Magical Meadows started with a kid and a horse in Tammy Stackhouse’s driveway 10 years ago.

Since then, the therapeutic horseback riding center at 3386 E. CR 525N, Warsaw, has expanded to 16 horses on 43 acres and serves hundreds of special needs and veteran riders.

“In 2007 is when I started with Corey (Hilgenberg), the rider, and Magic, the horse, in my driveway,” Stackhouse said while giving a tour of the facilities.

Executive Director Carl Adams said Hilgenberg was a rider on Stackhouse’s bus. His mother was looking for therapy for him and she asked Stackhouse if she ever considered offering it with her horse.

After doing some research on her own, Stackhouse began Magical Meadows on her property.



Foundations Of Growth

When someone enters the front door of Magical Meadows from the parking lot, they step into the activity center. That’s where classes for the riders are held and activities are done. Offices are to the left of the activity center.

Past those rooms, a door leads to a barn for indoor riding during the winter or poor weather. The barn floor is dirt, and in one corner is a ramp used for children to get onto the horses.



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“Typically, kids like to ride outside. If we didn’t have the barn, we would have to close at winter,” Stackhouse said.

In 2011, the Dr. Dane and Mary Louise Miller Foundation provided a matching grant for the Magical Meadows building campaign. With the dollars raised, Magical Meadows was able to buy  seven acres. In 2012, Magical Meadows relocated from Stackhouse’s property to property on CR 525N and also reorganized.

Six people serve on its board of directors. Adams is the board chair, and the other board members are Kathy Susaraba, Charlene Garber, Adam Reed, Barry Bylls and Michelle Hatfield.

In 2016-17, K21 Health Foundation matched every dollar that Magical Meadows was able to raise through the Field of Dreams Campaign, which allowed the group to purchase an additional 36 adjacent acres.

Adams said they now serve over 100 riders a week. Every school corporation in Kosciusko   County takes their special needs students and functioning skills classes to the riding center.

K21 President and CEO Rich Haddad said, “It is amazing what someone with passion for horses and a heart for people can produce. Magical Meadows is a unique offering in our community to help people of all abilities and needs with both physical and emotional therapies. Our hope is their reach will continue to grow, so that more people will both support their work and be impacted by their programs in the next 10 years.”

Suzie Light, Kosciusko County Community Foundation, said, “The programs offered by Magical Meadows are making a difference in the lives of children and adults.”

Constant Fundraising

Though there is a charge for the horseback riding therapy, raising money is a constant requirement for the nonprofit organization.

Adams said it’s been blessed with grants from the Franklin I. and Irene List Saemann Foundation, AWS?Foundation, K21 and Kosciusko County Community Foundation.

“And then we do the normal fundraisers throughout the year. We have to do that to keep it going. Then there’s the generous support of those who have helped us,” he said.

Hay Is For Horses

Of the 43 acres Magical Meadows occupies, 18 are a hay field.

“It will allow us to raise our own hay for horses, which will save us a substantial amount of money each year, which was the original reason for the purchase of the land, as well as for more trails,” Stackhouse said.

And with 16 horses – most of them donated to Magical Meadows – it takes a lot of hay to feed them.

Adams said it takes a round bale of hay a day to feed the horses. One round bale is equal to about 800 pounds. In a year, that costs anywhere from $20,000 to $40,000.

“And that’s just in hay, which is why the field back there is an important thing for us,” Adams said.

Military Veterans

While Magical Meadows is for the special needs community, it has started up a Warriors Mount Up program for American military veterans who may have post traumatic stress disorder, physical or emotional needs “so they have a place to come,” Adams said.

About a dozen veterans have taken advantage of the program.

“Warriors Mount Up is a slow process. We’ve been doing it for two years now. We’ve not been able to get a lot of help (in getting the word out) other than veterans themselves. It’s slow, but I think that’s how it will be,” Adams said.

“The mission is still the same, but it’s growing. The arms are going out into a lot of different ways.”

Class Sizes Vary

When a school takes their students out to Magical Meadows, there’s usually 10 to 15 students in the class, Adams said. Some of the students will have a snack and do an art project while four or five others are riding. Then they will switch.

Warsaw Community School Corporation Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert said WCS feels strongly about Magical Meadows.

“The first time I went out there, I saw the impact it had on the kids. I saw how the kids connected to the horses and the smiles on their faces. They call it Magical Meadows for a reason. It’s something they look forward to every time they get to go out there. As a school system, we can’t say enough positive about it,” Hoffert said.

He said WCS sends all of its functional skills and preschool functional skills students to the program. The school district also has started sending some of its other students out there who could benefit from the therapeutic horseback riding.

WCS Director of Special Services Amy Hobbs said Stackhouse and Magical Meadows provide students with therapeutic horseback riding who would not get that otherwise and they enjoy it a lot. She said about 45 students from WCS ride at Magical Meadows.

Adams said, “The majority of our classes are one hour long and are individuals. We may have two to three classes going on at a time, with Tammy providing the instruction and volunteers helping.”

In the class, students learn how to groom the horses, feed and ride them.

“That’s teaching them hand-eye coordination,”?he said. “Everything we do is incorporating some type of therapy. We want the children to ride to their ability.”

Some of the students are very independent, while others need a little extra help.

Magical Meadows does not have a licensed therapist. Stackhouse is certified through Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship (PATH) International, a federally registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. More information on PATH can be found online at www.pathintl.org.

The Future

Stackhouse receives a small stipend when the organization can afford to give her one, Adams said. Everyone else at Magical Meadows are volunteers.

“We hope some day that changes. She receives very little. We hope some day it will be fully staffed so we can be fully functional,” he said.

The kids depend on structure and being able to ride when they’re scheduled to, especially if they’re autistic, Adams said. But if there’s no paid staff, and volunteers aren’t available, that could cause a class to be canceled.

“The goal is to make sure this is a forever place,” Adams said. “In doing that, we still have the mortgage on our building, which is around $150,000. We want to purchase more land for trails and the hay fields. Those are short-range goals in the next three to five years that we want to accomplish.”

The No. 1 goal is making people aware of Magical Meadows, he said.

“We’re here and it’s not just a pony ride. It’s proven therapeutic help for these kids. The awareness factor has always been the struggle,” he said.

“We’re 10 minutes from Walmart, but it’s like we’re in the middle of nowhere some people think.”

He said there’s over 5,000 special needs children and adults in Kosciusko County, but Magical Meadows is not reaching all of them. “I’ve heard the numbers are similar for veterans.”

Magical Meadows’ website can be found at themagicalmeadows.org. Its Facebook page can be found by searching TheMagicalMeadows.