Saddle up for Hope

Country western star and Las Cruces native Bri Bagwell will perform live during “For the Love of Girls and Horses Gala,” a fundraiser benefitting Bridle Up Hope (BUH) Las Cruces that will begin at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 25, at New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum, 4100 Dripping Springs Road. 

BUH Las Cruces was founded about a year and a half ago by Kelly Koerper, whose Horsegirls Charities nonprofit affiliates with Bridle Up Hope: The Rachel Covey Foundation.

The fundraiser’s keynote speaker will be BUH Executive Director Nicole Holgreen, who is traveling to Las Cruces from the foundation’s home base in Alpine, Utah. Las Cruces is the only BUH location in New Mexico, along with others in the U.S. states of Texas, California and Idaho and in Ukraine, Estonia and the Netherlands.

All BUH locations use an equine assisted learning (EAL) curriculum that integrates the principals of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” the international best seller written by Steven R. Covey in 1989. Covey was the grandfather of Rachel Covey, a horse lover who struggled with depression and died at age 21 in 2012, after which the Covey family created the foundation and the EAL curriculum to help “girls and women to recognize their inherent worth and potential,” according to www.bridleuphope.org.

Some of the more than 20 women and girls Koerper has worked with on her 4.25-acre site south of Mesilla have suffered from trauma and anxiety, she said, including two widows who came to BUH because nothing else was helping them cope with the loss of their husbands.

“It’s working,” Koerper remembers one of the women saying.

Koerper uses six horses and a pony to help girls and women learn life skills and how to become “better horsewomen and better people,” Koerper said. “The horses are the therapists.”

Koerper said she has seen girls and women gain in hope and confidence through the relationships they develop during private lessons with horses Tasha, Blake, R Vee, Yogi Bear (that’s the pony), Invy, Sugar and Premium, as guided “in a completely safe space” by Koerper and four other teachers, who include professional horse trainers, a licensed pilot, a yoga instructor and one who has worked with both sled dogs and abused horses.

The meal served during the gala will include smoked beef tri tip and green chile mashed potatoes and is catered by Marci Dickerson. There will also be a silent auction and line dancing, along with Bagwell’s music.

Tickets are $100 each and are available online through Sunday, Feb. 23. Buy tickets at www.eventbrite.com by entering “For the Love of Girls and Horses” in the “search events” box at the top of the page and making sure “Las Cruces” is entered in the “Choose a location” box next to it. Event sponsorships are also available, beginning at $300.

For more information, call Kelly Koerper at 575-496-4030.