Shining World Compassion Award Recipient: The Gentle Barn, Part 2 of 2

“I have this one horse that has a long, long horrible story of abuse. It took 4 years to heal her, and actually in order to heal her we had to simulate the being ridden in order to ask her to do little things that she knew how to do. And because she had been abused when asked to do things she would start raging and bucking and kicking and just going crazy, and instead of restricting her and trying to control her we would sit on this bucking Bronco basically and just say, ‘Tell me more, tell me more about what scared you. Tell me more about what hurt you. Tell me more about how angry that made you feel.’ We were hearing more and more and more of her story until finally 4 years later she had no anger left in her body and she was free.” “Once they're ready, we partner with them to heal people with the same stories of abuse and neglect. We partner with the animals to take those specific children to The Gentle Barn, and instead of them having to talk about their own emotions and their own feelings and their own stories, we talk about the animal stories, knowing full well that when we share an animal story, we're really telling that child’s story as well. We talk about real food, fruits and vegetables, where our protein and iron and calcium comes from, so they get a sense of what real food is in the garden and they get a chance to really fall in love with animals, learn what real food is, open their hearts and in the process find themselves in the barnyard and it heals their life and changes their life moving forward.” On February 19, 2019, our Association members from Los Angeles, USA, were privileged to present Ellie Laks with the Award letter, plaque, a check of US$10,000 and gifts on Master’s behalf. “Dear Ellie, It is with much admiration and gratitude that we present to The Gentle Barn the ‘Shining World Compassion Award’ for ‘teaching people kindness and compassion towards animals, each other and our planet’. This Award recognizes your benevolent sanctuary, haven to rescued animals and the nurturing of gentleness in humanity.”