When I sent out requests for "elves" for Secret Santa for Horse Rescues in 2008, one of the people responding was Colleen. Colleen had been active with Stable Movements, a therapeutic horsemanship facility in upstate New York. She had earlier gone on the Chronicle forums asking if people could send any kind of show clothing for their Special Olympics riders. Since the response had been overwhelmingly generous, she wanted to pay back in kind.

Colleen's expertise, amongst other areas, is in marketing and website design. She very generously offered to help with websites for any of the participating groups. I paired her with Sunkissed Acres, because Colleen had recently adopted her first horse - Dumplin, an older mini - from there.

Dumplin is the reason for Colleen's Borrowed Freedom Equine Therapies (www.borrowedfreedom.org) - but that's her story to tell! However, working together on Secret Santa brought Colleen and myself to our very first fundraiser, and the launching of the Special Horses website.