We are grateful to have such a beautiful testimonial from such a wonderful volunteer, Meghan Miraglia.
“I started volunteering at Windrush Farm in the fall of 2014 to get my “horse-y fix” after I stopped riding for a short time. I had always had a passion for animals; it was during that year that I decided to become a veterinarian. At first, Windrush became a place where I could spend some time with horses, an outlet for my equine obsession. At that point in my life, I was mostly helping myself, not helping others; I was volunteering because I liked the barn smell and I liked grooming and tacking the horses. I enjoyed the feeling of walking into the barn, and I loved talking to the horses. However, I didn’t really understand the magnitude of my actions, and I didn’t really see the miracles occurring right in front of me.
That all changed in the fall of 2015 when I witnessed the special relationship formed between client and horse. I came to the realization that these special relationships were created every day at Windrush. It was during one of the classes, as I was horse handling Guinness, that I also realized that, in a small way, I had a role in this partnership being formed. As a volunteer, we all have the experience; many of us have been around horses our whole lives. We have the expertise, we have the education, and many of us have the excellence, a lot of us are truly amazing at what we do. But there is a fifth thing that we volunteers have, too; and that is compassion. We all are capable of tacking and grooming our horses, we are all capable of leading our horse around the arena. It’s when we tap into our compassion, and our understanding, and our realization that Windrush is the kind of place where miracles are born, that we become capable of much more than we think. The kind of miracles at Windrush seem small to us, they may simply be a client smiling as they slide their feet into the stirrups for the first time. But to our clients, these little miracles are huge, and may even be life-altering. And that is the feeling that keeps me coming back to this wonderful, amazing place.” 
