Dewey resident, devoted to horses and their use in therapy, wins horse competition.
She accepted and started training in Cave Creek, with trainers Deanna and Jim Searls, on a champion horse owned by Susan Johns. Lilly, a Quarter Horse, proved a winner on Aug. 12, skillfully guiding Vollrath to a first-place finish in Western Pleasure, an event designed to highlight a more relaxed style of riding, featuring walking and gentle jogging.
“The horse is to appear to be a ‘pleasure’ to ride, smooth-moving and very comfortable; that’s the idea behind Western Pleasure,” Vollrath explained. “That’s what it’s supposed to be like, not to get sore or tired. It’s not a bumpy horse and it’s not a fast horse. The slower you go, the better it is.”
Walking in an arena, the rider walks, jogs and reverses on command using leg aids and reins, she added. The quarter horse was fully up to the task at hand. “Boy, she was something else,” Vollrath said of Lilly, whose registered name is KM Flat Out the Best. “As soon as she saw that arena, she said, ‘I got this.’ She’s a grand champion. She knew exactly what she was doing.”
Vollrath received a belt buckle, trophy and a jacket. She also came away with some wonderful memories from Heroes on Horses.
“It was so much fun,” she said. “It’s so touching, all those people carrying American flags, and they play that song, ‘Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?’ That’s a tearjerker. They go all out to honor us veterans. I’m very proud to be a part of it.”
Vollrath, 70, is a veteran of the Marine Corps and served from 1971 to 1974, in the Carolinas and Washington, D.C., where she worked in data processing at the Library of Congress and in the POW/MIA section at Camp Henderson. Her devotion to horses goes back to her childhood.
“When I was a kid, I had a horse,” she recalled. “When I was 16, I gave up horse riding.”
A native of Minnesota, where she worked in the U.S. Postal Service as a mail carrier and then a manager, Vollrath retired in 2009 and moved to Dewey to benefit from the better weather and to be near two aunts in Apache Junction.
After joining a bowling league, she was asked to bowl in a fundraiser for Horses with Heart, a ranch in Chino Valley that uses horses as a therapeutic tool to help special needs individuals, veterans and first responders experience the healing power of a horse to gain confidence, increase independence and improve social skills, with the support of caring and credentialed instructors and dedicated volunteers.
She was delighted to be in the company of horses again and for five years has volunteered with Horses with Heart, focusing on the veterans program.
“After I retired, I was looking for something to do,” she said. “I looked at the Humane Society, but I was afraid I’d bring every dog and cat home. I knew I wouldn’t bring a horse home.”
Horses used in the program are middle aged, she noted. “They are mature, from about 9 to 25 years old and older. We need horses that do what we do, which is therapy. We can’t have a young horse because they’re too spirited. We kind of get retired horses.”
Vollrath said horses are very good therapy animals. “Some people are so afraid of horses because they’re so big. But they give me a lot of confidence and companionship. They give me a lot of love. They never bite the kids or kick anyone. They’re just wonderful, wonderful animals.”
Participants at Horses with Heart generally do not know how to ride, but the horses, which have been around for years, do know how to ride, Vollrath noted. QCBN
By Betsey Bruner, QCBN
Courtesy Photo: Kristie Vollrath, a volunteer with Horses with Heart, took home first place in the Western Pleasure category of the Heroes on Horses world championship event. The 70-year-old Marine Corps veteran is considering participating in a Scottsdale competition in March.
