During Saturday’s WPCA Tarp-Sale and Fundraising Gala, the Grande Prairie Stompede presented PARDS Therapeutic Centre with a check for $25,000 for the UNBRIDLED program. Chuckwagon Director Dean Dreger explains the partnership between the Stompede and PARDS plays a part in the legacy that the organization wants to leave. Dreger explains to him mental health is an important topic to him, and after raising three kids he has seen the impact that a horse can make.
“It is a bond that you can’t replace, kids, especially when they are coming into their teens they need a lot of distractions and there is nothing better than a horse for a babysitter,” Dreger says. “A horse is just as compassionate as a dog if you let them. Kids let those horses into their lives and they become a part of their lives as they go on.”
In 2023, Stompede and Pards unveiled the UNBRIDLED program and the three-year partnership. At the time Executive Director Jennifer Douglas told mygrandeprairienow.com that UNBRIDLED was many years in the making, and focuses directly on helping youth work through experienced traumas in a healthy and empowered way.
“The horse is whatever the youth needs them to be in that moment and that is what is so powerful and almost magical about – equine-assisted therapy,” Douglas said. “A horse will mirror your emotions, so it really helps anyone to process where they are at because sometimes the hardest thing to do is name what you are going through.”
More information about the program can be found here.
