In May, Nancy Pitchford-Zhe of Blue Star Ranch, an equine therapy nonprofit that helps veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, found out the Placerita Canyon property she leased was being sold.
The fate of the community resource, which for years has helped veterans battling “the invisible wounds of war,” was in jeopardy.
She briefly contemplated retirement, she said, but soon realized that’s not something she’s ready for — and then just as quickly, a longtime friend reached out.
Linda Luger of Jump for Joy, an 8-acre equestrian property that offers riding lessons on San Francisquito Canyon Road, had a student who told her of Zhe’s dilemma.
“One of my volunteers was taking lessons from Linda,” Zhe said Wednesday at the property, telling the story with Luger, near one of Jump for Joy’s riding arenas.
“And she knew that Nancy was having to relocate, and she put us back together,” Luger said, finishing the connection.
Luger and Pitchford-Zhe have known each other “since the ’90s,” they said, sharing their connections from the equestrian community, which is both tight-knit and long-established in the Santa Clarita Valley.
Pitchford-Zhe previously offered equine therapy to special needs children, but then in 2014, she connected with Habitat for Humanity through a local veteran housing community being built in the SCV and realized the needs veterans are facing.
“We put a veteran through a program for 10 weeks. It’s an hour a week for 10 weeks, it’s one-on-one with the whole therapy herd,” she said, adding it’s an all-volunteer effort, regarding horse and stable care, but the therapists are paid for their work.
Upon completion of the course, the veterans receive a certificate and a donated quilt, which recognizes their military service.
More importantly, Pitchford-Zhe said, the program’s participants report a 30% to 50% reduction in how they experience their PTSD symptoms, which helps veterans whose service dates back to the Vietnam War, she said.
Blue Star Ranch plans to be moved into its new facility by the end of the month, Pitchford-Zhe said.
Blue Star Ranch will be located at 28440 San Francisquito Canyon Road.
