During the course of her treatment, Marge not only derived courage and strength from the love and devotion of family and friends, but also from the deep and soulful connection she had to her Lipizzan stallion, Neapolitano IV Farica (Max).

I knew that Max was one of the reasons I just had to get well. Although I didn’t know it at the time, it was then that the seed for BraveHearts was sown.”

Fast forward to the year 1998. Marge is now considered a “statistical cure.” Outwardly, her life seemed to have resumed its normal day-to-day patterns. However, inwardly, she was plagued with the nagging question of “Why?” Why had she survived a disease to which all too many women succumb?

Max and Marge

She remained active with a cancer support group; counseled other cancer patients; helped plan and participated in “Celebration of Life” programs for cancer patients. Then, in the spring of 1999, during a conversation with dear friend and mentor, Jean Hentschel, Marge came to the realization that she would like to enable others who are in distress to feel the healing and strength she felt through her connection with her beloved Max.

The question then became the type of horse-related therapy that would be offered. Again, with Jean’s encouragement, Marge began volunteering at a therapeutic riding center. She was immediately impressed with the life-changing effect this type of therapy can have on individuals of all ages and with many different disabilities.

“I saw kids who were completely non-verbal begin to use words for the first time,” Marge explained. “Kids with autism became more focused and attentive. I watched people whose lives were spent looking up from a wheelchair develop a new sense of confidence and worth as they smiled down from the back of a horse. I marveled as people who started out with almost no core trunk strength improved so dramatically that they could actually post a trot with little or no help. And I also discovered the true reason that God had brought beautiful horses into my life, and had helped me survive a catastrophic illness. He had a plan, and that plan was BraveHearts.”

A little more than two years after starting as a volunteer and beginning her research, it was time to start moving forward. One of the most important aspects of the program, of course, was finding a suitable riding instructor. During her first few months as a volunteer, Marge met Suzanne Galdun. Suzanne stayed with the program during it’s first year as a certified therapeutic riding instructor. During the second full-year of the program, Brad Doweidt, also certified by the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association took over the position as Director of the BraveHearts riding program.

How do you find members to form a Board of Directors? The answer is that they find you. Or, rather, God assembles his troops! As an example, one night after work Marge came home to find a message on her answering machine. The caller was a young woman named Suzanne Egan who was in the market to purchase a Lipizzan under saddle. Somehow the conversation turned to the subject of therapeutic riding and BraveHearts. When Marge described the program, Suzanne literally gasped and shouted “Oh my God! I’m a freelance writer, and I’ve published an article about a therapeutic riding center. I would be so interested in being involved in this project.” Suzanne served as Secretary during her tenure on the Board.

The Board of Directors of BraveHearts was honored when nationally renowned Cardiologist, Dr. Rolf M. Gunnar graciously accepted the invitation to join the Board after visiting the riding program in October of 2004.

BraveHearts was incorporated in the State of Illinois in October of 2002. The paperwork to establish BraveHearts as a not-for-profit entity was approved by the Internal Revenue Service in April of 2004.

Without the benefit of owning property or horses, the Board decided to take “a leap of faith” and start the program at Mary and Ken Kenny’s Fantasy Friesian Farm in Harvard, IL. It was decided that suitable horses for the four initial students would be borrowed. The riding program began in the fall of 2003. And then, in October 2005, BraveHearts assumed ownership of that property.

“Obviously, the horses are key to the success of the program,” notes Marge. “It takes a very special individual to make a good therapeutics horse. They must be incredibly kind and patient, and some horses just don’t adapt well to the rigors of such a program. That’s why I became fascinated with the idea of incorporating two of the baroque breeds - Lipizzans and Friesians - into the program.