LoveWay Hopes to Offer a Host of Services to Able- Bodied Individuals, Groups and Corporations

In an effort to help us sustain our mission of providing free therapeutic equestrian services for children with special needs, LoveWay hopes it will soon be offering a whole host of fee-based services that will be open to able-bodied individuals as well. Proceeds from these services will be re-directed toward our programs serving children with disabilities.

Presently our instructors are working to brainstorm and hammer out lesson plans, schedules and strategies that will enable us to deliver services that are not only instructive, but moreover, holistic in their approach to horsemanship.

At LoveWay, our instructors understand that horses are intuitive creatures, and that as such they can do more than just give trail rides and be the beasts of burden; horses can teach us about ourselves. It is this understanding that drives our instructors to want to create programming that seeks not merely to teach a skill, but also, to broaden our sense of who we are and how we behave in relation to others and where we stand in the larger context of world as we seek to live balanced, focused, productive and contented lives.

Our hope is that the services being developed will include programs such as centered riding classes for beginners, natural horsemanship workshops, trail-rides, and "Horsekeeping 101" classes. All classes and experiences will be offered at a very competitive fee.

LoveWay is also currently exploring the merits and possibilities of implementing equine experiential learning programs and retreats focused upon team-building and problem-solving for corporations and groups.

Instructor, Erica Reid, is in the midst of preparing a tentative course list and fee schedule and hopes to be able to have a program up and running as early as April 1st of 2009. We expect these classes are going to fill up very quickly so please contact Erica as soon as possible for more details.

Happy Trails!

Tracey Malesa Wheaton
Executive Director / LoveWay

January Volunteer of the Month

SALLY MCFARREN was recently chosen as our volunteer of the month for January 2009. Read below to find out more about Sally. Don't forget to cast your vote for next month's exceptional volunteer!
Background
Sally grew up in the Goshen area where her dad was a Goshen City Police Officer. When she met her husband and got married she moved to New Paris where she currently lives. She was a Saddle Club Leader for 8 years and has 3 horses of her own. Sally volunteers in classes here and is also a schooling rider, keeping our horses in shape.
Time volunteering
She has been a volunteer at LoveWay since January 1999
Why she began to volunteer
Sally says she began helping here because she liked kids and horses. She was at point in her life where she was considering volunteering and helping others and decided to give LoveWay a try.
Favorite memory about LoveWay
Her favorite memory at LoveWay happened with a little girl Sally says is her inspiration. When the girl came last year for her lesson, she was very afraid. Sally had to hold her hand to go to the barn and the girl started trembling when she touched the horse because she was so afraid. Sally noticed the girl getting braver and braver each time she came for her lesson. One day, she walked in and pet her horse and exclaimed, “I did it!” Sally says she remembers the little girl when she is going through rough times in her life and thinks that if the little girl can overcome her obstacles and fears then so can she. The little girl started out riding with just a bare back pad and has adjusted very well. She now rides in a saddle and Sally can see big improvements from when she first began.
Favorite Horse
Babe is Sally’s favorite horse because she is fun to ride and is very obedient when she’s being schooled.
First memory of LoveWay
She remembers being a little bit apprehensive on her first day at LoveWay because she had never worked with kids with disabilities before. She says she has now come to love them all.
In her spare time
Sally’s horses take up a lot of her spare time. She takes care of her 3 horses by herself (with a little help from her husband on larger tasks). She likes riding her horses and helping kids in Saddle Club. She is currently working with 2 kids in the club.

Welcome to the LoveWay Blog Site!

Welcome to the new Loveway Blog Site

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Greetings from the New Executive Director

Dear Friends

Welcome to the new LoveWay Blog Site!

We are excited about this opportunity to share with you all the latest developments evolving at our facility and hope that you will join the conversation with your suggestions, ideas and expertise.

As the new Executive Director of LoveWay, I am positively honored to have this opportunity to put all of my knowledge and experience (both with horses and with individuals with disabilitites) into the efforts of this fantastic agency.

In the years to come I hope to continue to both expand and build upon the agency mission set forth by the Weatherwax family who founded this program in 1974, and I will be relying upon your ideas and the ideas of all of our constituents to help shape this program's future.

It is my hope that is blog site will provide us all with an up-beat forum in which to exchange ideas, to educate one another, and to begin conceptualizing plans for services that are first-class.

Thank you for visiting our site.

Blog freely and often!

Best wishes

Tracey Malesa-Wheaton

Therapeutic Horseback Riding in Middlebury, Indiana

LoveWay's primary focus is on therapeutic horseback riding and our mission is to "Change the lives of challenged children by MAXIMIZING their abilities and minimizing their disabilities". We have provided classes for small groups of kids for more than 30 years and have become one of the oldest of over seven hundred therapeutic riding centers across the nation. We serve hundreds of individuals with disabilities annually from our northern Indiana facility. Our facility is located in the quiet, wooded hills between Bristol and Middlebury on 29 acres. We offer comprehensive, year-round services.

The smiles, the communication, the break throughs... We love our work and our kids. Daytime classes are provided for Elkhart area schools and evening and Saturday morning classes are available for other individuals. We invite you to contact our Program Manager for enrollment information.

Your Help Goes A Long Way

A new way to support LoveWay!
Purchase clothing and more embroidered with our logo.