Dark Horse Inclusion

08/28/2026

🚨 VOLUNTEERS NEEDED! 🚨

We are looking for some extra hands to help with the construction of our indoor arena! 🐴🔨

If you know how to use tools, that is definitely a BONUS!! But we also need people who are willing to help with the heavy lifting, carrying, moving things, holding things in place, cleanup, and all the other jobs that come along with construction. 💪😂

You don’t have to be a construction expert…. We just need people willing to show up, work hard, and help us get this indoor finished!

If you’re willing to help, please message our page with your NAME and PHONE NUMBER so we can start putting together a list of volunteers to contact when we have work days.

Every extra set of hands gets us one step closer to getting this indoor DONE and giving our riders and horses a place to work year-round. 💜🐴

As always, THANK YOU to everyone who continues to show up for Dark Horse Inclusion. We truly couldn’t do this without our barn family!!

08/24/2026

The Horses Behind Dark Horse Inclusion — Meet Abby!

Abby is our beautiful American Quarter Horse mare and one of those horses who definitely knows her job. She’s 20 years old and has plenty of experience under her belt.

Abby is one of our more advanced horses. She’s smart, experienced, and definitely has her own personality. She’s also our flag-carrying girl! Kymber rides Abby with the American flag, and the two of them make quite the team.

Like every horse at Dark Horse Inclusion, Abby has an important place in our herd. Some horses teach confidence, some teach patience, and some make their riders work a little harder to become better horsemen. Abby does a little bit of all three. She is also one of our horses that help our super special riders.

She’s another one of the special horses behind the mission of Dark Horse Inclusion — helping our riders learn, grow, and realize just how much they’re capable of.

08/24/2026

Sometimes when the rain won’t stop, we just have to have some fun 🤣😂

08/20/2026

The Horses Behind Dark Horse Inclusion: Meet Gunner

Gunner is a 17-year-old AQHA Appendix Red Dun, and he is so much more than just one of our lesson horses. Gunner was the driving force behind Dark Horse Inclusion.

Gunner came to Lindsay in 2020 as a rehab project. Everybody said he would never amount to anything… but Lindsay could see something different. She could see the drive in his eyes and knew he deserved a chance.

Gunner is the original Dark Horse…. He was the underdog. The horse everyone counted out. The horse people said would never be anything… and yet, he prevailed.

Today, Gunner does an absolutely amazing job working with some of our most special students. It’s almost like he knows exactly who needs him and exactly what they need from him. ❤️

And really, Gunner represents the entire mission behind Dark Horse Inclusion…

Sometimes the ones everyone else counts out just need one person willing to believe in them…. That was Gunner. ❤️

He isn’t just one of the horses behind Dark Horse Inclusion… he’s the reason it all began. 🐴

08/19/2026

After we lost Dan, we created the Dan Horlander Ride Without Limits Memorial Scholarship Fund in his memory. ❤️

Please help share so we can get the word out.

Dan believed so much in what we do at Dark Horse Inclusion and in making sure every kid has the opportunity to ride, regardless of their circumstances.

This fund will help us continue doing exactly that…. giving children and individuals with disabilities the opportunity to participate in our programs when finances might otherwise stand in the way.

By Dark Horse Inclusion

08/18/2026

Today one of our students brought some very special friends to the barn to visit the horses…. ELVES! ❤️

And apparently these elves have excellent barn manners because they behaved so beautifully that they each even got to ride! 🐴🎄

Just another totally normal day at Dark Horse Inclusion….

08/17/2026

In the last month, we have gained a tremendous amount of new followers here at Dark Horse Inclusion. ❤️

Most of you probably found us because of the reel of my husband Dan’s memorial procession… his final ride home to our barn in a horse-drawn hearse.

I never in a million years expected that video to go viral. But somehow, in the middle of the hardest time of our lives, that reel has brought lots of new people into our little corner of the world.

So I thought it was probably time to introduce ourselves and tell you the story behind Dark Horse Inclusion.

Dark Horse Inclusion started in October of 2023 with a pretty simple idea… every kid deserves a place where they belong.

We are a nonprofit inclusive equestrian center in Lebanon, Ohio, working with kids, teens and adults of all abilities. A huge part of what we do is working with riders with disabilities, IEPs, 504 plans and other needs that sometimes make it harder to find a place where they truly fit.

And here… they fit.

We use horses to teach way more than riding. We work on confidence, independence, communication, emotional regulation, responsibility and sometimes simply having a place where a kid can come exactly as they are.

And Dark Horse was never just my dream.

It was ours.

Dan was the guy behind the scenes making all of my crazy ideas actually work. 😂 I would come up with something and he would figure out how to build it, fix it, haul it, wire it or somehow make it happen.

He was our Treasurer, our maintenance man, our fixer of absolutely everything and, most importantly, our Barn Dad.

On July 12, we unexpectedly lost Dan in his sleep.

Our entire world changed that morning.

When it came time to say goodbye, there really wasn't anywhere else that made sense. So Dan came home to the barn one last time… behind horses, down the driveway he had driven a million times, surrounded by the people and the place he loved.

That is the video that brought so many of you here.

But I hope you'll stay for everything that video represents.

Stay for the kids who accomplish something everyone told them they couldn't.

Stay for the horses who somehow know exactly what their person needs.

Stay for the funny barn stories, the chaos, the tears, the victories and probably a few broken tractors. 😂

Stay and watch us figure out how to keep building the dream Dan and I started together.

Because Dark Horse Inclusion isn't just a barn.

It's a family.

And apparently… our family just got a whole lot bigger. ❤️

08/06/2026

Here are the two links everyone has been asking for lately. ❤️

🐴 The Dan Horlander Ride Without Limits Memorial Scholarship Fund

This fund helps make sure kids can continue riding, regardless of their financial situation, while honoring Dan’s legacy of making horses accessible to everyone.

https://givebutter.com/dan-horlander-ride-without-limits-scholarship-fund-qwvia1

🤝 Volunteer Sign-Up

We’re building a list of volunteers who are willing to help around the barn. As needs come up, we’ll start rotating through this list for feeder shifts, stalls, hay bags, barn chores, events, and whatever else needs done behind the scenes to keep Dark Horse Inclusion running.

If you’d like to be part of our barn family and lend a hand, we’d love to have you.

https://forms.gle/UTCQfpgzszXXyshQ9

Thank you all for continuing to support Dark Horse Inclusion and helping us carry on Dan’s legacy. We truly couldn’t do it without you. ❤️

Thank you for your interest in volunteering with Dark Horse Inclusion! Our volunteers are an important part of our mission, and we couldn’t do what we do without you. Please complete the form below so we can find the best volunteer opportunities for you.

08/02/2026

Want to help support Dark Horse Inclusion? Here’s how: 💜

🐴 Volunteer at the barn!
We’re always looking for extra hands to help with feeder shifts, cleaning stalls, making hay bags, basic barn maintenance, and all the behind-the-scenes jobs that keep the barn running.

If you’d like to volunteer, please fill out the form below and Sarah, our Barn Manager, will get in touch with you.

https://forms.gle/UTCQfpgzszXXyshQ9

💜 Donate to the Dan Horlander Ride Without Limits Scholarship Fund.

https://givebutter.com/dan-horlander-ride-without-limits-scholarship-fund-qwvia1

This scholarship fund helps ensure that finances never stand in the way of a child or adult being able to experience everything horses have to offer. Every one-time gift or monthly donation helps us continue the mission Dan believed in so deeply.

07/31/2026

Thank you so much 7 Wonders Farm for the beautiful flowers to decorate the carriage horse for Dan’s Memorial and Skylar Watkins for the amazing photos.