Our Mission

Our Mission

The mission of the Grazia Foundation is to help children and their families heal, learn, and grow through the power of the human-animal connection.

Our belief is that animals and nature are healing. We provide equine assisted psychotherapy in an idyllic natural setting to support our mission of healing and growth. We also aim to provide camps, workshops, and other learning opportunities and experiences both at the farm and in the community to foster connection with animals and promote the benefits of nature and the human-animal connection.

Our Story

The short version: Louise and Christine started the Grazia Foundation as a way to help as many children and their families as possible have access to the healing powers of horses and nature.

The long version: The full story of the Grazia Foundation is complicated, much like life itself. It started because Louise has known for many years of the amazing power to heal that horses hold, and had horses she wanted to share with those who needed to heal. She also knew that having a therapist on board to manage the human side of things was important, so she set to work calling various therapists and counselors, a few each week, to see if anyone was interested. Louise estimates that Christine was about the 40th provider she called. Christine, for her part, has loved horses since she was very young, and had always wanted to integrate animals into her therapy practice. She was a research assistant studying animal-assisted interventions during grad school, and had set a 5-10 year goal for herself of providing equine assisted therapy after starting her private practice in 2018. Louise’s call accelerated that timeline significantly, and they partnered and began offering equine assisted therapy in the summer of 2019.

The partnership got off to a good start, but it soon became clear there were multiple limiting factors preventing Louise and Christine from being able to provide services to those who needed it most, thus the idea of starting the Grazia Foundation was born. The Foundation is named after one of our horses, Grace, also fondly referred to as Amazing Grace, due to her healing nature and ability to learn to trust again after a rough start in life. Grace is truly a nurturer at heart, and embodies everything that horses are able to provide to those in need.

We are excited to share our programs and services with you and invite you to support our cause so we can reach as many people as possible and share the power of the human-animal connection far and wide.