Dani Horton
Founder, President
Dani is a certified equine massage therapist and riding instructor. She is also certified in large animal rescue. Dani has more than 30 years of equine experience. She has won numerous titles and awards in barrel racing, breakaway roping, pole bending, halter, Western pleasure and obstacle challenges. She is a member of the Polk County Mounted Search and Rescue Team, as a volunteer.
Prior to retiring to focus on the rescue, she spent 12 years working for a private company, working her way up from receptionist to office manager.
Wayne Elkins
Vice President
With more than 18 years of experience, Wayne is a certified farrier with an established client-base in the Polk County region. He specializes in horses that are difficult to handle. He recently earned his certification in large animal rescue.
Board Members:
Mary Shields is our Reading With Rescues director. She is a professional saddle fitter for Black Bird Equestrian as her fulltime job and enjoys spending some of her spare time at the barn helping with events and other things that are going on.
Cat Madden has been with the organization since 2013. She is our adoption director and also is on the training team. She spends a lot of her spare time at the barn helping with many of the daily chores and horse training.
KaSandra Howe has been with the organization since 2015. She has served on the board for 4 years and is our fundraising director along with being our social media and web director. She is also part of the adoption team and assists Cat when needed. KaSandra has fostered and adopted from us and has always had a love for horses. She is a teacher and bus driver for her fulltime job and loves to assist with events and with whatever else is going on at the barn.
Kara Huebsch has served as a board member with Hope Equine for 2 years. In her role as Community Outreach Director she is a liaison who introduces the mission of Hope Equine to the community through networking, presentations and facility tours. She is active in planning group events and training. Kara volunteers hands on with the care of the horses as a barn leader to volunteers and have trained a horse in skills needed for adoption as part of Hope Equine’s 60 day training challenge. For the past 14 years Kara has enjoyed a career as a Senior Branding Professional offering marketing solutions in promotional products to businesses. In 2018 she began group and individual life coaching in the area of transformative communication.
Volunteer Director
