View the rest of the images here.

Tineke has been involved with horses for over 20 years, ever since her youngest daughter joined Pony Club.  She loves dressage and has competed successfully at 1st level.   When she is not training in the arena, she loves just being out for a trail ride.

What makes Tineke such an amazing instructor is that she is also a licensed Physical Therapist.  She loved physical therapy because it offered so many different settings in which to practice and offered her the opportunity to continue to learn and specialize.  In 1995 she attended a seminar on Hippotherapy.  With her PT degree, this was the perfect opportunity for Tineke to combine the things she loved, her career and horses.  At the time, she could not find a local hippotherapy program and so she came to volunteer for Xenophon.  She obtained her instructor certification with the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association and began teaching for Xenophon.  When a hippotherapy program was started at NCEFT (National Center for Equine Facilitated Therapy) in Woodside, she began practicing with them and then was instrumental in getting a hippotherapy program started at Xenophon.

Tineke now practices 2 days a week at Xenophon, continues to practice at NCEFT, and has helped develop a new program, at Access Adventure, a program started by Michael Muir.  She assisted  in starting  therapeutic driving, therapeutic riding, and hippotherapy at that Center.  In addition to all these things, Tineke and her husband, who is an orthopedic surgeon, are very active in Healthcare Volunteer Overseas.  This is an organization that offers education to professional healthcare workers in foreign countries.  Their travels with HVO have taken them to Vietnam, the Philippines, India, Cambodia, Uganda and Haiti.

Xenophon is very fortunate to have Tineke on staff.  We hope you will all have a chat with her next time you see her at the center.  She is a fascinating person with wonderful stories to share.

Xenophon is off to a great start this season. Our first session began on June 7th and it has been non-stop ever since. We are teaching therapeutic riding on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, in addition to Saturday mornings.

Following our volunteer training we had a horse handler training session.   Our horse handlers learned techniques designed to ensure the safety of our volunteers and students and provide consistency for our horses.  This consistency makes our horses’ job much easier for them.    We thank all of you who came and also thank our staff, who worked hard to put on a very successful day.

After 20 years, Judy is retiring to read and eat bonbons.

Xenophon would like to welcome Mari Parino who will be our new executive director. Mari worked at Xenophon as program director five years ago. After spending time in Thailand and LA she and Sam are returning to the bay area for good. I am very pleased to be able to leave Xenophon in her hands.

We will also be welcoming Danielle Coburn as our new program director. She has experience in teaching, administration and fund raising, so will be valuable addition to Xenophon. Janet Alexander will be leaving her position as program director to return to school to become an occupational therapist. She will remain as an instructor throughout the summer.  Zette Thierry will be moving on to start her own business.

Guests donned festive finery and joined us for a lively evening.

All proceeds went to benefit our wonderful riding center.

Thank you to Clark Construction:   Our Corporate Sponsor

Your photographer had a great time at the gala. Congratulations to all who attended and contributed, and especially to Mari, for filling the very large shoes left behind by the amazing Judy Lazarus.

View the rest of the evening’s photos here.                   Thank you, Jim Pire