Alisa Beery
Finance Manager
My story begins with a neighbor friend whose son has been a rider with We Can Ride for several years. Our families have become really close through the years, and it's been just amazing watching her son learn and grow and become more social. After discovering my interest in horses, she suggested that I volunteer with We Can Ride. My son Mitchel signed up with me and we began volunteering in the spring of 2003. I am so thankful he and I were able to share such a wonderful experience. In January 2005 I was blessed with an amazing gift in the form of a horse, my first, named Packman. Mitchel and I had worked with him prior to his retirement from the We Can Ride program. During the spring of 2005, I had been working for a private school for almost 13 years. I held several positions during my time there, with the most recent being in accounting. It was a great place to learn and grow, but I felt ready for a change. So, when the opportunity to work for We Can Ride arose, I couldn't imagine a more appealing job. I knew this was where I was meant to be!

Stephanie Bowman
NARHA Registered Instructor and Minnetonka Barn Manager
I began with We Can Ride as a volunteer in the summer of 2004. I am originally from Colorado where I received a B.S. in Equine Science from Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Once I started to volunteer, I realized that therapeutic riding was something I was very interested in. When the job opened up for the Barn Manager in Minnetonka I knew that was the job I wanted. I have worked with several breeds of horses, showing and training them, and figured out that managing a barn was where I wanted to be in the horse industry. In 2006 I became a NARHA Registered Instructor and enjoy teaching very much. I am excited to watch the new changes coming to We Can Ride in the future and am looking forward to being a part of that.

Andrea Dahl
NARHA Registered Instructor and Client Coordinator
Like many little girls, I loved horses from the beginning. I drew them with crayons on church programs or on scrap paper my dad brought home from work. I wrote stories about them, daydreamed about them, and eventually was lucky enough to get to learn to ride them! The serious business of education and being a teenager eventually swept me into the world of sports, books, and art—but in 2006 I landed a job as a wrangler on a cattle ranch in Steamboat Springs, CO. Suddenly, horses were back in my life, and I loved every second of it. After graduating from Carleton College in 2007 with my B.A. in Narrative Art, I found We Can Ride and began volunteering with Patti Franz at Woodpecker Woods. I was hooked. Lucky enough to find my way into the office, I started as the fundraising coordinator, eventually finding my way to the client coordinator desk. I’m also a certified instructor who loves nothing more than interacting with clients, volunteers, families, and horses! This place has made my dreams come true, and I love to help keep the mission going strong every day.

Brad Thorsen
Executive Director

Rachel Roushey
NARHA Registered Instructor / U of MN Barn Manager
Like many of the staff and instructors here at We Can Ride, I too grewup loving horses and wanting to one day use horses to change people'slives. So, I attended Houghton College where I earned a B.S. degreein Equestrian Studies and Therapeutic Recreation. After a summerinternship at EquiCenter, a therapeutic riding barn in Honeoye Falls,NY, I was hooked. After my internship was complete I continued todrive an hour once a week to teach and learn. I moved to MN thesummer of 2008 with my husband, Phil, and worked at a long term carefacility as a Therapeutic Recreation Specialist (TRS). I was hired asthe Barn Manager for the U of M site fall of 2009. I grew up showingponies in the hunter/jumper world; since then I have worked with andtrained thoroughbreds off the track, connemara ponies from Ireland,taught summer riding camp, community lessons and helped my parentscreate a perfect home for their two trail horses, two miniature horsesand first show pony, Penny, who is now enjoying her retirement attheir farm in Upstate New York. I hope to use everything I havelearned so far in helping each horse here at the U reach their fullpotential so that they can change the lives of everyone they meet!