From staff reports
With fond childhood memories of farm life and a gift for teaching, Monique Nellis began the Heavenly Gaits Therapeutic Riding Center a non-profit therapeutic riding center devoted to making a difference in the lives of adults and children with special needs in Ashland Township near Ninevah.
Nellis’ efforts now include military veterans and their families through her new Horses for Heroes program.
Heavenly Gaits began with a dream, a few donated horses and family land. Without solid fences or a natural water source, Nellis built her own paddocks with temporary fencing. This let her move her horses every few weeks for pasture and herd health. She drove water out to the pastures each day.
“My neighbors thought I was crazy,” she said.
Nellis learned about voluntary conservation programs for farmers, ranchers and private forest owners at a manure management workshop. The programs, she found, were available through the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service.
NRCS guided Nellis’ installation of about 12,000 feet of interior and exterior fencing. Nellis was able to raise money to take care of costs not covered through NRCS. The service also helped Nellis formulate a grazing plan.
“A grazing plan, from my perspective, is a formulated equation,” she said. “It’s like the perfect lesson, but you have to make adaptions.”
NRCS Soil Conservationist Gregory Cain recognized Nellis’ achievements.
“It is especially rewarding to know that the education that we have provided Monique has continued to be shared,” he said. “She has taken the principles that we have taught her, adapted them to fit her operation and shared those principles with others who may not be exposed to agriculture in day to day life.”
Once offering only a few horses and three riders, Heavenly Gaits now has 10 horses and 35 weekly riders. Thirty active volunteers also assist 60 riders a month through various summer camps.
The most recent addition to the farm is a one-eyed horse.
“I don’t want people to see him as being limited or un-useful,” said Nellis.
To include him in her outreach and service, Nellis contacted the Venango County Association for the Blind. Through donations from the local Lion’s Club, she expects to provide horse rides and lessons for children with visual impairments.
Nellis’ guidance has made the impossible now possible for many children.
“I felt spirit-led about helping children with disabilities with horses,” she said.
She has seen many transformations take place, from a partially paralyzed girl with spina bifida feeling a horse walk, to a boy who joined the program shouting and screaming but now rides independently.
Nellis views the Horses for Heroes program as a natural extension of Heavenly Gaits. She believes it’s a personal calling, too. Her ex-husband joined the military and served in Iraq and Afghanistan for three years.
“It’s taught (our son) about service and selflessness,” she explained. “The military takes great pride and I always wanted to thank him for that.”
Through the program, Heavenly Gaits will provide veterans and their families with equine trail rides and riding lessons at no charge. The local Department of Veterans Affairs office and VFW will provide financial support. Local women in the Women’s Auxiliary will volunteer time and assistance.
After talking with other groups for veterans, Nellis envisions a program with two steps.
“Usually what happens is veterans come to receive service,” Nellis explained, “But then they come back to volunteer because that’s something that’s almost in born in them. And their service to our country is that they still want to continue to serve.”
An initial group of veterans took their first trail ride at the end of June. This was a long-awaited forward step for this healing program for heroes.
Heavenly Gaits is located at 2059 Ninevah Road. For more information, call (814) 221-1690.