My Why
Some things you build because the world needs them. Some things you build because your child does. Savannah Station started as the second one. It became both.
My daughter Savannah
My daughter Savannah has never spoken a word. She has never been able to walk or feed herself. From the very beginning, her life has looked different from what most people dream of for their children.
She is also one of the most joyful human beings I have ever known. I wrote this about her once, and I meant every word of it:
"On a horse, we get to watch our daughter come alive. She expresses herself, sits tall, moves without a wheelchair, and displays her strength, allowing us to see her love for the sport. This is priceless to us. For our family, Savannah Station allows us, once a week, to not think
about the pressures of parenting a child with multiple disabilities. We simply get to watch our daughter light up the arena with her joy and laughter."
That is my why. Right there.
Why Therapeutic Riding?
There is something about a horse that reaches kids in ways that are hard to fully explain, and also increasingly hard to argue with.
Research published in peer-reviewed journals, including a randomized controlled trial of 127 children, shows that therapeutic horseback riding produces measurable improvements in social skills, communication, self-regulation, and motor function in children with autism and
other complex diagnoses.
Teachers report the benefits carry over into classrooms long after the session ends. Parents report something harder to measure but just as real: their kid is calm. Their kid is happy. Their kid is theirs in a way that feels, for one hour a week, completely uncomplicated.
I have lived that. I know exactly what it means to watch your child light up an arena.
Savannah's Last Ride
I co-founded Savannah Station because Savannah needed it and because we were not the only family that did. It is a Christ-centered nonprofit built on the belief that hope and healing are possible, and that sometimes they arrive on the back of a horse. What started as a conviction is now one of Oklahoma's thriving therapeutic riding programs: 101 riders, 15 horses, and over 200 volunteers showing up every week because they believe it too.
The program has its own executive leadership and has long since grown beyond anything I could have built alone. I am proud of that. Genuinely, deeply proud.
For Nonprofit Leaders
If you lead a nonprofit, here is what I want you to know about working with me. I have been where you are. Not in a general sense. Specifically. I founded an organization from nothing, navigated the gap between mission and money, built a team, hit the growing pains, worked through the leadership problems that every scaling nonprofit eventually faces, and came out the other side with something that runs without me.
I know what it costs to lead something that actually matters to people. And I know that what nonprofit leaders usually need is not another framework; it is someone who genuinely gets it and can help them lead more clearly inside it.
That is what I bring. The strategy, the structure, and the proof that I have done it myself.
Savannah Station is still out there every week, putting kids on horses, giving families one hour of pure joy, and doing work that is genuinely hard to put a price on.
If this story moved you, the best thing you can do is help them keep going.
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