Straight from the Horse's Mouth December 2017 | Page 2

Ride On St. Louis
Celebrating
years
Happy 20th Birthday Ride On St. Louis!
That’s right, in 2018 Ride On St. Louis celebrates 20 years of love,
strength, joy and elite services through a knowledgeable and devoted
staff, trained volunteers and happy, healthy equine partners. Ride On St.
Louis offered its first services in 1998 and has since had a waiting list of families in need. During
our first several years of service, the center operated entirely on a volunteer basis. Our home on the
Anheuser Estate in Kimmswick, MO stems from an invitation extended in 2002 from the Anheuser
Permanent Fund, after Ride On St. Louis outgrew Founders Rick and Marita Wassman’s small private
home barn in the South County area.
.rideonstl.org
*New Website design www
Since we first opened out barn doors, our
quality and excellence has always been a priority.
Comprehensive therapy, conditioning and
learning at Ride On St. Louis focuses on healing
programs that utilize the movement of the
horse, as well as human-horse interaction, to
provide substantial and sustaining quality of life
improvements, physically, mentally, emotionally,
and spiritually. We serve those who others have
given up on, those who face many struggles in
their lives and those who are often burdened by
financial hardships including veterans, children
and adults with mild to severe disabilities and
the disadvantaged youth. Their well-being is the
reason we exist, plain and simple.
As many of you may have heard, Ride On St.
Louis was once more, literally, in high waters as
the Mississippi River flooded our facility in June
2017. In the last four years, our facility has been
flooded three times (July 2013, December 2015,
and June 2017). The flooding causes exponential
damage to the organization and program as
services are suspended, property is destroyed,
resources exhausted, and staff and volunteers
react to the disaster, distracting from important
job responsibilities and other needs for service,
development and planning. As much as we enjoy
and appreciate our home on the Anheuser Estate
in Kimmswick, Ride On St. Louis is pursuing
several options to relocate the program. Securing
1
a long-term lease or purchasing our own property
with increased pasture space remains a major
focal point to the relocation of Ride On St.
Louis.
It has been a dream of ours to serve each and
every client who seeks the healing qualities of
equine-assisted activities and therapies, and to
provide that client with excellent, sustaining
services to increase quality of life, health and
happiness. As we look back on the many
accomplishments leading up to our 20th
birthday, we can’t help but feel the excitement
for the possibilities of the future. We are ever
grateful to you, the crusader in the cause, to help
bring exceptional, accessible and accommodating
programs to our friends, families and loved ones.
Thank you for your faith in the healing power
of the horse, Ride On St. Louis, and your aid
in bringing positive health changes to people in
need. Our 20th birth year, 2018, will be a year
of celebration, fellowship and enterprise! Please
keep sharing the story and your connection
to Ride On St. Louis with those in your life,
praying for those that keep the center strong, and
if possible make a donation of time, resources or
dollars. In honor of our 20th birthday in 2018,
we are encouraging our friends to pledge a $20
monthly gift as a Crusader. More on joining
the Crusader’s Circle and the difference you can
make with just $20 a month on page 7.