation for horses lie at her core, and she attributes their impact to saving her life. A neighbor, who Schaad viewed as a grandfather, opened his farm in Illinois to the poor country kids and allowed them to claim one of his horses as their own. As she didn’t have a strong family unit growing up, this experience changed the trajectory of Schaad’s life, giving her a sense of freedom, the ability to escape and take care of herself, and assertiveness. “They created a community around me, and those horse people grew to be my family,” she said. “I loved what horses gave to me and how everything melted away when I was around them. I could find a sense of safety, and in that sense of safety, I had capacity to dream and hope, despite what happened in my background.” The name Hunkapi [hun-kah-pee] is from the Lakota Native American tribe, meaning “we are all related.” | 16 | FURRY FRIENDS 2023 Photo by Jillian Rivera Photography

Hitting One’s Stride Fast-forward more than two decades, and you will now find Schaad and her husband, Rob Chavarry, residing on-site at Hunkapi Farm with 35 horses and 52 farm animals that serve as therapeutic aids, including donkeys, chickens, cows, pigs, dogs, cats and a goat. The organization has grown beyond solely horse therapy to provide equine-assisted programs to 300 people per week that include therapeutic riding for children or adults with special needs with a goal of recreation; life skills for children and adults, teaching social skills, boundary setting and assertiveness; and psychotherapy with masters-level therapists addressing clinical goals, such as decreasing symptoms of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Hunkapi’s First Responder Program, now in its 14 th cohort, starts to change the culture within the first-responder community and the belief systems around PTSD by helping program participants understand the effect and build-up of energy resulting from regularly overriding the natural fight, flight, freeze response. Horses help first responders understand this biological response and train them how to dissipate and deactivate it from their system so they can be more ready for work the next day. Those who aren’t interested in horses are welcome to experience the sanctuary of the farm where vegetables are grown and farm-to- table dinners take place, as well as yoga and sound bowl healing. The entire farm connects people to mind, body and spirit in an experiential way. “It’s not cognitive. We’re not teaching people to be in their heads,” Schaad said. “We’re teaching them to experience something and how to integrate that into life.” FURRY FRIENDS 2022 | 17 | Photos by Jillian Rivera Photography