Unbridled Love

Hunkapi provides equine-assisted programs healing mind, body and spirit

BY JULIE COLEMAN

The first thing catching your eye when arriving at the 10-acre farm in Scottsdale is the message “Open Your Heart” on the entry gate. Those words encapsulate the nonprofit’s goal of teaching the world to fear less and love more by creating experiences that allow the heart to open.

Hunkapi started in 1999 after Arizona State University conducted a three-year research study investigating the effect of sport on children with special needs. It found that of all the sports studied, horseback riding was the most positive intervention for improving self-esteem, selfconcept and attentional focus.

A decision was made to launch a communitybased therapeutic riding program grounded in the idea of interrelatedness and the responsibility that emanates from it.

Terra Schaad, the founder and executive director of Hunkapi Programs, was asked to launch the program at ASU and continued at the helm for nearly 10 years, until the university canceled the program during the 2008 recession. Schaad took the opportunity to form a nonprofit, shifting the program’s focus from children with special needs to those who have experienced trauma.