50 SIDELINES DECEMBER 2012
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
Horses Healing Hearts: (left to right) Alicia Windsor,
Board Member and volunteer; Karina Brez, Honorary
Chairperson and HHH Ambassador; rider Samantha
Wills; Liz Olszewski, HHH Director and Founder; and Phil
Diaz, Chairman, Board of Directors.
All photos by Kendall Bierer
Kelsey Zallo
and Dylan
Armus
eagerly
anticipate
their turn to
ride.
Volunteer
Bridget Cremin
helps Kelsey
Zallo get ready
to ride.
our kids refuse to see the negative in life,” Liz continued. “Given
what they’ve been through, you’d think they’d be very broken, but
with many, it’s just the opposite; they are fghters, resilient beyond
measure.”
HHH is also lucky to have Karina Brez, Miss Florida USA 2012,
andRandy Grimes, former lineman for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers,
as proud sponsors of the program. “I got involved with HHH after
a close friend of mine passed away from circumstances relating
to her estranged husband being on alcohol and drugs,” Karina
said. “A little girl was left behind. My friend and her daughter were
horse people, and they loved spending weekends together with
their horse. This inspired me to become active with HHH.”
Randy added, “I went through my own addiction and took
painkillers so I could be on the feld. I saw what it did to my family
and to my children. I’ve been sober for two and a half years and,
for once in my life, I am not causing the pain. I am a part of the
solution. I am excited to be involved with such great people, and
young people are my passion.”
Theses two high-profle sponsors are great mentors for the kids,
but that’s not enough. HHH needs more. “Our goal is to one day
have our own place,” Liz said. She dreams of having a space for
the kids to hang their artwork and show ribbons and a place they
can call their own. “It comes down to privacy. The current sponsor
barns have really gone out of their way for us; but the kids realize
they are guests and know it is not their own.”
She says the children need consistency in their lives and she
doesn’t want to let them down.
“We’ll get there. It’s like I tell the
kids, anything worth having is
worth working for.”
To learn more about Horses
Healing Hearts or how you
can help with donations
of money or time, log onto
horsesheal ingheartsusa.org,
email Liz Olszewski at liz@
horseshealingheartsusa.org or
call (561) 713-6133.
About the writer: Sue Weakley is
a dressage enthusiast who works in
equine-related PR for Phelps Media
Group of Wellington, Florida. She is
an avowed Iberian horse fanatic and
travels to Portugal to train in classical
dressage on Lusitano schoolmasters as
often as she can -- much to her Lusitano,
Universo’s, delight and dismay.