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InNovember, riders at Cash Lovell Stables & Riding Academy in Winston-Salem, NC, returned from the National Academy Finals Horse Show near Nashville, TN, where they surprised the equestrian world by donating an unprecedented $10,000 to the show’s charity, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.

“Our riders have worked all year for  his horse show. But they didn’t just work to perfect their riding skills. They worked for something bigger than themselves,” said Parker Lovell, an owner of Cash Lovell Stables, which recently opened a second riding academy in Oak Ridge. “These riders dedicated their rides at the National Finals to something bigger than themselves. They rode for the children at St. Jude’s who are suffering from cancer. They rode for the children who might not live to see their own dreams fulfilled. When we say that, ‘Horses Raise Great  Kids,’ this is what we mean.”

And teaching life skills through horses has been the mantra at Cash Lovell Stables & Riding Academy for three generations. “This is about so much  more than learning to ride a horse,” says Parker Lovell. “We want to channel our rider’s love for a horse into something bigger. We want to use these children’s love of a horse to teach them about the broader world. God sends some children into this world with what I call the ‘horse gene.’ And when they are born with this, it’s like a heat-seeking  missile. This child WILL end up in a barn.”

Read more on page 74 in the January 2011 Issue