I have loved horses for as long as I can remember, but growing up in  a city, I never had access to them. Then I found out about Beekman Therapeutic Riding Center, a non-profit stable that teaches anyone and everyone how to ride. They have forty beautiful acres of land and ten horses located in Lansing, Michigan of all places. It was there I began volunteering and fell in love with what they do.

I worked at Beekman three days a week during May and six days week from June through August. I was there for twelve hours each day  I was there every week. As a volunteer, my responsibilities included feeding and watering the horses; cleaning stalls and paddocks; getting horses and ponies prepared for lessons; and leading the horses while the students rode. During the fall, winter and spring we have students with physical, emotional and mental disabilities. It's part of my job to pick them up and bring them down to ride, and then take them back to their school, which shares land with the stable. I did any and all jobs that were asked of me whenever they needed them done. My love for that stable and desire to help and work became my biggest challenge. I was working too hard and was suffering physically because of it. I had to learn to discipline myself and limit how much work I do and how much work I allow for other people to dump on me. I reduced my volunteer time to just twice a week and for less hours so I could maintain my studies and a healthy life. It was difficult to do as I love to work, but in the end I was able to pull it off.

The most satisfying part of working at that stable, was seeing the smiles on our students faces. We had students of all ages and all disabilities and abilities come to ride. I worked with the students who were afraid to ride and the students that had bad tempers. Nothing was more satisfying than seeing that student who started out afraid of the horse, get on the horse and ride. Those smiles and the lights in their eyes were beautiful sights. Seeing our students with bad tempers, trying to be tough, soften up and relax around the horses was beautiful. Those smiles are what kept me coming in as often as I did. It's a kind of satisfaction you can't find anywhere else.

Volunteering at Beekman has taught me a lot. The biggest thing I learned from working there and working beside other people is that everyone has their own unique disability. We all have one, some of them you can see physically and others you cannot. I have two disabilities. I'm slightly dyslexic and I'm a perfectionist. My dyslexia doesn't come out very often, just in my math and when I'm stressed. My perfectionism is here 24/7, 365 days a year. I set a bar for myself to reach that's usually to high up for anybody to reach. When I don't reach that bar of perfection on the first try, I get upset with myself. It's a disability that I struggle with, but if everyone judged everyone off of their disabilities, there would be a lot of disgusted people out there.

For every one disability, you have ten great ABILITIES.