A wide smile stretched across Jodi Teal’s face and her eyes lit up as she talked with a student at HETRA. She was more than at home in the HETRA barn, talking and laughing with students and their parents. Her passion for both the HETRA students and the horses is what has kept her working the long days. Jodi Teal began her volunteer work at HETRA 17 years ago. HETRA, which stands for the Heartland Equine Therapeutic Riding Academy, is a non-profit organization located in Gretna, Nebraska. HETRA is a way of therapy for people with a variety of disabilities, such as cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, and more. “What we are doing is bringing the horses and letting the horses be apart of our therapeutic team” Teal said. Students at HETRA range anywhere from 2 to 92. They also serve military veterans as well.…show more content… Being a side walker meant that she was able to directly connect with the horses and the students. Life was getting busier and busier for Teal and she couldn’t quite keep up with both a full time job and volunteering for HETRA as well. “In 2010 I was working in the corporate world. I was trying to do fundraising and work with HETRA stuff on the side but it was just getting to be too much. So, I took a leap of faith and I quit my full time job and came to work here as their development director”, Teal
