I'm a father of three great kids - Jordan, Amanda and Breanna. I'm a 'dad' to four cats, a dog, and 17 horses and husband to a trainer of all of us. I've loved animals all my life, having raised hamsters, birds, dogs and cats from a young age. My life changed 5 years ago when I stopped saying,  "Someday I want to ride a horse..." to a realization that if I don't stop saying and start doing, that it was time to stop saying it. A business colleague owned horses and agreed to take me for a ride that would've tested a seasoned rider - and somehow I stayed on and enjoyed that first harrowing ride. Turned out I was a natural in the saddle. I couldn't get enough riding time - I went from begging to go riding on friend's horses, to leasing a horse - which still didn't give me enough time in the saddle  - to buying my first horse, a Tennessee Walker named Rain. As it turned out, in that search for my first horse I ended up meeting the person I would eventually marry - Kathi Davis - thus my first horse came with a trainer! She lived several hours away and I had emailed her about some horses she had for sale at the time that I had found online. While her horses weren't right for my level of experience at that time, she pointed me in the direction of my first dream horse - Rain, which I snapped up within a couple of days of seeing her. Kathi sent me a "congratulations new daddy" e-card and we emailed a bit before it trailed off. Our next contact would be when that same friend that had taken me riding volunteered me at a meeting I wasn't at to be the Chairman of the Public Relations Committee of the Minnesota Walking Horse Association. I had officially owned my horse two months. Kathi found out and emailed me a congratulations on being named chair of a non-existent committee. I emailed her back and welcomed her as the committee's first volunteer. From there we got to know each other, she moved up north, I moved my horse to the farm she was renting at the time and eventually we found and bought a house and land that would come to be known as Raindance. Over that time period our herd continued to grow, as did the number of cats and dogs in our family. Our horses sold by Kathi's reputation in the field, and training and lessons came in by word-of-mouth referrals. And horses found, and continue to find us. Currently on our farm are 4 rescue horses, a fifth is buried in the pasture in back - a 32 year old Tennessee Walker named Merry Merry. Another that we adopted was a horse abandoned that we gave to our barn helper.

And then came a little 9 month old colt we would come to know as WindChill. Windchill changed our lives. His story you more than likely already know if you're reading this. Windchill's faith in us and amazing resilience are something that indelibly changed my outlook on life. The problems that trouble us all on a day to day basis suddenly didn't seem to big anymore. They still don't. Windchill believed - he believed he could live, he believed he could stand and he believed he could walk again. He believed in us. He had a faith that made his eyes gleam. He made more of a 1% chance to live than any of us could ever have imagined. In return he taught us all to hope and to believe.

I'm part of this non-profit organization because of how he touched my life and heart. Ultimately Windchill died because of the damage caused by the starvation and neglect,  but he lived as long as he did because of his commitment to fight to live. I'm committed to carrying on that fight and turn the pain of his loss, and the beauty of his memory,  into changing the attitudes that let it happen and the laws that allow such attitudes to go unpunished.

On a professional basis (the day job that supports my nights and weekends job) I'm the CEO of a healthcare network, and executive director of a charitable foundation affiliated with the network. I volunteer with several area non-profits and serve on the board of directors of a number of community organizations. While all are important to me - WindChill's Legacy is personal. Those that live in wanton disregard for other living being's health and spirit,  and destroy those things through abuse and neglect should be afraid. Be very afraid. We're coming. And we're bringing the herd who heard that first cry in the wind with us.

Oh yeah, one final note...and finally, this year, we got married. Thanks for teaching us the important things in life Windchill. You will never be forgotten.