Nancie, did you grow up with horses? No, I have always loved them and as a young girl I was fortunate to have the opportunities to go to Pantano Stables with my girlfriends for fun trail rides. But I grew up in the city and the city life I led. After I married and had children we were able to find some property out in Vail, AZ. My daughter wanted a horse. After a few years my little girl grew up and learned to drive and found boys. I was left with the horse which is where all this began. I learned to drive a team of big grey Percherons. After that I was hooked. I fell in love with driving and the draft horse breed. I decided to start a carriage company of my own. In 1997 I purchased a Clydesdale from Anheuser-Busch. Lenny was 5 years old. He was as kind and gentle as he was strong. He pulled the carriage that my husband built for many weddings and pulled our wagon in many of the Tucson Rodeo and Marana Parades. Lenny was truly a “Gentle Giant.”
My girlfriend had lost her teen daughter a few years earlier to cancer. She told me how they lived in the hospitals sometimes weeks, months, and then there was the year with multiple surgeries and chemotherapy treatments. She shared how much of a horse lover her daughter was and if a horse had come to visit her in the hospital while she was there it would of given her some normalcy to her days, a better quality of life and a lot of happy memories for her family to look back on. With that information in mind I called the childlife specialists at both TMC Pediatrics and UMC Pediatrics and told them what I had to offer. They welcomed us with open arms. They knew how animals enrich the lives of others. So in 1998 I began with one saddle, one ladder and one very loving 2000 lb Clydesdale horse named Lenny. (hence his horseshoe in the logo)
Over the years my journey has been amazing. The little and big miracles I have witnessed. My herd has grown to help fit the need of the visits that we make and the visits have grown because of the need. I formed a Non Profit in 2005 because all of my profits brought in from the weddings went back into the gas tank to Travel the Miles to bring Smiles. Over the years I have been blessed with the help of lot of volunteers who are angels in themselves. Supporting the mission of Step Up Into T.L.C. and sharing my horses. Sometimes it’s the simple things in life that make a difference!