Terra Schaad 

Executive Director of Hunkapi Programs Inc.

@TerraSchaad

A 23-year-old Terra Schaad packed up her Jeep to move to Arizona to take part in a community-based equine therapy program. Twenty years later, Schaad’s Hunkapi Programs Inc. is most certainly a thing of beauty in the lives of many, as it explores the bond between horse and human as a catalyst for positive growth on a 10-acre farm in Scottsdale for participants with diagnoses such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Autism and addiction, to name a few. “Every day, I get to see people overcome their fears with the horses and the safety our farm provides,” she says. “I get to see them realize what is possible for them and what they are capable of. They get to feel that life can be different than what they have known and being able to witness that is everything to me.” Last year, Hunkapi Programs Inc. started a psychotherapy group for first responders, and Schaad fondly recalls the experience of a participant who was a firefighter with PTSD and a work-related physical injury. “When she arrived at the farm, she was so shut down and barely spoke. Over time, she began to bond with one of our toughest horses, Alfie. Through our somatic work with them, we got to witness her ‘unfreezing’ and beginning to speak up, make decisions and assert herself. Today, she is the co-founder of a first responder support group that meets every week at our farm.”