The name Hunkapi [hun-kah-pee] is from the Lakota

“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.”