A World of Color

Full of Grace Farm, in Hadley, Mass. offers a multitude of services. The horses at the farm are all either, adopted, or bought from auction or before they would be put to slaughter. They all have different issues, while some ailments are purely physical others have emotional baggage from the abuse they endured before coming to Full of Grace. The founders of the farm, Joanne Huff and Laura Litterer, work together to help the horses heal, as well as offering therapy for people using the horses as a guide. While therapy for people is one thing that the farm is known for, they also have recently begun using Equine Raindrop Therapy, where they apply different essential oils to the horses in order to help calm them and heal some of their physical ailments.

The barn also has volunteers who clean stalls and horses in exchange for rides. There are also camps during the summer and school breaks. 

Litterer said, “Horses are full of grace, horses just being there, just running or being there is a moment of grace.”

Caitlin McGoldrick, a senior at UMass Amherst, studied abroad in Limerick, Ireland during the spring of 2011. While in Ireland she met Gary Fannon, an Irishman, and fell in love. The two have been in a relationship for a year. During the final semester of her collegiate career she is juggling her relationship, her studies, making decisions about her future, and volunteering at a local barn.