Episode 11: What's Right In Business? - With Joyce Gardner

⭐This week on Equine Connection’s “What’s Right?” Series!⭐

 

Boozhoo!!!

 

Have you ever wondered; 

👉“How do we try something new in the horse world?” 

👉“Can a family business stay alive in today's world?” 

 

🤩Today we chat with the beautiful and inspiring Joyce Gardner!

 

Joyce grew up just outside of Dryden, ON. For those of you who don’t know where that is, it is between Thunder Bay, ON and Winnipeg, MB. Growing up on a small family farm they always had animals around, horses being one of them.

 

As Joyce grew older, she grew out of the horse phase and went onto other things, later to have her daughter get her back into the horse world. For a long time, she had a dream of her daughters and her having some kind of business to help individuals in the area that needed it. 

 

She was sitting on the couch one night on Facebook, as one does, and ads for Equine Connection kept popping up and she was hooked. Joyce did some research into equine assisted learning and decided to take the leap of trying something new.

 

8 years ago, after countless hours on the road between Dryden and eagle river, where the beginning of our herd lived, she purchased an old store and transformed it into a working ranch.  

 

They have 136 acres, 8 teachers from 7 to 27 years of age, 2 dogs and 2 cats.  Joyce and her family are big on upcycling where possible so they moved and refurbished the old garage into a classroom, pounded some posts and peeled some trees for boards for the ring (they have since put up 2x6 boards) and they can now say they look like a true business.

 

Joyce worked with not for profit organizations over the last 25 plus years, which can be very stressful! Working with horses became her mental health outlet and doing it with her family was even more rewarding. Joyce’s oldest daughter is also a facilitator and together they are striving to get the message out about the power of working with horses.