Meet Carole Weller | Board Member and horse lover

We had the good fortune of connecting with Carole Weller and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Carole, can you talk to us a bit about the social impact of your business?
Summit Valley Horse Center offers our local community the opportunity to interact with rescued horses, making the horses more adoptable whilst training to volunteers how to work with horses, all the while building the volunteers self awareness and esteem.

What should our readers know about your business?
Our non profit is almost unique in Colorado, we partner with rescue organizations to help support them in training and rehoming rescued horses whilst training volunteers to be confident in handling horses. Over the past 3 years we have successfully adopted out over 30 horses, we have trained over 100 volunteers, some of who have had no horse experience, and we have hosted numerous non profits in our programs.
We strive to overcome the challenges of funding through operating a Thrift store, which provides good quality local cost goods to our community. Although we are grateful to all our donors we do not want to be dependent on grants and donors and our aim is to be self sufficient in funding.
The journey is on going and we continue to learn, we are adapting to the economic situation, to the challenge of finding suitable property to operate from and to continually updating our program offerings.
We have learned that transparency with our community is essential, they need to know why we are here, what we are trying to achieve and how. Without our community we cannot succeed.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Summit County is an awesome place to visit, whether you want to recreate, eat out, have adventures and just be spoiled. Try to do a little of everything:

Ski a world class ski area
Go snowshoeing and enjoy the peace and quiet
Try nordic skiing, hang out in the Lodge at Breck Nordic and listen to Gene play the accordion or Swiss horn
Try apres ski at one of the lively bars, RMU in Breckenridge recommended
Shopping at the local boutiques and make a one of a kind hat
Award winning eating at Rootstalk in Breck
Go Thrifting and support and local horse center whilst finding a bargain
Dog sledding or snowmobiling with Good Times
Sunset at Sapphire Point for amazing photos
People watch from one of the counties great decks

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Lizzie Kanetsky is the Executive Director of Summit Valley Horse Center, she is a CSU Equine Studies grad and has a wealth of experience with horses. She generously shares her knowledge and time with all the volunteers at SVHC, she is patient with both the volunteers and the animals, and is is always motivated by their successes. Everyone who works with the horses under Lizzie’s guidance gains expertise, self confidence and awareness, their skills are directly translated into how many horses get adopted under our auspices. In addition our volunteers then help guide numerous non profits and youth groups into their own programs of self development and equine knowledge. Without Lizzie SVHC would not have the amazing volunteers, ever expanding programs and growing numbers of successful horse adoptions, and I would not be the proud lessee of an amazing rescued quarter horse.

Website: https://www.summitvalleyhorsecenter.org

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SummitValleyHorseCenter.org

Image Credits
Ellyn Elizabeth photography
Michael Magill photography