We recently connected with Karina Redweik and have shared our conversation below.

Karina, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

The love and passion for horses “started at a Jiffy Lube,” as Keith Bonham, our Vice President, likes to say. While getting his oil changed, he started chatting with a gentlemen who told him how great horsemanship has helped veterans. It took one interaction with a horse for Keith and Karina to fall in love. The new goal was to become horse owners.

About a year later, Keith and Karina had decided to move. It came time to decide if they were ready to own horses. Ultimately, the answer was yes. They adopted the two horses that they bonded with the most and gave them a new home.

While Karina was finishing her Bachelor’s of Science of Organizational Leadership, she took a class in Nonprofit Management. The content and criteria for the class inspired Karina and Keith to look into starting their own nonprofit.

Karina, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Horse’s Valhalla is proud to be a community outreach, nonprofit organization, located in Clearfield, Utah.

Our mission is to use the unique stories of each of our horses to provide opportunities to the community to grow within themselves, their families, and each other.

To accomplish our mission we offer opportunities for:
– Volunteering, which primarily involves caring for the horses
– Equine Assisted Therapy
– Horseback Riding Lessons
– Education in Horsemanship
– Group Activities

Additionally, the horses utilized to fulfill our programs have been rescued from a variety of situations and backgrounds.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

In the small business world, it is commonly said that the first few years hard the hardest. For a nonprofit organization, there are additional challenges to overcome as well.

Funding is always a struggle, and for new nonprofits, it requires creativity.

Outside of the monetary challenges, the biggest demonstration of our resilience would be the survival through this past winter. This winter threw a lot of curve balls, and there were many days that we all felt like we were barely limping along.

The snow and mud made it difficult to provide basic care for the horses. Besides being cold and having difficulties navigating through the property due to snow and mud, we also struggled with supporting programs that do bring in funding, as well as the added challenge of having two underweight horses come to us at the beginning of winter.

The veterinarian “wished us luck” with the two emaciated horses. We were told it would be a struggle and that it would be unlikely to see weight gain even through aggressive feeding due to the fact that the horses will primarily be using their caloric intake as a source of heat. Both horses pulled through the winter AND steadily gained weight. This is all thanks to our volunteers being passionate about the horses, being creative in accomplishing tasks, and remaining hopeful and optimistic.

We did make the decision to pause our programs through the winter for safety purposes. Although this was a difficult decision, it allowed us to further develop out ideas and practices that will lead into a stronger organization.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

The idea of “unlearning” something is interesting, and I think its an important element for growth. In business, it is necessary to be aware of your competitors and the things they are doing that can advance their business above yours. This is a complicated idea when looking at nonprofits organizations though.

We have had to alter, or rather unlearn, the idea of competition. There are several organizations in the area who rescue horses, provide volunteer opportunities, etc. Instead of focusing on how to “get a head” or “do better” than these other organizations, we have decided to pour our energy into the bigger picture.

We define the bigger picture as “opportunities.” We are providing a variety of opportunities for both people and horses. As a nonprofit, the focus should not be on the organization, but rather those who are benefiting from services. For us, as long as the people and the horses are getting what they need, that is a win! Whether this is accomplished through us or another nonprofit. Here at Horse’s Valhalla, we strive to fulfill the needs of as many as we can in our unique way, and we are rooting for our fellow nonprofits to also be successful.

This change of mindset has helped us grow connections with fellow nonprofits. These connections have allowed us to create incredible joint events that have been highly successful.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.horsesvalhallainc.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/horsesvalhalla/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Horses-Valhalla-107531691826419