They say that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Well, not according to Anne Theriault, who stumbled upon the Ontario Equine Education and Employment Program (OEEEP) via a Google search during a very dark period of her life. Despite at first being highly suspicious that a six-week program could really be free, she dove in head first – a move that proved to be pivotal in the best possible way.
After working for 16 years in the insurance industry, a deeply traumatic experience in 2021 involving a death in the family stirred up crippling childhood memories that saw Anne dealing with severe PTSD symptoms. She took time off work to get therapy, ultimately leaving that career. Feeling lost and rudderless in early 2023, she had a dream one night that she was mucking out stalls – despite not having a horse-related background. This prompted a trip to a horse farm, and then a Google search which unearthed OEEEP’s question “Have you ever dreamed of working with horses…?”
Despite having to learn the industry pretty much from scratch, Anne flourished. “The OEEEP course was designed beautifully for a non-horse person. The [course] book is amazing. It has everything, from grooming and nutrition to body language and herd dynamics. It truly is a wealth of information.”