Jordanna Anawalt

We nurture a living relationship with our Oregon Tarpan herd and foster personal development and well-being in our communities. Every offering we bring forward is guided by the belief that restoring our connection to the natural world restores our connection to ourselves.

A fundraising campaign centered on horses for mental health allows us to deepen one of the most transformative relationships we can offer—the one between a human being and a horse. The Oregon Tarpans, one of the rarest breeds in the world and beloved members of the CHOICE Tribe sanctuary, are not therapy horses in the conventional sense. They are teachers and relatives. Their survival as a species has depended on curiosity, congruence, and the intelligence of the herd. In their company, people naturally remember how to simply be.

When we return to the simple acts of being and experiencing on the land alongside our horse relatives, something essential is restored. The nervous system softens. The mind quiets. The body remembers it belongs to the earth. People leave with a renewed sense of self-trust, emotional steadiness, and clarity about what matters. They feel less alone—held by the herd, the land, the sage, and the sky. Children and adults alike rediscover wonder. Those carrying grief or disconnection find it met without words. Those who have forgotten their own strength find it mirrored back through the honest, unhurried presence of the Oregon Tarpan.

Through movement, sound, creative expression, community circles, and nature walks on the land in Central Oregon, our participants are invited into genuine relationship with the Oregon Tarpan herd—restoring curiosity and remembering connection with themselves, their plant, animal, and human relatives, and the land and cosmos they belong to.

Supporting this campaign directly supports the care of the Oregon Tarpan Herd and the community gatherings that bring this rare and ancient breed and the people who need them most into meaningful relationship. Our campaign goal is $5000.

For the individuals we serve, time spent with the Oregon Tarpans is more than an experience. It is a remembering—of who they are, the wisdom they already carry, and the ground that has always been beneath their feet.