Profile information
Host rating
80 %
Last replied
19 Apr 2025
Reply rate
68.0 %
Usually responds within 2 days
Feedback
8
Email verified
Badges (3)
Details
Description
Our Training & Rehabilitation Coalition is a 501(c)3 non-profit home for horses at the end of the line. They are either old, injured, abused or corrupt. Here they receive love, medical and nutritional care, retraining to a new job and purpose; a dialogue so people can communicate with them, and relationship with people they can trust so the horses can thrive and have a meaningful life. We have found that the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a person, however, for as much as we help th em, we always seem to be the ones who benefit most from these amazing horses! We also incorporate Nature and Arts/Crafts into our work here. It is lots of work, but we feel it's well rewarded!
Types of help and learning opportunities
Charity Work
Art Projects
Help with Eco Projects
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
Farmstay help
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
General Maintenance
Help with Computers/ Internet
UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
We have a DIVERSE community of volunteers, animals, landscapes (Rivers, Lakes, Waterfalls, Mountains, High Desert, more extreme Desert,Forests, diverse Agriculture and Ocean coastlines; Sand dunes, and outdoor recreation). Our area is rich in small communities with restaurants, entertainment and West Coast culture. The Portland metro area is large, with arts, museums, interesting architecture, entertainment, sports, recreation, shopping options, and lovely landscapes offering outdoor and indoor recreation. We try to offer opportunities to explore for those without their own transportation as public transportation exists, but takes time and is limited compared to most of Europe. Busses in our nearest town, Wilsonville (2 miles away) are FREE, offering a library, grocery stores, multi-cultural restaurants (many American options, Mexican, Thai, Moroccan and Chinese), in addition to deli, fast food, ice cream, take-out, sit-down and indoor/outdoor options. There are diverse small surrounding communities and services as well, offering indoor/outdoor shopping malls, Factory Outlet stores, movie theaters, Saturday farmers markets, fairs, trade shows, entertainers, etc. Our property has a large, inclusive, friendly family feel to it which centers around the volunteers, staff, and animals, forestland and garden care here. It is a true sanctuary, quiet and unique, set apart from everything else.
Help
Since this is a non-profit Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries-Accredited "forever home" for senior therapy horses, Art, Nature and Gardens, most of the work here accomplished by committed volunteers, and involves mucking (cleaning up and dumping manure) from pastures, stalls and turnouts; replacing bedding; checking/cleaning/refilling water troughs; sweeping barns; dusting in barns, helping prepare bins of grain and supplements for each horse; feeding/stacking hay, helping water the arena and maintain it's footing and edges by cleaning/raking its footing; and grooming, moving and working/riding/driving horses (BASED ON EXPERIENCE ONLY). We do mostly groundwork; natural horsemanship; English, Western, Trail, and Combined Driving, to keep the horses conditioned and motivated to provide their services to humans who need them for emotional healing. Some coaching is provided for safety, but we are not a lesson or a boarding facility. Here, the horses come first! We have VERY SPECIFIC protocols in handling them, that we teach if/as needed to anyone approved to handle them. But there is lots to do here without working directly with horses. We have walking/riding trails and pastures to maintain. We have many little buildings vs. one big one, and garden, nature and art areas to also care for (flowers/vegetables/fruit/herbs, a greenhouse, small nut and apple/cherry/plum orchard, with all our produce available to everyone in season; a small pond, huge trees, trails through them, and an art studio. We encourage music and have a big Fall cider pressing event for volunteers and friends. It can rain a lot and sometimes snow in Winter, and we usually have rain showers in Fall & Spring but also GORGEOUS sunny days throughout the year. It's very GREEN, still considered a mild climate, but with Global Warming is experiencing more extremes than it used to.
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
German: Beginner
Accommodation
We have a spacious, very private (under cover), 26' "Toyhauler" trailer with a common cooking, dining, sleeping (1 very comfortable Queen upper "bunk", a Twin fold-out couch & storage area; and a private vanity sink, shower, and bedroom, a Full bed with privacy curtain & "pocket" door) areas. It has heat and A/C, runs on electric & gas power. SEWAGE IS NOT HOOKED UP, so a professionally serviced (clean) Porta Potty is provided outside 30 ft. away. We sometimes have a room in our home available with its own outside door, a Queen bed, and a small nearby bathroom and separate full (sometimes shared) bathroom for showering, in a downstairs TV room. Laundry appliances are available. Kitchen is shared. Everything MUST be kept clean. Groceries are provided (you choose your own, we buy). Workawayers prepare their own daily food and we occasionally provide meals for everyone. Internet is available in the nearby arts studio, which has another common kitchen area and a comfortable shared but fairly quiet, private, lounging/internet/office area.
What else ...
The Willamette Valley in Oregon is lush and agriculturally prolific, centrally located to the international airport (about 45 minutes away) in Portland, Oregon's largest city, and home of many beautiful State Parks and National Forests, including several mountain ranges featuring Mt. Hood (11,200+ ft.), a Cascade Mt. peak; Mt. St. Helens, an active volcano in nearby Washington state, that erupted in the 1980s and is now a National Park; and Crater Lake National Park, in southern Oregon; the Blue, Ochoco, Steens, Coast and southern range of mountains are all surrounded by tremendously varied agriculture including Christmas trees and seed grasses, fruit/nut orchards, vegetables, mint, corn, onions, potatoes, beans, many berries, flower bulbs, lawn grass, landscape nurseries, etc.. We are just 1-1/2 hrs. from the spectacularly rugged Oregon coastline; the Columbia River Gorge (gateway to Eastern Oregon and the famous wind surfing, the Pendleton rodeo & old Western mining and ghost towns). Central Oregon offers high desert (4000 ft. altitude) and many more Cascade volcanic mountains by highways with hundreds of clear lakes, rivers and streams. There are many unique museums featuring the area's Native American history and the geology of this volcanic area with craters, caves, lava, and obsidian flows. Southern Oregon features more volcanoes, orchards and the Shakespeare Festival. Oregon is famous for its endless recreation: fishing (ocean or fresh water); world class golf courses, brew pubs, skiing/snow shoeing/snowboarding/snomobiling, mountain biking, sailboarding, hiking, mountain and road biking; camping, whitewater river rafting, kayaking, waterskiing, horseback riding, exciting cuisine, and more! It rains a lot in winter in the Willamette Valley, with lovely Fall, Spring and Summer seasons that offer a variety of climates and conditions. Central Oregon is drier, and Eastern Oregon the most dry. It is a huge state. Public transportation is not always available, or easy to find/use, as there are vast expanses between cities in some areas. There are lots of museums, art galleries, and music festivals and our town does have mass transit into Portland but no way to the station without a ride, though Wilsonville does have a Taxi service and if they are going that way, someone from here will try to drive you.
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Space for parking camper vans
We have 1 extra power/water source and a clean, serviced, porta potty (NO SEWAGE HOOK-UP AVAILABLE). A campervan could work, 20-26' or smaller, by prior agreement and detail confirmation.
How many Workawayers can stay?
More than two
Feedback (5)
I stayed with Bonnie and Walt for two weeks in Wilsonville.
I stayed in a fully equipped RV on the property which gave me a lot of privacy and quiet. Though I wasn’t in the house with them and cooked my own food, I didn’t feel excluded at all and had time to get to… read more
I stayed here for a little more than a month, when I only planned to stay for a couple of weeks.
They allowed me to experience it all : I learnt a great deal about natural horsemanship and… read more
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(5.0)
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(5.0)
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(5.0)
I stayed with Bonnie and Walt for two weeks in Wilsonville.
I stayed in a fully equipped RV on the property which gave me a lot of privacy and quiet. Though I wasn’t in the house with them and cooked my own food, I didn’t feel excluded at all and had time to get to… read more
I stayed here for a little more than a month, when I only planned to stay for a couple of weeks.
They allowed me to experience it all : I learnt a great deal about natural horsemanship and… read more
There was a lot to do, and fortunately a lot of great organization and systems set… read more
